A three-time Formula One champion, Mr. Lauda later launched airlines in his native Austria.
By Matt Schudel Matt Schudel Obituary writer Email Bio Follow May 21 at 6:42 PM The worst day of Niki Lauda’s life, he always said, was not Aug. 1, 1976. On that day, he was the reigning Formula One racecar driver in the world and seemed well on his way to winning his second consecutive championship.
“I expected the priest to say something, like ‘God is watching you, my son,’ ” Mr. Lauda told the Independent newspaper years later. “Instead he just touched my shoulder. I thought: ‘Did he give me the last rites without talking to me?’ That really annoyed me so much. I said: ‘I am going to kick myself to stay alive.’ ”
Mr. Lauda, a three-time world champion Formula One driver who also founded and ran three airlines, died May 20 at a hospital in Zurich. He was 70. “He always said, ‘A Lauda belongs on the business pages of the newspaper and definitely not in the sports pages,’ ” Mr. Lauda told the Handelsblatt newspaper of Düsseldorf, Germany. “That riled me so much that I went and did the exact opposite.”
In 1975, Mr. Lauda dominated the sport, winning five races and his first driving championship in Formula One, generally considered the world’s most demanding and elite racing circuit. He seemed well on his way to a second championship the next year. He won five of the season’s first nine races and finished second twice.
The crash at Nürburgring and Mr. Lauda’s relationship with Hunt form the centerpiece of “Rush,” a 2013 feature film directed by Ron Howard. Mr. Lauda was played by actor Daniel Brühl; the hard-drinking, womanizing Hunt was portrayed by Chris Hemsworth.
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