Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda (22 February 1949 – 20 May 2019) was an Austrian racing driver, motorsport executive and aviation entrepreneur, who competed in Formula One from 1971 to 1979 and from 1982 to 1985.

Lauda moved to BRM for the 1973 season, scoring his maiden points finish in Belgium and earning a seat with Ferrari the following year alongside Clay Regazzoni.

After winning five Grands Prix in his 1975 campaign, Lauda won his first title, becoming the first Ferrari-powered World Drivers' Champion in 11 years.

Whilst leading the 1976 championship—amidst a fierce title battle with James Hunt—Lauda was seriously injured during the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, suffering severe burns and other life-changing injuries as his Ferrari 312T2 caught on fire during a crash.

Vacating his seat after clinching the title at the United States Grand Prix and replaced by Gilles Villeneuve, Lauda signed with Brabham in 1978, achieving podiums in every race he finished that season, with victories in Sweden and Italy.

Amidst a winless 1979 season for Brabham alongside Nelson Piquet, Lauda left the team after the Italian Grand Prix, following their move to Ford Cosworth V8 engines.

[a] Lauda retired at the conclusion of the 1985 season—taking his final victory at the Dutch Grand Prix—having achieved 25 race wins, 24 pole positions, 24 fastest laps and 54 podiums in Formula One.

[8] With his career stalled, he took out a £30,000 bank loan,[9] secured by a life insurance policy, to buy his way into the fledgling March team as a Formula Two driver in 1971.

Perhaps the lowest point of the team's season came at the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport Park, where both March cars were disqualified within three laps of each other, just past three-quarters of the race distance.

Lauda was instantly quick, but the team was in decline; although the BRM P160E was fast and easy to drive it was not reliable and its engine lacked power.

Lauda's popularity was on the rise after he was running third at the Monaco Grand Prix that year before a gearbox failure ended his race prematurely, resulting in Enzo Ferrari becoming interested.

The Ferrari pit changed the destroyed tyre and Lauda managed to make it to the podium in third behind Reutemann and Laffite after Hunt retired and Pryce had to slow down because of a fuel leak.

By the time of his fifth win of the year at the British GP, he had more than double the points of his closest challengers Jody Scheckter and James Hunt, and a second consecutive World Championship appeared a formality.

On 1 August 1976, during the second lap at the very fast left kink before Bergwerk, Lauda was involved in an accident where his Ferrari swerved off the track, hit an embankment, burst into flames, and made contact with Brett Lunger's Surtees-Ford car.

Lauda missed only two races, appearing at the Monza press conference six weeks after the accident with his fresh burns still bandaged.

Lauda's previously good relationship with Ferrari was severely affected by his decision to withdraw from the Japanese Grand Prix, and he endured a difficult 1977 season, despite easily winning the championship through consistency rather than outright pace.

Lauda's best results, apart from the wins in Sweden and Italy after the penalization of Mario Andretti and Gilles Villeneuve, were second in Monaco and Great Britain, and a third in the Netherlands.

Lauda's 1979 Formula One season was again marred by retirements and poor pace, even though he won the non-championship 1979 Dino Ferrari Grand Prix with the Brabham-Alfa.

As Lauda had passed the Toleman of rookie Ayrton Senna for third place only a few laps earlier, Mansell's retirement elevated him to second behind Prost.

[citation needed] Lauda had signed an initial letter of intent to leave McLaren team and join Renault for the 1985 season.

[28] He was one of only two drivers in the race who had driven in the non-championship 1984 Australian Grand Prix, the other being 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg, who won in Adelaide in 1985 and took Lauda's place at McLaren in 1986.

[29] Lauda's helmet was originally painted plain red with his full name written on both sides and the Raiffeisen Bank logo in the chin area.

In 1982, upon his return to McLaren, his helmet was white and featured the red "L" logo of Lauda Air instead of his name on both sides, complete with branding from his personal sponsor Parmalat on the top.

[citation needed] In 1993, Lauda returned to Formula One in a managerial position when Luca di Montezemolo offered him a consulting role at Ferrari.

[33] After selling his Lauda Air shares to majority partner Austrian Airlines in 1999, he managed the Jaguar Formula One racing team from 2001 to 2002.

[36] He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1993 and from 1996 provided commentary on Grands Prix for Austrian and German television on RTL.

He was, however, criticized for calling Robert Kubica a "polack" (an ethnic slur for Polish people) on air in May 2010 at the Monaco Grand Prix.

[42] Niki Lauda wrote five books: The Art and Science of Grand Prix Driving (titled Formula 1: The Art and Technicalities of Grand Prix Driving in some markets) (1975); My Years With Ferrari (1978); The New Formula One: A Turbo Age (1984); Meine Story (titled To Hell and Back in some markets) (1986); Das dritte Leben (en.

[52][53] At the 2019 Monaco Grand Prix, current and former drivers and teams paid tributes on social media and during the pre-race Wednesday press conference.

His funeral at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna was attended by prominent Formula One figures, including Gerhard Berger, Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost, Nelson Piquet, Jean Alesi, Lewis Hamilton, David Coulthard, Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas, René and Hans Binder and René Rast.