Niki Lauda
Niki Lauda won three world championships, survived a catastrophic fire at the Nürburgring that left him with permanent facial disfigurement and nearly cost him his life, and competed in F1 for six more years. In his other life, he built and ran two airlines and became one of Austria's most celebrated businessmen — all while wearing the same red cap.
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Lauda founded Lauda Air in 1979 while still racing in F1. He obtained his pilot's licence and flew commercial routes himself. After the airline was sold to Austrian Airlines, he founded Niki (later Laudamotion) in 2003. The second airline was sold to Ryanair in 2018. Lauda's approach to aviation was identical to his approach to racing: obsessive attention to process, cost, and efficiency, with no tolerance for unnecessary complexity.
Lauda took flying seriously enough to obtain professional commercial pilot qualifications rather than just a private licence. He flew passenger aircraft for his own airline, sometimes on commercial routes. The image of a three-time Formula 1 world champion in the pilot's seat of a commercial airliner is one of the more remarkable footnotes in aviation history.
Lauda's red cap, worn to conceal the ear reconstruction he underwent after his 1976 accident, became his most recognisable accessory. He wore similar red caps for the rest of his life in virtually every public appearance. It was simultaneously practical (protecting scar tissue sensitive to sun) and had become so associated with his identity that he clearly embraced it.
Lauda's family — wealthy Viennese industrialists — disapproved of his racing ambitions. He secured personal loans from Austrian banks using anticipated racing earnings as collateral, without his family's knowledge or approval. He then presented them with a fait accompli. The decision worked out reasonably well.
The 1976 German Grand Prix fire left Lauda with severe burns to his face and hands and near-fatal lung damage from inhaling hot gases. The rites of the Catholic church were administered. Forty-two days later he was back in a Ferrari at the Italian Grand Prix, with bandages soaking through his helmet from wounds still healing. He finished fourth. It is one of the most staggering acts of physical determination in sporting history.
Lauda retired from F1 at the end of 1979 to focus on Lauda Air. In 1982, McLaren persuaded him to return. In 1984, driving for McLaren alongside Alain Prost, he won his third world championship by half a point — the tightest margin in F1 history. He then retired again, finally, at the end of 1985. The comeback-and-win narrative is one of motorsport's most extraordinary.
After his motorsport career and aviation ventures, Lauda became non-executive chairman of the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team. He was instrumental in persuading Lewis Hamilton to leave McLaren and join Mercedes in 2013 — a signing that preceded four consecutive constructor's championships. He died in 2019 and the Mercedes team wore red in tribute at subsequent races.