History UsefulNotes / NikiLauda

He also founded and ran two more airlines: Niki, and Laudamotion, later renamed as simply Lauda and has since become a Ryanair subsidiary. As he bore a commercial pilot's licence, he even went hands-on with his business and occasionally acted as air captain, though his crew would carry an oxygen tank as a precautionary measure due to his lung condition. Such was his hands-on approach that right after the infamous [[TearJerker Lauda Air 004 crash]], of which he described as the worst period in his life, he personally took it upon himself to investigate the incident,[[note]]Exacerbated by the fact that even the flight data recorder was destroyed (sort of like a logcat for UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} or something along those lines), though the voice recorder remained intact. It also didn't help that looters pillaged the scene, not only desecreating the victims' personal effects but also tampering whatever potential evidence which could have been used in the investigation.[[/note]] and found that there's little the pilots could do in an accidental thrust reverser deployment upon trying out the simulator for himself, in spite of Boeing's [[ExecutiveMeddling insistence]] that it is possible. His actions pressured the airplane manufacturer to provide compensation to the victims' relatives and revise their 767s with safety locks on the reversers.

* ManOnFire: His near-fatal ordeal in Nürburgring.

Lauda's rivalry with James Hunt was dramatised in the 2013 sports film ''[[Film/Rush2013 Rush]]'', directed by Creator/RonHoward and Lauda played by Creator/DanielBruhl. Besides making a cameo appearance in the latter, he previously had a brief cameo as a bystander in [[https://youtu.be/na84mbyob10?t=40 an episode]] of the German-Austrian TV series ''Heiteres Bezirksgericht'', has appeared in a number of commercials promoting his airline, and played AsHimself in a few films, two of them being the little-known [[MadeForTVMovie made-for-TV]] SciFi children's adventure movie ''Film/TopKids'' in 1987, where he appeared as a time traveller being transported into various moments in automotive history, and the 1990 Creator/RogerMoore sports movie ''Fire, Ice and Dynamite''. Lauda also voiced Strip "The King" Weathers in the German dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}''.

* AsHimself: He would often be in a guest role or a cameo appearance as typical of a high-profile sportsperson, though he (nominally) landed a top-billed role in the little-known sci-fi MadeForTVMovie ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21EgSYHjlWg Top Kids]]''.[[note]]By the end of the film he would pose with Mercedes Jellinek, aka the girl who would lend her name for the Mercedes-Benz car brand, and the film's protagonist--[[HilariousInHindsight ironically enough]], Lauda would wind up decades later as a non-executive chairman for the Mercedes F1 team.[[/note]]

Arguably one of the greatest racing drivers of all time, Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda (February 22, 1949 – May 20, 2019) was perhaps best known for the intense rivalry he had with UsefulNotes/JamesHunt, and that close brush with death he had in Nürburgring that left him scarred for life but scoffed it off and continued racing just weeks after the crash.

Lauda's rivalry with James Hunt was dramatised in the 2013 sports film ''[[Film/Rush2013 Rush]]'', directed by Creator/RonHoward and Lauda played by Creator/DanielBruhl. Besides making a cameo appearance in the latter, he previously had a brief cameo as a bystander in [[https://youtu.be/na84mbyob10?t=40 an episode]] of the German-Austrian TV series ''Heiteres Bezirksgericht'', has appeared in a number of commercials promoting his airline, and played AsHimself in a few films, two of them being the little-known [[MadeForTVMovie made-for-TV]] SciFi children's adventure movie ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21EgSYHjlWg Top Kids]]'' in 1987, where he appeared as a time traveller being transported into various moments in automotive history, and the 1990 Creator/RogerMoore sports movie ''Fire, Ice and Dynamite''. Lauda also voiced Strip "The King" Weathers in the German dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}''.

Lauda's rivalry with James Hunt was dramatised in the 2013 sports film ''[[Film/Rush2013 Rush]]'', directed by Creator/RonHoward and Lauda played by Creator/DanielBruhl. Besides making a cameo appearance in the latter, he previously had a brief cameo as a bystander in [[https://youtu.be/na84mbyob10?t=40 an episode]] of the German-Austrian TV series ''Heiteres Bezirksgericht'', has appeared in a number of commercials promoting his airline, and played AsHimself in a few films, two of them being the little-known [[MadeForTVMovie made-for-TV]] SciFi children's adventure movie ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21EgSYHjlWg Top Kids]]'' in 1987, where he appeared as a time traveller being transported into various moments in automotive history, and the 1990 Creator/RogerMoore sports movie ''Fire, Ice and Dynamite''.

Lauda's rivalry with James Hunt was dramatised in the 2013 sports film ''[[Film/Rush2013 Rush]]'', directed by Creator/RonHoward. Besides making a cameo appearance in the latter, he previously had a brief cameo as a bystander in [[https://youtu.be/na84mbyob10?t=40 an episode]] of the German-Austrian TV series ''Heiteres Bezirksgericht'', has appeared in a number of commercials promoting his airline, and played AsHimself in a few films, two of them being the little-known [[MadeForTVMovie made-for-TV]] SciFi children's adventure movie ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21EgSYHjlWg Top Kids]]'' in 1987, where he appeared as a time traveller being transported into various moments in automotive history, and the 1990 Creator/RogerMoore sports movie ''Fire, Ice and Dynamite''.

->I hope they say I was always straightforward. No bullshit or grey areas I hate that.

1982 saw him return to racing under Hunt's old team, [=McLaren=], partly because [[MoneyDearBoy he needed more capital]] to run his fledging airline business. Lauda and Didier Pironi led a drivers' strike during the South African GP, in protest of a superlicence ruling by FISA which tied drivers to a single team for three years. Two years later, Lauda scored his third and final World Championship trophy; he would later retire for good in 1985 and went on in management roles and as a colour commentator in German television, also acting as non-executive chairman of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, having been responsible for signing UsefulNotes/LewisHamilton into Mercedes.

1982 saw him return to racing under Hunt's old team, [=McLaren=], partly because [[MoneyDearBoy he needed more capital]] to run his fledging airline business. Lauda and Didier Pironi led a drivers' strike during the South African GP, in protest of a superlicence ruling by FISA which tied drivers to a single team for three years. Two years later, Lauda scored his third and final World Championship trophy; he would later retire for good in 1985 and went on in management roles and as a colour commentator in German television, also acting as non-executive chairman of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, having been responsible for signing Creator/LewisHamilton into Mercedes.

* BrutalHonesty: As what Creator/DanielBruhl attested in his interview when he stayed in Vienna in order to converse with Lauda and do research on his character. He clearly wasn't hesitant to speak his mind and be frank about things, not to mention that he had no time for petty politicking and corporate pretence, having the balls to describe Ferrari's car at the time as a "piece of shit". Fortunately, his frank remarks were well-received despite the fact that said statement could have gotten him fired from the team.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Niki retired from the Japanese Grand Prix out of fear for his life, no thanks to the fact that he was unable to blink due to his injuries, and the weather was deemed too much of a risk for him to continue.

* BribingYourWayToVictory: He bought his way through Formula Two and later to BRM in 1973. Despite it sounding rather scummy he did not disappoint his superiors and went on to prove his worth.

Arguably one of the greatest racing drivers of all time, Andreas Nikolaus "Niki" Lauda (22 February 1949 – 20 May 2019) was perhaps best known for the intense rivalry he had with UsefulNotes/JamesHunt, and that close brush with death he had in Nürburgring that left him scarred for life but scoffed it off and continued racing just weeks after the crash.

He also founded and ran two more airlines: Niki, and Laudamotion, later renamed as simply Lauda and has since become a Ryanair subsidiary. As he bore a commercial pilot's licence, he even went hands-on with his business and occasionally acted as air captain, though his crew would carry an oxygen tank as a precautionary measure due to his lung condition. Such was his hands-on approach that right after the infamous [[TearJerker Lauda Air 004 crash]], of which he described as the worst period in his life, he personally took it upon himself to investigate the incident,[[note]]Exacerbated by the fact that even the flight data recorder was destroyed (sort of like a logcat for UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} or something along those lines), though the voice recorder remained intact.[[/note]] and found that there's little the pilots could do in an accidental thrust reverser deployment upon trying out the simulator for himself, in spite of Boeing's [[ExecutiveMeddling insistence]] that it is possible. His actions pressured the airplane manufacturer to provide compensation to the victims' relatives and revise their 767s with safety locks on the reversers.

Lauda's rivalry with James Hunt was dramatised in the 2013 sports film ''[[Film/Rush2013 Rush]]'', directed by Creator/RonHoward. Besides making a cameo appearance in the latter, he previously had a brief cameo as a bystander in [[https://youtu.be/na84mbyob10?t=40 an episode]] of the German-Austrian TV series ''Heiteres Bezirksgericht'', has appeared in a number of commercials promoting his airline, and played AsHimself in a few films, two of them being the little-known [[MadeForTVMovie made-for-TV]] SciFi children's adventure movie ''[[https://youtu.be/JkvriAFrtnY Top Kids]]'' in 1987, where he appeared as a time traveller being transported into various moments in automotive history, and the 1990 Creator/RogerMoore sports movie ''Fire, Ice and Dynamite''.

* AsHimself: He would often be in a guest role or a cameo appearance as typical of a high-profile sportsperson, though he (nominally) landed a top-billed role in the little-known sci-fi MadeForTVMovie ''[[https://youtu.be/JkvriAFrtnY Top Kids]]''.[[note]]By the end of the film he would pose with Mercedes Jellinek, aka the girl who would lend her name for the Mercedes-Benz car brand, and the film's protagonist--[[HilariousInHindsight ironically enough]], Lauda would wind up decades later as a non-executive chairman for the Mercedes F1 team.[[/note]]

1982 saw him return to racing under Hunt's old team, [=McLaren=], partly because he needed more capital to run his fledging airline business. Lauda and Didier Pironi led a drivers' strike during the South African GP, in protest of a superlicence ruling by FISA which tied drivers to a single team for three years. Two years later, Lauda scored his third and final World Championship trophy; he would later retire for good in 1985 and went on in management roles and as a colour commentator in German television, also acting as non-executive chairman of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, having been responsible for signing Creator/LewisHamilton into Mercedes.

* MadeOfIron / NormallyIWouldBeDeadNow: His injuries sustained in Nürburgring were so severe that he was viewed as a lost cause in the hospital, having being given the Last Rites as he was certain to die by then. But despite his lungs being mangled from the toxic fumes he went on to live ''forty-three years'' and scored two more championships before old age caught up on him in 2019.

He also founded and ran two more airlines: Niki, and Laudamotion, later renamed as simply Lauda and has since become a Ryanair subsidiary. As he bore a commercial pilot's licence, he even went hands-on with his business and occasionally acted as air captain, though his crew would carry an oxygen tank as a precautionary measure due to his lung condition. Such was his hands-on approach that right after the infamous [[TearJerker Lauda Air 004 crash]], of which he described as the worst period in his life, he personally took it upon himself to investigate the incident,[[note]]Exacerbated by the fact that even the flight data recorder was destroyed (sort of like a logcat for UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} or something along those lines), though the voice recorder remained intact.[[/note]] and found that there's little the pilots could do in an accidental thruster reverser deployment upon trying out the simulator for himself, in spite of Boeing's arguments that it is possible. His actions pressured the airplane manufacturer to provide compensation to the victims' relatives and revise their 767s with safety locks on the reversers.

And then came the incident in 1976 where he and Hunt raced in Nürburgring. He was initially against the idea of racing there, citing safety issues and urging fellow drivers to boycott the race; Lauda and the others went on anyway. The rest would change the Austrian forever -- his Ferrari swerved off the track, hit an embankment, burst into flames, and made contact with Brett Lunger's Surtees-Ford car. Lauda was trapped as his fellow racers struggled to extricate him from the burning wreckage, inhaling toxic gases which damaged his lungs and blood and sustaining severe burns to his face and head. Just as when it was certain that he was going to die from his injuries, being administered the Last Rites and all, he somehow survived the ordeal and, against all medical advice, went on to win fourth place in the Italian GP, with wounds still fresh from the accident and in pain. Hunt took advantage of Lauda's absence to further reduce his deficit, and Ferrari hired Carlos Reutemann as Niki's replacement. In spite of his horrific injuries, Lauda limited the reconstructive surgery to his eyelids for them to work properly, choosing instead to wear his trademark baseball cap to cover his head scars and even went so far as to sell [[ProductPlacement advertising space]] on his headpiece.

* RedBaron: He gained the nickname "The Computer" for his almost robotic, analytical approach to races, and would also be known as "The Rat" "King Rat" and "[=SuperRat=]" for his buck teeth. Lauda's rodent smile would later be adopted as part of official merchandise including a plush rat dressed in F1 garb by Steiff, and calling cards featuring a cartoon rat.

Born to a family of wealthy paper manufacturing industrialists, Lauda took up a career in racing in spite of his grandfather viewing it as a recklessly pointless pursuit. Disowned by his folks for his preference for cars over following their trade, Niki was left to his own devices and went racing in Minis and Porsches, and had to [[BribingYourWayToVictory buy his way through]] the ranks as a Formula Two driver, and through Clay Regazzoni (who vouched for Lauda in front of team boss Enzo Ferrari) eventually found his way in Scuderia Ferrari and was able to clear his debts. His stint at Ferrari culminated in what would go down in history as an intense rivalry between him and [=McLaren=] driver James Hunt.

* RenaissanceMan: Besides being a race car driver, he was also a licenced commercial pilot, and at times served as captain in some of his airline's flights. And as mentioned above in the Determinator example, he made it a point to provide closure to the Lauda Air crash victims' relatives by reproducing the crash scenario in a flight simulator, concluding that the thruster reversal problem was a glaring flaw in need of additional safety measures. It helped that he himself was an accident victim and knew how it felt like to be in a similarly horrific incident, which isn't a walk in the park, so to speak.

* FacialHorror: His face got scarred for life after Nürburgring. Not that he'd mind the damage done to his appearance though. He since wore a cap to hide some of the scars from his head and even went so far as to sell advertising space in said headpiece. Lauda stated in a 2009 interview that one advertiser even tried to buy ad space on his cap for ''€1.2 million!''

1982 saw him return to racing, but this time under Hunt's old team, [=McLaren=]. Lauda and Didier Pironi led a drivers' strike during the South African GP, in protest of a superlicence ruling by FISA which tied drivers to a single team for three years. Two years later, Lauda scored his third and final World Championship trophy; he would later retire for good in 1985 and went on in management roles and as a colour commentator in German television, also acting as non-executive chairman of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, having been responsible for signing Creator/LewisHamilton into Mercedes. He also founded and ran two more airlines: Niki, and Laudamotion, later renamed as simply Lauda. As he bore a commercial pilot's licence, he even went hands-on with his business and occasionally acted as air captain, though his crew would carry an oxygen tank as a precautionary measure due to his lung condition. Such was his hands-on approach that right after the infamous [[TearJerker Lauda Air 004 crash]], of which he described as the worst period in his life, he personally took it upon himself to investigate the incident,[[note]]Exacerbated by the fact that even the flight data recorder was destroyed (sort of like a logcat for UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} or something along those lines), though the voice recorder remained intact.[[/note]] and found that there's little the pilots could do in an accidental thruster reverser deployment upon trying out the simulator for himself, in spite of Boeing's arguments that it is possible. His actions pressured the airplane manufacturer to provide compensation to the victims' relatives and revise their 767s with safety locks on the reversers.

* BrutalHonesty: As what Creator/DanielBruhl attested in his interview when he stayed in Vienna in order to converse with Lauda and do research on his character. He clearly wasn't hesitant to speak his mind and be frank about things, not to mention that he had no time for petty politicking and corporate pretence, having the balls to describe Ferrari's car at the time as "shit". Fortunately, his frank remarks were well-received despite the fact that said statement could have gotten him fired from the team.
* CunningLinguist: Lauda was fluent in English and Italian in addition to his native Austrian German. Considering the nature of being an athlete (and an international celebrity for that matter) having to be in interviews, along with the fact that he had to converse with his crew at Ferrari (besides Enzo himself) who may not understand English at all--Lauda took the effort of learning Italian just for that purpose.
* {{Determinator}}: As if the injuries he sustained in Nürburgring kept him from continuing on with his career. Not to mention that Lauda's determination and analytical approach to things was put to good use when he personally took the effort of probing the deadly Lauda Air 004 crash in 1991, pressuring Boeing into revising their 767 jet liner to have better safety measures.

Born to a family of wealthy industrialists, Lauda took up a career in racing in spite of his folks viewing it as a recklessly pointless pursuit. Disowned by his folks for his preference for cars over following their trade, Niki was left to his own devices and had to [[BribingYourWayToVictory buy his way through]] the ranks initially as a Formula Two driver, and through Clay Regazzoni (who vouched for Lauda in front of team boss Enzo Ferrari) eventually found his way in Scuderia Ferrari and was able to clear his debts. His stint at Ferrari culminated in what would go down in history as an intense rivalry between him and [=McLaren=] driver James Hunt.

* NonActorRole: In ''Top Kids'' as a [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot time traveling ex-Formula 1 driver]].

* RenaissanceMan: Besides being a race car driver, he was also a licenced commercial pilot, and at times served as captain in some of his airline's flights. And as mentioned above in the Determinator example, he made it a point to provide closure to the Lauda Air crash victims' relatives by reproducing the crash scenario in a flight simulator, concluding that the thruster reversal problem was a glaring flaw in need of safety measures. It helped that he himself was an accident victim and knew how it felt like to be in a similarly horrific incident, which isn't a walk in the park, so to speak.
* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Niki bowed out of the Japanese Grand Prix out of fear for his life, no thanks to the fact that he was unable to blink due to his injuries, and the weather was deemed too much of a risk for him to continue.

1982 saw him return to racing, but this time under Hunt's old team, [=McLaren=]. Lauda and Didier Pironi led a drivers' strike during the South African GP, in protest of a superlicence ruling by FISA which tied drivers to a single team for three years. Two years later, Lauda scored his third and final World Championship trophy; he would later retire for good in 1985 and went on in management roles and as a colour commentator in German television, also acting as non-executive chairman of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, having been responsible for signing Creator/LewisHamilton into Mercedes. He also founded and ran two more airlines: Niki, and Laudamotion, later renamed as simply Lauda. As he bore a commercial pilot's licence, he even went hands-on with his business and occasionally acted as air captain, though his crew would carry an oxygen tank as a precautionary measure due to his lung condition. Such was his hands-on approach that right after the infamous [[TearJerker Lauda Air 004 crash]], of which he described as the worst period in his life, he personally took it upon himself to investigate the incident,[[note]]Exacerbated by the fact that even the flight data recorder was destroyed (sort of like a logcat for UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} or something along those lines), though the voice recorder remained intact.[[/note]] and found that there's little the pilots could do in an accidental thruster reverser deployment upon trying out the simulator for himself, in spite of Boeing's arguments that it is possible. His actions partly led to the airplane manufacturer to revise their 767s with safety locks on the reversers.

A LawyerFriendlyCameo of Lauda appeared in [=McLaren=]'s ''WesternAnimation/{{Tooned}}'' as "Lautfinger", being depicted as James Hunt's arch-nemesis in a James Bond parody episode. While he himself could have been featured in a ''[=McLaren=] 50'' episode, his employment as a non-executive chairman in the Mercedes F1 team legally prevented him from making an appearance.

* AnimalMotifs: He adopted the rat as his mascot thanks to his buck-toothed smile which earned him the nickname.

* CunningLinguist: Lauda was fluent in English and Italian in addition to his native Austrian German.