How long was Niki Lauda in the fire?
Niki Lauda’s Ferrari slammed into a wall- then exploded, he was then struck by Brett Lunger’s Surtees-Ford car, causing even more fire and destruction. Trapped in the inferno, he burned for 55 seconds. His face melted, his lungs filled with toxic smoke. A priest gave him the last rites. When Formula 1 racing driver Niki Lauda spoke to the BBC in 1977, his face bore testimony to the trauma he had endured during the German Grand Prix. Trapped inside the burning wreckage of his smashed Ferrari on the Nürburgring circuit, Lauda had been badly scarred and had lost part of his ear to the flames.In the race’s second lap, Lauda lost control of his car and slammed into an embankment. The car burst into flames, and Lauda was pulled from the wreckage, having inhaled noxious gasses.
Did Niki Lauda ever recover?
On this day in 1976, Legend Niki Lauda suffered a near-fatal crash at the German Grand Prix. Just 42 days later, before fully recovering, he got back on his feet and returned to race in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, driving the Ferrari 312T2. Jules Bianchi is the most recent Formula One driver to have been fatally injured, during the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix aged 25 Further more after his death the number 17 was banned from being used in his honor.Jules Bianchi, one of the rising stars of Formula 1, tragically lost his life following a collision with a mobile crane at the Japanese Grand Prix on 5 October 2014. Having sustained serious head and spinal injuries, Jules died nine months after the collision in a hospital in Nice, France.In the three decades since the deaths of Senna and Ratzenberger, there has only been one fatality in F1 championship competition: Jules Bianchi in October 2014 at the Japanese Grand Prix. The series’ efforts also marked the start of a safety revolution across other racing formats.Two Formula One Champions have died while racing or practising in Formula One, Jochen Rindt in 1970, and Senna in 1994. Rindt was not a champion at the time of his death, but won the 1970 championship posthumously, the only driver to have done so.On 1 May 1994, Brazilian Formula One Driver Ayrton Senna was killed after his car crashed into a concrete barrier while he was leading the 1994 San Marino Gran Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Italy.
What caused Niki Lauda’s crash?
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. Unlike Lunger, Lauda was trapped in the wreckage. Trapped in his car, Lauda was eventually saved by four drivers whose names are often forgotten: Arturo Merzario, Brett Lunger, Harald Ertl and Guy Edwards. But who are these four little-known drivers? How did they fight their way to Formula One till that unfortunate day and how did their career continue afterwards?