Although the latter cars were good and Lauda's driving skills impressed March principal Robin Herd, March's 1972 Formula One season was catastrophic. Lauda was quickly promoted to the Formula One team but drove for March in Formula One and Formula Two in 1972. Because of his family's disapproval, he had an ongoing feud with them over his racing ambitions and abandoned further contact. With his career stalled, he took out a £30,000 bank loan, secured by a life insurance policy, to buy his way into the fledgling March team as a Formula Two driver in 1971. After starting out with a Mini, Lauda moved on into Formula Vee, as was normal in Central Europe, but rapidly moved up to drive in private Porsche and Chevron sports cars. Lauda became a racing driver despite his family's disapproval. His paternal grandfather was the Viennese-born industrialist Hans Lauda. Niki Lauda was born on 22 February 1949 in Vienna, Austria, to a wealthy paper manufacturing family. Lauda at the Nürburgring in 1973, three years before his accident
After a couple of years at Brabham and two years' hiatus, Lauda returned and raced four seasons for McLaren between 19, during which he won the 1984 title by half a point over his teammate Alain Prost. Although he lost that year's title by just one point to James Hunt, he won his second championship the year after, during his final season at Ferrari. He recovered sufficiently to race again just six weeks later at the Italian Grand Prix. Lauda was seriously injured in a crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix while racing at the Nürburgring during the crash his Ferrari 312T2 burst into flames, nearly killing him after he inhaled hot toxic fumes and suffered severe burns.
Lauda emerged as Formula One's star driver amid a 1975 title win and while leading the 1976 championship battle. Afterwards, Lauda worked as a pundit for German TV during Grand Prix weekends and served as non-executive chairman of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, of which he owned 10%. He was also a consultant for Scuderia Ferrari and team manager of the Jaguar Formula One racing team for two years. Lauda was an aviation entrepreneur who founded and ran three airlines: Lauda Air, Niki and Lauda. He was a three-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion, winning in 1975, 19, and is the only driver in Formula One history to have been champion for both Ferrari and McLaren, two of the sport's most successful constructors. Andreas Nikolaus " Niki" Lauda (22 February 1949 – ) was an Austrian Formula One driver and aviation entrepreneur.
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