was a less successful year for the team: Fittipaldi was second in the championship behind Niki Lauda.

In Lauda was again strong in his Ferrari ; at mid season he led the championship with 56 points whilst Hunt had only 26 despite wins in Spain ( a race from which he was initially disqualified ) and France.

But at the German Grand Prix Lauda crashed heavily, was nearly killed and missed the next two races.

Lauda was born in Vienna, Austria, to a wealthy family.

His paternal grandfather was the Viennese-born businessman Hans Lauda.

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.

Although the F2 cars were good ( and Lauda's test-driving skills impressed March principal Robin Herd ), March's 1972 F1 season was catastrophic and Lauda, in despair and deep debt, briefly contemplated suicide but finally took out yet another bank loan to buy his way into the BRM team in 1973.

Lauda was instantly quick but the team was in decline ; his big break came when his BRM team-mate Clay Regazzoni rejoined Ferrari in 1974 and team owner Enzo Ferrari asked him what he thought of Lauda.

The team's faith in the little-known Lauda was quickly rewarded by a second-place finish in his début race for the team, the season-opening Argentine Grand Prix.

A week before the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, ( even though he was the fastest driver on that circuit at the time ) Lauda tried to boycott the race, largely due to the 23 kilometer circuit's safety arrangements.

As Lauda was wearing a modified helmet, the foam had compressed and it had slid off his head after the accident, leaving his face exposed to the fire.

Although Lauda was conscious and able to stand immediately after the accident, he later lapsed into a coma.

Lauda qualified third, one place behind Hunt, but on race day there was torrential rain and Lauda retired after 2 laps, stating that he felt it was unsafe to continue under these conditions, especially since his eyes were watering excessively because of his fire-damaged tear ducts.

Lauda disliked his new teammate, Carlos Reutemann, who already was used as his replacement driver while he was out of contest.

Lauda was not comfortable with this move and felt he had been let down by Ferrari.

Merzario is perhaps most renowned for being one of the drivers, along with Guy Edwards, Brett Lunger and Harald Ertl who saved Niki Lauda from his burning car during the 1976 German Grand Prix.

Lunger is perhaps most renowned for being one of the drivers, along with Guy Edwards, Arturo Merzario and Harald Ertl, who saved Niki Lauda from his burning car during the 1976 German Grand Prix.

Ferrari 312T2 Formula One car driven by Niki Lauda

Here it rained torentially, Lauda retired because of safety concerns and Hunt sealed the drivers ' championship by finishing third.

Never one to be awed by the trappings of success, Lauda famously gave away any trophies he won to his local garage in exchange for his car to be washed and serviced.

“ We never could stand each other, and instead of taking pressure off me, they put on even more by bringing Carlos Reutemann into the team .” Having announced his decision to quit Ferrari at season's end, Lauda left early due to the team's decision to run the then unknown Gilles Villeneuve in a third car at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The drivers, with the exception of Teo Fabi, barricaded themselves into a banqueting suite at Sunnyside Park Hotel until they had won the day. Lauda won a third world championship in 1984 by half a point over teammate Alain Prost, due to only half points being awarded for the shortened 1984 Monaco Grand Prix.

The whole season continued to be dominated by Lauda and Prost, who won 12 of 16 races.

Lauda is sometimes known by the nickname " the rat ", " SuperRat " or " King Rat " because of his prominent bucked teeth.

Lauda is played by Daniel Brühl in the 2013 Ron Howard film Rush about the 1976 Formula One season.

Villeneuve's arrival was prompted by Ferrari driver Niki Lauda quitting the team at the 1977 Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport having already clinched his second championship with the Italian team.

Lauda scored points in the races following his severe crash, but voluntarily withdrew from the season-ending Grand Prix at Fuji after two laps because of heavy rain, and James Hunt won the title by a single point.

Championships were clinched by the Brabham team in 1966, Jochen Rindt ( posthumously ) and Lotus in 1970, Lotus in 1973, Emerson Fittipaldi and McLaren in 1974, Niki Lauda and Ferrari in 1976, and Lauda in 1977.

Lauda Air was established in April 1979 by former Formula One world motor racing champion Niki Lauda and started operations in 1985, initially operating charter and air taxi services.

The stewards ' decision was criticised by former world champion Niki Lauda calling it " completely wrong ".

The front four, Andretti, Villeneuve, Jabouille and Lauda, were far enough ahead to avoid any drama, but Peterson had made a poor start from fifth and was immediately passed by Alan Jones, Jacques Laffite and John Watson.

A further non-championship event took place at Imola in 1979, which was won by Niki Lauda for Brabham-Alfa Romeo.

* Formula One hosted by Florian König and Niki Lauda

After flirting with a return to the BBC ( he admitted to being tempted by the Corporation's offer that he could also present coverage of cricket, which he loved ) in the late 1970s he was also offered a six-part documentary series Brian Moore Meets ... which featured the likes of Kevin Keegan, Niki Lauda and Björn Borg.

Next to Lauda Air and Austrian Arrows ( operated by Tyrolean Airways ), the Austrian Airlines Group holds stakes at another 24 companies.

Niki Lauda took pole by a fraction from Carlos Pace.

This began the team's most successful era: with Porsche and Honda engines, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna took between them seven drivers ' championships and McLaren six constructors ' championships.

Niki Lauda, the reigning world champion and only person ever to lap the full Nordschleife in under 7 minutes ( 6: 58. 6, 1975 ), proposed to the other drivers that they boycott the circuit in 1976 because of the safety arrangements.

Before the race at the Kyalami race track in South Africa, Lauda was the organiser of the so called ‘ drivers ' strike ’; Lauda had seen that the new Super-License required the drivers to commit themselves to their present teams and realised that this could hinder a driver's negotiation position.

Alberto Ascari, Juan Manuel Fangio, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, John Surtees, Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher and Kimi Räikkönen have all won drivers world championships driving for the team.

The new Ferrari 312T, developed fully with Niki Lauda, introduced in 1975 brought Ferrari back to winning ways, Niki taking the drivers ' crown and Ferrari the constructors '.

Marlboro-sponsored McLarens dominated F1 for much of the 1980s and early 1990s, with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna between them winning the drivers ' championship all but one year from to.

Constructors ' and drivers ' world championships were won with Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen and Lewis Hamilton.

During the practice session for the 1977 South African GP, run in wet conditions, Pryce was faster than everyone, including world champion drivers Niki Lauda and James Hunt.

The campaign was generally chaotic: having acquired major sponsorship, Louis Stanley originally planned to field up to six cars ( three for established drivers, three for paying journeymen and young drivers ) of varying designs including P153s, P160s and P180s and actually ran up to five for a mix of paying and paid drivers until it became obvious that it was completely overstretched — the team's sponsors insisted that the team should cut back to a more reasonable level and only three cars were run in 1973 for Beltoise, Lauda and Regazzoni.

Lauda was quickest from the start, as the drivers got accustomed to the new layout.

This in turn resulted in all the other drivers moving up one position, and hence making Lauda the winner of the race.

All three drivers stopped and tried to get Lauda out of the flames and they were joined by Merzario who stopped his Wolf Williams after seeing the wreck.

Some drivers, including Niki Lauda, were not happy with the decision.

Its legality was soon protested, but it was allowed to race, John Watson and Niki Lauda qualifying 2nd and 3rd behind the Lotus 79 of Mario Andretti ( the two drivers did this as to not draw attention to the remarkable advantage that the fan would provide ).

Before the race, Brabham announced that then unknown Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet, who had raced unsuccessfully earlier in the season with Ensign and BS Fabrications, would be joining them in a third car, alongside regular drivers Niki Lauda and John Watson.

The prelude to the race was notable for a strike action by the Grand Prix Drivers ' Association, led by Niki Lauda and Didier Pironi, in protest at the new superlicense conditions imposed by FISA, which would have tied the drivers to a single team for up to three years.

The point-scoring drivers won a total of 13 world championships between them, and the three drivers on the podium were all ( at least ) triple World Champions from different eras-Niki Lauda, approaching the end of his long and distinguished F1 career, Alain Prost, enjoying the best years of his career, and Ayrton Senna, still at the dawn of his.