In South Africa Early In 1977

In South Africa Early In 1977

Everything changed at the Nurburgring on August 1 that year, when Lauda was pulled from his crashed blazing car by his fellow drivers and rushed to Mannheim hospital with severe burns and lung injuries. He was given the last rites but, through sheer determination and iron will, he pulled through and from the start of his recovery his focus was on returning in the cockpit. Defying the odds, he was back in his 312T2 at Monza just six weeks later, overcoming not just physical difficulties but also challenges on the mental side. He would make no secret of the demons he had to overcome getting back up to speed. Lauda fought valiantly to defend his title over the remaining races of the 1976 season, taking an astonishing fourth on his return in Italy, and third place in the USA. But in the soaking wet finale at Fuji he famously pulled into the pits and parked up and later made no attempt to disguise the fact that he simply didn't want to carry on in the atrocious conditions. Hunt duly secured the third place he needed to pip Lauda to the title by a single point.

In South Africa early in 1977, Lauda scored his first win since the accident, and went on to add two more successes and seven other podium finishes as he secured his second title by a comfortable margin. But there was considerable tension behind the scenes that year, which stemmed from Ferrari headhunting Carlos Reutemann as his replacement while Lauda was still in hospital. Long before the end of 1977 he had agreed terms with Bernie Ecclestone to race a Brabham-Alfa in '78. Lauda was happy at the British team, enjoying the atmosphere fostered by Ecclestone, designer Gordon Murray and team manager Herbie Blash. The first season of the new partnership included wins in Sweden (with the controversial BT46 fan car) and Monza, but the team lost its way in 1979 as ground effect technology moved on apace. By the end of that year, Lauda, already busy with setting up his airline business, began to question his commitment.

After running a few practice laps at the Canadian GP with the new Cosworth-powered BT49 a promising package that should have caught his attention he'd decided that he'd had enough and walked away from F1. He stayed away through 1980, but by the summer of '81 he was having second thoughts about his choice. Ron Dennis, who ran him in the '79 BMW Procar series and had by now taken charge at McLaren, kept badgering him about a possible return. A visit to the 1981 Italian GP led to a test in John Barnard's revolutionary carbon MP4 at Donington and having demonstrated both to McLaren and himself that he was still quick and motivated, he signed up for '82. However, Dennis played hard ball on the money, and the initial contract gave the team an option to ditch him if didn't work out. But Lauda soon silenced any doubters, taking a solid fourth in his comeback race in South Africa, and winning third time out on the streets of Long Beach. He would log another victory at Brands Hatch that year, and he took fifth place in the world championship.

The 1983 season proved to be tougher for the Cosworth-equipped McLaren squad as the swelling ranks of turbo cars began to dominate and finally find reliability. Lauda had pushed Dennis to find a turbo engine, and he helped to broker the deal for Porsche to design and manufacture a V6, to Barnard's specification, with finance from TAG. At Lauda's insistence, the engine was readied for an early race debut at that year's Dutch GP, and useful data was gathered by the team in the four races it contested. In the meantime, Dennis had had an unexpected chance to further strengthen the McLaren package when Alain Prost came on the market after just missing out on the 1983 title with Renault at the final race. He was quickly snapped up to be Lauda's team-mate. McLaren would enjoy a sublime 1984. The TAG engine proved to be very competitive, especially in race trim, helped by an effective electronics system.