By On this day in 1976 Niki Lauda was fortunate to survive a shocking crash during the German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. His Ferrari exploded into flames after striking a barrier.
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Lauda survived thanks to the efforts of rivals Arturo Merzario, Guy Edwards, Brett Lunger and Harald Ertl, who stopped their cars and helped to pull the world champion from the burning wreckage.
Nonetheless Lauda sustained serious burns and lung injuries. He was leading the world championship at the time of his crash and made an early return in a bid to stop McLaren’s James Hunt beating him to the title. But confronted with dire conditions at the season finale in Fuji, Lauda opted not to race, and Hunt won the title. The story of the season was dramatised in Ron Howard’s 2013 film Rush.
Former Ferrari team manager Daniele Audetto shared his memories of Lauda and his remarkable comeback in an interview for RaceFans in 2019, after Lauda passed away:
“He came to Fiorano. He was still bleeding. He got in the car.”