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Interesting, to read an article about a – no, actually “the” – Formula One race in 1976: “Wolf team manager Frank Williams” (Sir Frank later founded Williams Racing) and “Brabham-Boss Bernie Ecclestone” (later the top boss of Formula One), “brilliant, how Bernie is managing it. Quickly, without talking about money or so”. And of course “Ferrari driver Niki Lauda” who survived his accident during this Grand Prix and is nowadays chairman of Mercedes-AMG Petronas.

1 August 1976, Nürburgring: “Lauda crashed with over 200 km/h through both wire fences, after which the car was thrown back from the embankment and caught fire. Edwards could just squeeze through the left side, Lunger collided upfront with the burning Ferrari, then also Ertl. Lunger and Ertl jumped out of their wrecks immediately, Edwards came running, Merzario as well a few seconds later after an emergency braking. […] Lauda was sitting help- and motionless in the burning Ferrari, unconscious, as he stated four days after the accident. ‘I must have gotten a blow to the head and been unconscious for a while, I can’t remember much more’ […] In the meantime Ertl got a fire extinguisher and creates a gap through the flames. Merzario dives between Edwards and Lunger towards the cockpit to unfasten Niki’s seat belts. The three manage to pull out Lauda. Niki is bedded onto the grass. Merzario takes off Niki’s overall and massages his heart.”

“Lauda had talked to Merzario in Italian, to Watson in English. ‘How does my face look like?’ asked Niki. ‘Not bad, just a few burns’ the Irishman escaped into a lie. Under shock Lauda said four sentences: ‘Put my car away – I lost a wheel – I jumped out on my own – call my wife at home in Salzburg.’ Marlene Lauda had flown to Cologne already. ‘How is the race going?’ she asked the bus driver at Cologne Airport. The answer: ‘Cancelled, due to a burning car.’ ‘That was Niki’, Marlene screamed. […] Then the alarming certainty: extreme damage to the respiratory tract, life threatening conditions. A specialist team in the intensive care unit of the university hospital Mannheim was fighting five days for the life of the Austrian. Then his famous toughness and indefatigable passion for life defeated death, the world champion won his hardest race. Slowly Lauda reassembled his world. He asked his brother Florian: ‘Are the new instruments in my airplane working?’ and ‘How many points am I leading over Hunt?’ Answer: 14” (auto motor und sport)

Enzo Ferrari quickly declared it wasn’t his car’s fault. Nowadays the most likely explanation: the suspension broke.

In 1976 Niki Lauda warned about the extreme danger of the Nürburgring – during the race he crashed, got heavy burns especially on his face which also caused him to lose half of his right ear and was in a life-threatening condition for five days due to damage to his lungs. Before the race Niki Lauda declared the Nürburgring is too dangerous for racing. He tried to convince other drivers to boycott the race. He wouldn’t have driven in a risky way. In 1994 Ayrton Senna complained about the lack of safety in Imola – and died after a crash. It would be better to listen to the drivers. They are the only ones out there on the track. And otherwise: Listen to Niki Lauda. Fortunately Formula One became very safe nowadays. But there is still room for improvement. The new cockpit protection system is a good thing, for example.