Niki Lauda: Returning From Fiery Crash | Forward Progress

In this week’s motivational podcast, Niki Lauda shares some of the hurdles he overcame to return to Formula 1 racing just 40 days after his fiery crash at Nurburgring, including the immense pressure from the public and regaining the confidence to get back in his Ferrari.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Hey, it's Graham. Our past in depth guests have
shared so many inspirational stories about overcoming
adversity and tackling the darkest and most challenging
times in their lives. We're sharing one of those
moments in today's Thursday podcast in the hope that it
provides A blueprint for any difficulties you might be facing
this week. Niki Lauda.

(00:25):
How soon after your recovery didyou begin thinking about whether
or not you wanted to come back? After I was fit, my trainer was
with me. I said can I race or not?
He said yes, if we train hard, Ithink in two weeks we can get
you ready. And then I had to take a
decision. Do I want to take the same
chances again to kill myself or not?

(00:46):
And as racing driving was my jobat the time, I always knew how
dangerous it was. Right from the beginning.
I was not surprised to have an accident, but I was happily
surprised. It sounds funny now that I'm
still alive. Really.
Yeah. Because I knew that why I was

(01:06):
putting myself into. And so every year one or two
guys getting killed. So this was my world.
So my accident, I was lucky I was alive.
So therefore I didn't have much problem to decide to go back to
sit, take the same chance as before, because I knew how
dangerous it was. It was not that I was put
something into which I didn't know what it was all about.

(01:28):
So from this point of view, I said if Dougie tells me I'm fit,
I can drive again. I really want to see how long it
will take me to come back. I I think you were listening to
Bob Marley when you made the decision, Bob.
Marley Oh yeah, the music. Because I like music and Bob
Marley at the time was my favorite singer and I like the

(01:50):
music. So I was singing to the music
and then I decided do you want to come back or not?
So I just motivated myself into a good mood to take the decision
and then I took the decision andoff I went.
And after the crash, you told yourself you'd stop making
stupid mistakes. Like what?
It's very simple. If you've been through this and

(02:13):
you know how close you have beento die, then I said now I have
to take some consequences out ofthis.
And this applies for everybody. Even today.
How many people hurt themselves or die because they are not
careful enough or stupid or makemistakes because they drink and

(02:35):
drive a car or whatever? So I said to myself, after this
experience, I will never, ever do anything in my life.
We're out of stupidity of myselfor not thinking I risk
something. Give you a simple example.
How many people broke their arm in the shower when they showered
and slipped and fell down? A lot of people can do that.

(02:58):
So I said I will never sleep in the shower because when I go in,
I do one step, check the other step and don't take stupid
chances to help myself or even kill myself.
And even driving Rd. cars or flying, all these kind of
things. I know that I have to be
responsible, that we do nothing wrong to hurt anybody or myself.

(03:21):
So why six weeks? After the crash so soon, do you
make the decision to come back? Because I thought as quick I go
back as easier it must be. Because if we stay home and
thank God I was ready after 40 days because I could have been,
all this healing process takes much longer.
But thank God, after 40 days, I was able to drive.

(03:44):
So then the first thing was let's get in and see how much is
left. Now fear, how can I overcome
this? And I thought at the time, which
is right, if you would have an accident, maybe it was not your
fault. Today in a road car, the best
thing for you is to overcome this risk you took or you had to
yourself. Get in and drive as quick as you

(04:05):
can again. Because if we get back onto the
steering wheel being in charge, then you can overcome your fear.
If you sit back and you cannot and you worry forward and back
with what is my fault? What can I do different?
You need to get back into your old business to overcome all
this. And therefore the timing is
short. It is, is better.

(04:25):
It is. So then on Friday morning I
turned up there pressure like you do not believe, the
newspapers, the journalists, thepress can't no drive, can he no
drive, medical checks, all thesethings was building up to in the
morning like you do not believe.Then I got out of the pits,
tried to get out of the pits andI could not drive.
I put it in second gear and suddenly I had a block in my

(04:48):
whole brain being frightened. I saw myself driving through a
guardrail, which never happened and I was completely blocked
that I could not drive this car.So I slowly went back into the
pits, being completely confused what happened now, because in
Fiorano I could drive and here Icannot, so I had to get out of

(05:10):
the car. I told the team, unfortunately I
don't feel well, I have to go back to the hotel.
Went back to the hotel and triedto explain to myself what
happened now. Why is suddenly everything
coming back from the accident, which never bothered me before?
Then I said maybe after a sleepless night, let's do it
different. Go there tomorrow, Saturday,

(05:32):
final day for the Italian Grand Prix and drive there on your
own. Don't worry about the
competition, the race, the qualifying speed and whatever.
Get in the car and try to get confident back that I'm handling
the car. Got in the car, didn't look at
any other time, said to my mechanics, don't show me any lap

(05:54):
times, I only want to drive and this was the right decision.
So the pressure was gone, I could get in, concentrated on
driving, got quicker and quickerand quicker.
Fear was not there at all and when practice was over I was
quickest Ferrari so right the amount of the return were behind
me so that gave me certainly confident.

(06:15):
So I gave myself too much pressure before being ready too
soon. Therefore could not drive on
Friday and then from then on it worked pretty normal.
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