Niki Lauda: Why He Was So Special

Toto's favourite memory of Niki highlights the bond the pair had, and how much they both liked and respected each other.

"We were coming back from Suzuka, just him and I," recalls Toto.

"He said he wanted to tell me something. He stopped for a moment, and I thought wow, Niki is getting emotional.

"He said he had no friends - he always said that. But he said if there was such a thing as a half friend, then I was it.

"He was almost teary, but it was the best comment I received from Niki in all our years working together. It meant that we were friends."

Many fans and followers of F1 today may not remember ever seeing Niki race. But the Austrian's record speaks for itself. Three World Championships, 25 wins, and 24 pole positions from 171 Grands Prix.

Niki came through the ranks with a tidy, consistent, but supremely fast driving style. Having bought himself a spot on the F1 grid in 1971 with March, the Austrian competed on both Formula One and Two fronts for the team.

Two seasons later he was at BRM; a team in decline, but one that Niki helped elevate back into the public eye by running third for much of the 1973 Monaco Grand Prix.

The world had taken notice, and a major focal figure in the sport at the time had also had his attention captured.

Ferrari - the most successful and well-known mark in the sport - had not won a World Championship for close to a decade, but Enzo Ferrari had seen enough to sign Niki for the 1974 season, and promptly tasked his newest recruit to end that drought.

A podium in his first race repaid the faith, and Niki's first two Formula 1 wins would follow that season. In the final standings, Niki and team-mate Clay Regazzoni had taken the Scuderia to second in the Constructors'.

Led by Niki, a relentless and thorough winter testing programmed followed. In 1975, Ferrari would go one better than the year before. And so would Niki. The Austrian delivered a first drivers' championship in 11 years to Maranello, and his first in F1.

Five wins, nine poles, and eight podiums from 14 races. It was a faultless season from Niki, who secured the title at, of all places, Monza, in front of the adoring Tifosi.

Having ended the season early with no wish to "continue the silliness of driving round in circles" Lauda - an ambitious entrepreneur and aviation enthusiast - retired and went off to run his own charter airline - Lauda Air.

But the racing bug bit again a few years later, and Niki returned to F1 with McLaren for the 1982 season.

Such was his talent and aptitude for driving, Niki was immediately right back on the pace.

He won a race on his return at just the third attempt. A third world title and first for McLaren followed two years later in 1984, a season where Niki became the first and only Austrian to date to win the Austrian Grand Prix.

Similarly to his impact at Ferrari, Niki's title was McLaren's first Constructors' in 10 years, and first Drivers' title in eight years.

At his home race a year later, Niki would announce his second - and ultimately final - retirement from F1, though did take one final win at the Dutch Grand Prix later that season.

At the start of 1986 he took control of Lauda Air once more.

It was not until 1993 that he returned to the paddock, when Luca di Montezemolo, the Ferrari Team Principal during Lauda's first championship-winning season of 1975, brought him back to the prancing horse as consultant to the team.

In the same year he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.