Niki Lauda: Returning From Fiery Crash | Forward Progress

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0:48This week, Nikki Lauda.

0:55How soon after your recovery did you 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, I think 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? And as racing, driving was my job at 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 what I was putting myself into.

1:37I saw 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 take the same chances 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. So from this point of view, I said, if Dunkel tells me I'm fit, I can drive again, I really want to see how long it will take me to come back. I think you were listening to Bob Marley when you made the decision. Bob Marley, yeah, yeah, the music. Why? Because I like music.

2:15And Bob Marley at the time was my favorite singer. and i liked the 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 from a good mood to take the decision and then i took the decision and off 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 you know how close you have been to die Then I said, now I have to take some consequences out of this. And this applies for everybody, even today. How many people hurt themselves or die because they are not careful enough or stupid or make mistakes because they drink and drive a car or whatever?

3:06So I said to myself, after this experience, I will never ever do anything in my life where out of stupidity of myself or not thinking, I risk something. I'll 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. 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 hurt myself or even kill myself. And even driving road cars or flying, all these kind of things. I know that I have to be responsible. I will do nothing wrong to hurt anybody or myself.

3:50So 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 easy as it must be. Because if we stay home, and thank God I was ready after 40 days, because it could have been all this healing process takes much longer. But thank God after 40 days I was able to drive. So then the first thing was, let's get in and see how much is left now of 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 can again because if you 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 backward what is my fault, what can I do different?

4:48you need to get back into your old business to overcome all this and therefore the timing, the shorter it is, the better it is So then on Friday morning I turned up there, pressure like you do not believe, the newspapers, the journalists, the press, can not drive, can he not drive, medical checks, all these things were spilling up to me in the morning like you do not believe. Then I got out of the pits, tried to get out of the pits and I could not drive. I put it in second gear and suddenly I had a block in my 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 Firano I could drive and here I cannot so I had to get out of 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 tried to explain to myself what happened now?

5:50Why 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, 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 am handling the car. Got in the car, didn't look at any other time, said to my mechanics don't show me any left times, I only want to drive. And this was the right decision. So the pressure was gone, I could get in, concentrate on driving, got quicker and quicker and quicker, fear was not there at all, and when practice was over I was quick as Ferrari.

6:39So right in the morning they were somewhere behind me. So that gave me certainly confident. So I gave myself too much pressure before being ready too soon. Therefore, I could not drive on Friday. And then from then on, it worked pretty normal. One quick favor before you leave, please consider giving the podcast a rating and review. Those go a long way in helping us reach new listeners. Thanks for your support.