Niki Lauda's goal from a young age was to become a Formula One driver. In 1971 he took out a loan to buy his way into the March team. Three seasons later he accepted an offer from Enzo Ferrari to join the "Scuderia". He got his first of 25 career F1 wins in the 1974 Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuito Permanente del Jarama near Madrid.

In 1975, his second year at Ferrari, Lauda rewarded the team's faith in him by winning Ferrari their first drivers' title since John Surtees had done so in 1964. The Austrian took the checkered flag in five of the season's 14 races, including the French Grand Prix at Le Castellet, where he is seen with his British rival James Hunt (left).

Two thirds of the way through the next season, Lauda was top of the drivers' standings with five wins and two second-place finishes going into the 10th race, the German Grand Prix – but everything changed on August 1, 1976. On the Nürburgring, Lauda's Ferrari crashed and went up in flames. Other drivers pulled him out of the burning wreckage. He survived, but was left scarred for life.

Lauda missed just two races before making his comeback to finish fourth at Monza. He had a narrow lead over Hunt in the standings going into the final race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix. After just two laps on a track made slick by the pouring rain, Lauda parked his Ferrari. "My life is more important than the title," he said. Hunt finished third to win the drivers' title.

His withdrawal from the race at Fuji didn't make him a lot of friends at Ferrari, but he answered his critics in the the best way possible, winning three Grand Prix races and finishing on the podium a further seven times to win his second drivers' title. He would move to the Brabham team for the next season, where the red baseball cap first became part of Lauda's trademark.

In 1979 Lauda retired from racing, saying he had better things to do than just "driving a car around in circles". However, in 1982 the Austrian was back in the driver's seat of an F1 car, this time at McLaren. Two years later he won his third and final drivers' title – by half a point over teammate Alain Prost (right). This is the narrowest margin of victory in the history of the F1 title.

After retiring from the F1 cockpit for good in 1985, Niki Lauda shifted his professional focus to Lauda Air, the airline he had founded after retiring the first time. In 1990 Lauda Air obtained the permits required to offer international, overseas flights.

In May of 1991, a Lauda Air Boeing 767 crashed north of Bangkok killing all 223 passengers and crew members on board. Lauda rushed to the scene of the crash and was filled with self-doubt: "If I crash a Formula One car into a guardrail and die, it's my fault. I chose to take that risk," Lauda later said in an interview. "In aviation I chose to take no risk; on the contrary."

In 1992 Lauda returned to Formula One, becoming a consultant for the Scuderia – and had a major part in convincing Michael Schumacher (left) to join Ferrari. Midway through the 2001 season he became team principal at Jaguar, but his spell at the British team didn't last long – the two sides parted company at the end of the following campaign.

In September 2012, Lauda was appointed non-executive chairman of the Mercedes team, although the announcement was overshadowed by the news that British driver Lewis Hamilton (left) would also join the team the following season. This ushered in what would be the most successful period of the Silver Arrows' history, with a Mercedes driver having won every title since 2014.

Niki Lauda leaves behind two sons from his marriage with his first wife, Marlene, which ended in 1991. He later fathered a son from another woman, before marrying for a second time in 2008. The then-60-year-old Lauda became a father yet again one year later, when his second wife Birgit (left) gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy.

The injuries sustained on the Nürburgring in 1976 would cause him health issues in later life. Twice he had kidney transplants, the first coming from his younger brother Florian in 1997, the second from Birgit, who would later become his wife – in 2015. In the summer of 2018 he underwent a lung transplant. On May 20, 2019, his family announced in a statement that he had passed away peacefully.