Niki Lauda

Scarred but undeterred, Niki would ultimately concede the 1976 title to his great rival and later friend James Hunt, before adding a second World Championship to his list of honours the following season.

After adding a third crown in 1984, Niki retired from F1 at the end of the 1985 season, taking on a role with German commercial TV station RTL as the resident expert in addition to acting as an adviser to Ferrari in the mid-90s.

For the 2001 and 2002 seasons, Niki became first Race Director and later Team Principal at the British Jaguar Racing Formula 1 team. He would return to the boardroom in 2012 as Non-Executive Chairman of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.

Away from the racetrack, Niki has put his entrepreneurial talents to work for his second great passion - aviation. Lauda Air was born in 1979 and by the 1990s had obtained a worldwide scheduled flight concession, leading to close collaboration with Lufthansa and ultimately the takeover of Lauda Air by the German operator in 2002. Fly Niki was born 12 months later, itself eventually taken over by Air Berlin in 2011 and Niki's company Laudamotion at the start of 2018.