Top 5 comebacks in F1 history

Niki Lauda

Lauda made the sport's most sensational comeback at Monza

If one were to understand Niki Lauda, a man who once famously described himself as being someone ‘without any friend’, but one with whom you can discuss the sport with a clarity and passion that few possess, then listening to the track “Lost or won” from the motion picture Rush- directed by Ron Howard- may not be a bad idea.

Explaining the rationale behind what was perhaps Formula 1’s greatest rivalry of a kind, the music touches upon the essence of two great drivers of the seventies, whose rivalry ignited a new spark in the sport.

James Hunt, whose name, apart from rhyming with doing all kinds of stunts (no pun intended) stands as a synonym of speed, Lauda, a three-time world champion’s spirit is captured in a moving tapestry of sound and rhythm that haunts as much as it charms.

Lauda may have gotten himself four world titles if it could be said had it not been for the 1976 incident at the ‘Green Death’ or the Nurburgring.

The reigning world champion Lauda suffered a massive accident at a track that’s considered the most demanding in the annals of F1 racing on a day where the track was anything but race-worthy, given the notorious wet-weather in that part of Germany back then.

As a result, Hunt, Lauda’s arch-rival not clinched the top step of the podium as Niki had to be rescued his car going up in flames. He would soon find himself rendered helpless by the near-fatal crash, watching the proceedings in a state of near hopelessness from the hospital bed.

And this is when the resilient Austrian decided to return to the track, a few months down the line, despite being head-wrapped in bandages, his lungs still battered and his body frail and barely capable of taking the rigours needed to compete.

It was at the Italian Grand Prix of Monza in 1976 where Niki came back ‘nearly from the dead’ to script what’s called the greatest comeback in the history of Formula 1 amidst hundreds and thousands of Tifosi, first by qualifying fifth in that condition and, later by finishing fourth in the race, around 19 positions above Hunt, who retired.