Niki Lauda recovering from lung transplant.

[Swami]

Niki Lauda: Three-time Formula 1 champion has lung transplant

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Niki Lauda had 54 podium finishes in his Formula 1 career
Three-time Formula 1 world champion Niki Lauda is recovering in hospital after a lung transplant.

The 69-year-old Austrian had been suffering from "severe lung disease", Vienna General Hospital said in a statement.

"The transplant was successfully carried out," the statement added.


Lauda won three world drivers' titles in 1975, 1977 and 1984 with Ferrari and McLaren.

He had cut short a holiday in Ibiza last week and returned to Vienna after developing a lung infection, the Osterreich newspaper reported.

Lauda was appointed as Mercedes' non-executive chairman in 2012 and was involved in the signing of Lewis Hamilton to the team.

In 1976, Lauda crashed into an embankment at the Nurburgring circuit in Germany. As flames engulfed his car, Lauda had to be rescued by his fellow drivers but despite suffering horrific burns and being given the last rites, he returned behind the wheel six weeks later.

Swami

 

[Swami]

More than likely a result of his awful 1976 crash when his lungs suffered terrible damage.

Hopefully he will make a speedy recovery, Niki Lauda is a true living legend.

Swami

 

[Barbara Fan]

Good luck to him, he is a true fighter

Get well soon Niki Lauda

x

 

[Swami]

Niki Lauda: Former F1 world champion back in hospital five months after lung transplant

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Lauda had double lung transplant in August
Three-time Formula 1 world champion Niki Lauda is in hospital in Vienna with influenza, five months after having a lung transplant.

Is is understood doctors are taking every precaution given the serious nature of Lauda's surgery.

Austrian Lauda, 69, was given his transplant in August after doctors found he had "severe lung disease".


Doctors said after the transplant that he would have had between three and seven days to live without the surgery.

Lauda, a Mercedes F1 non-executive chairman, has legendary status in F1 not just for his championships - two with Ferrari and one for McLaren - and 25 race wins but his recovery from a fiery accident at the 1976 German Grand Prix.

Lauda was given the last rites after his Ferrari caught fire and he was trapped inside it at the Nurburgring, suffering severe burns to his face, hands and lungs. He raced in Italy 40 days later.

Doctors said the illness this year was not a consequence of the accident.

Swami