📍Vienna, Austria
1949 – 1968“I was born in Vienna in February 1949 into a wealthy, old Viennese family of industrialists. My grandfather, Hans Lauda, had built a paper-manufacturing empire and was a powerful figure in Austrian business, and my parents expected me to follow him into the family firm. We lived comfortably in Vienna, a grand, formal city still recovering from the war, and my upbringing was strict and conservative. But I was fascinated by machines. As a schoolboy I drove an uncle's BMW around the yard of the paper mill, and I drove forklifts and delivery lorries around the family factories. By fourteen I was taking Volkswagens apart. I was not a good student, and I left school without finishing, even forging a diploma so my parents would buy me a car. When I saw the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring in 1966, I knew I wanted to race. My family, and especially my grandfather, strongly opposed it; to them, racing was not a serious career for a Lauda. At eighteen I borrowed money to buy a Mini Cooper and began racing in hill climbs, and I broke with my family to pursue it, taking out bank loans secured on my life insurance to buy my way into Formula Two and Formula One. My grandfather never forgave me. I won the world championship three times, in 1975, 1977 and 1984, and in 1976 I came back to racing just six weeks after a terrible crash at the Nürburgring. Later I founded my own airline, Lauda Air, in Vienna.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today