Cool fact: Niki Lauda is a former F1 driver who is most famous for having severe facial and lung damage from a fiery crash, then returning while his burns were

Cool fact: Niki Lauda is a former F1 driver who is most famous for having severe facial and lung damage from a fiery crash, then returning while his burns were still healing. The doctors said he still had more operations to undergo to complete his recovery, but when pressed, admitted that the additional operations were for cosmetic reasons and would not affect his ability to drive. He raced in F1 races with open wounds weeping into his balaclava. To this day he's known for having only half an ear on one side and very little hair on his head, but until last year when he had a severe lung problem (likely as a consequence of his aforementioned accident)he happily appeared in public at F1 races. He retired from F1 to focus on his airline, but un-retired and won another F1 championship. He ran his airline for a while but now is more of a public figure for one of the F1 teams. The Ron Howard movie Rush is a great treatment of his time in F1.