Nicki Lauda's struggle and successes brought to life

Rating: 8/10 (10 January 2014)

The full personalities of F1 racing drivers were never really revealed back in the 1970s. It was all about the vicarious thrills of speeding of the cars, crashes, shunts and the chequered flag. We saw the drivers spraying large bottles of champagne around, but we did not get to care what they were really like or much about the technique of racing. So the full enormity of Nicki Lauda's quick recovery from his burns to getting back into the driver's seat did not get properly examined at the time. Ron Howard's film redresses this by revealing the brilliant mind of Lauda, his crises, his struggles and his professionalism. It also, of course, shows the swashbuckling bravado of James Hunt and the glamour he brought to F1. The only criticism I would make was the film's budget could have been used to better bring alive some of the exotic locations, such as the final 1976 race off next to Mount Fuji, which heavily relies on computer graphics.