One of the drivers best remembered for their achievements is certainly the Austrian Niki Lauda. Lauda drove for March, BRM, Ferrari, Brabham and McLaren and achieved 3 Drivers' World Championships. After 2 years in Formula One with mixed results he was signed up by Enzo Ferrari. Thanks to Lauda's frequent testing at Fiorano, Ferrari's private test track, the cars from Maranello got quicker and became much more reliable. Lauda was not only an extremely good driver, but he also had a very good understanding of the technical side of motor racing, which proved essential to develop the 312T into a race winner. He had a very good relationship with both team manager Luca di Montezemolo and his personal mechanic Ermanno Cuoghi. After a couple of laps Niki was already able to give the engineers the necessary feedback about the car's behaviour, which helped a lot to set up the cars properly. In 1975 the Ferrari 312T was the class of the field and allowed Lauda to become World Champion for the first time. In 1976 he was already way ahead in the championship standings when he had a horrifying accident at the Nürburgring. Niki had to miss two races, allowing James Hunt to catch up with him and snatch the title from him by just one point. Niki got his revenge in 1977 by becoming World Champion again. After two seasons with Brabham Lauda retired from motor racing, only to return a year later and become world champion again in 1982, driving for McLaren.