Editing Niki Lauda (section)

==Brabham and first retirement (1978–1979)==
[[File:Lauda at 1978 Dutch Grand Prix (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Lauda in the [[Brabham]]-[[Alfa Romeo in Formula One|Alfa Romeo]] at Zandvoort (1978)]]Joining Parmalat-sponsored [[Brabham]]-[[Alfa Romeo in Formula One|Alfa Romeo]] in 1978 for a $1&nbsp;million salary, Lauda endured two unsuccessful seasons, remembered mainly for his one race in the [[Brabham BT46]]B, a radical design known as the Fan Car: it won its first and only race at the Swedish GP, but Brabham did not use the car in Formula One again; other teams vigorously protested the fan car's legality and Brabham team owner [[Bernie Ecclestone]], who at the time was maneuvering for acquisition of Formula One's commercial rights, did not want to fight a protracted battle over the car, but the victory in Sweden remained official. The Brabham BT46 Alfa Romeo flat-12 began the 1978 season at the third race in South Africa. It suffered from a variety of troubles that forced Lauda to retire the car 9 out of 14 races. Lauda's best results, apart from the wins in Sweden and Italy after the penalization of Mario Andretti and Gilles Villeneuve, were second in Monaco and Great Britain, and a third in the Netherlands.

The Alfa flat-12 engine was too wide for ground effect designs in that the opposed cylinder banks impeded with the venturi tunnels, so Alfa designed a V12 for 1979. It was the fourth 12-cylinder engine design that propelled the Austrian in Formula One since 1973. Lauda's [[1979 Formula One season]] was again marred by retirements and poor pace, even though he won the non-championship [[1979 Dino Ferrari Grand Prix]] with the Brabham-Alfa. In the single-make [[BMW M1 Procar Championship]], driving for the British Formula Two team [[Project Four Racing]] (led by [[Ron Dennis]]) when not in a factory entry, Lauda won three races for P4 plus the series. Decades later, Lauda won a BMW Procar exhibition race event before the [[2008 German Grand Prix]].

In September, Lauda finished fourth in Monza, and won the non-WC Imola event, still with the Alfa V12 engine. After that, Brabham returned to the familiar Cosworth V8. In late September, during practice for the [[1979 Canadian Grand Prix]], Lauda cut short a practice session and promptly informed team principal Ecclestone, that he wished to retire immediately, as he had no more desire to "continue the silliness of driving around in circles". Lauda, who in the meantime had founded Lauda Air, a charter airline, returned to Austria to run the company full-time.<ref name="BBCSportObit">{{cite news |last1=Benson |first1=Andrew |title=Niki Lauda obituary: 'A remarkable life lived in Technicolour' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/46781936 |access-date=21 May 2019 |work=BBC |date=21 May 2019 |archive-date=21 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190521023311/https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/46781936 |url-status=live }}</ref>