This interview first ran in June 2015, around the release of the film Rush. It has been republished following the death of Niki Lauda, aged 70

I am not sure if I can look Niki Lauda in the eye. I am waiting for him in a multi-chandeliered and cream-cake-heavy hotel suite in his native Vienna, and I have just seen Ron Howard’s film Rush. It is based on Lauda’s story: the danger, rivalry, excitement and brushes with sex and death in the world of Formula One. In those days the sport was so dangerous that at the beginning of each race there was a good chance not every driver would make it to the end.

The film chronicles the impassioned rivalry between Lauda and the British driver James Hunt as they battle it out for the 1976 championship. In the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Lauda’s tyres lost grip and his Ferrari caught fire. He was dragged out. "Another 10 seconds and I would have died," he says.

There followed gruelling operations to remove smoke and debris from his lungs and his face was irreparably burnt; he lost half an ear. But he refused to give up. Showing spectacular strength and verve, he appeared just a couple of months later at a race meeting in Monza with, for want of a better description, a new face. Fellow drivers recoiled in horror and couldn’t look at him. But even though he’d missed races Lauda still led the championship and battled against Hunt for the title until the last race of the season.

He enters the room looking relaxed, in jeans and a checked shirt. His eyes, like pale blue Swarovski crystals, burn and sparkle. He sees me looking at him, examining him, and gives a slow, knowing smile.

Lauda has just seen the film, which is basically his story; he was a constant companion to writer Peter Morgan and shared his memories and knowledge of the sport. He is now 64, and the scars have almost faded. "Yes, the wrinkles improved it," he says with an almost impossible confidence. He’s comfortable with me looking right at his face. In fact, he enjoys it. This is a man who has not only learnt to live with his disfigurement but has enjoyed living despite it.

"When after the accident I came out into the world and people looked at me, they were shocked. It upset me. I thought they were impolite not to hide their negative emotions about my look. When I saw the movie it let me see the story from the other side, from the point of view of other people looking at me. It helped me understand why people were shocked."

What was it like for him when he first saw the scarring? "My then wife fainted when she first saw me, so I knew it could not have been good. As I get older the scars get lost in the lines, and, well," he shrugs, "you just get used to it."

It’s interesting that in the age of cosmetic microsurgery, when transformations are commonplace, that Lauda refused to have any more work done after the initial surgery to keep him alive.

"I only had to do surgery to improve my eyesight. Cosmetic surgery, it’s boring and expensive and the only thing it could do is give me another face. I had the eye surgery so that my eyes could function, and as long as everything functions I don’t care about it." Lauda has few insecurities. Born to a wealthy Austrian family in Vienna, his parents had expected him to follow into a comfortable life. He wanted none of it.

He peers out from under his signature red cap that only slightly disguises the fact that half of one ear is missing. "I was always being offered cosmetic procedures. See this little thing here," he gestures to the side of his face, "this was done by Ivo Pitanguy in Brazil. He was the most famous plastic surgeon in the world at the time. He wanted to do everything. He asked me, ‘Are you nuts? Why wouldn’t you want this?’ I just don’t like the look of it." He looks up at me, through me, examines my face. "You have not had work done. What do you think of the stupid women who get work done all the time?"

I’m not sure, I say. Ask me in 10 years. "I think it’s bad. If you have something done, people can see right away that you’ve had surgery." The point of good surgery is that you don’t notice it. "I see it straight away," he says.

Does he automatically find a woman unattractive if she’s had work done? "I would hate it. It means they can’t stand whoever they are. I’ve had a lot of incidents in the past where people were wondering how I looked. At least I can say I had an accident. The idea that people would work on themselves, who hadn’t had an accident – I can’t stand plastic surgery. You have to have enough personality to overcome this beauty bull---- and find the strength to love yourself the way you are." There’s no point in telling him many people could never find that strength.

But Lauda’s strength strangely makes him look really good. His eyes seem to glint even bluer when I tell him this. He says, "I’ve learnt from my life experience. I think I was much less charismatic before." Rush portrays the young Lauda as very determined, practical and pragmatic. His personality was the opposite of the flamboyant catnip to all women, James Hunt. Actor Daniel Brühl, who played Lauda, had to have prosthetic teeth. He was known as "The Rat" for his protruding teeth, which you don’t notice now.

"Marlboro was the sponsor. They put ‘The Rat’ on my visor. A marketing guy thought of it because of my teeth." He wasn’t vain before the accident or diminished by being called The Rat, and he wasn’t diminished afterwards. He’s never counted on his looks.

He treated the psychological battles to overcome his brush with death and the subsequent injuries with his usual sportsmanship. He didn’t falter.

Was he ever afraid? "I’ve had lots of positive and negative experiences. I don’t really have any fear." Hunt won the 1976 championship on the last race of the season. Lauda retired from Formula One three years later but made a comeback in 1982 with McLaren, hanging up his helmet for the final time in 1985.

Still fascinated with fast and powerful travel, he started airline Lauda Air, having gained his own commercial pilot’s licence. It did well for a while. But then, as he explains, "Another terrible thing was the airplane that crashed, the Boeing 767." The Lauda Air flight crashed in Thailand in 1991, killing all 223 people on board. "I’ve been through a lot and I realise the future can’t be controlled," he says. "I’m not worried. You can always learn to overcome difficulties. That said, I’ve always been a stable person."

Is that why he was attracted to Formula One? He wanted to test that stability? "No. Formula One is simply about controlling these cars and testing your limits. This is why people race, to feel the speed, the car and the control. If in my time you pushed too far, you would have killed yourself. You had to balance on that thin line to stay alive."

Much is made of the physical scars that remain from his 1976 crash at Germany’s Nürburgring, but it also left his lungs weakened and breathing difficult. Was there never a moment where he felt simply grateful to be alive and not need to get back in the car? "No, not one moment, because I knew how things go, I knew about the risks," he says evenly. "They questioned me, did I want to continue? But I always thought, yes, I do. I wanted to see if I could make a comeback. I was not surprised to have an accident. All these years I saw people getting killed right in front of me."

Lauda was married at the time to Marlene, and they had two sons together. Did having children change his desire to race, to take those risks? "No, I was very focused and continued racing, and now I am married again and have twins, a little girl and a little boy."

He talks of his Max and Mia, born in September 2009, with great pride, telling me that his wife is away, that he’s been looking after them on his own. His wife, Birgit, 34, used to work for his low-cost airline company FlyNiki, also now sold. She was a stewardess. Did he meet her on a plane? "I met her at a party and I fell in love with her. It was one of those things where you see someone and you just know. I connected with her right away because of her boots. They were a hippy type, flat boots. The opposite of the high heels that everyone else was wearing at the party. That was my first interest."

He fell in love with her because of her boots? "Yes. Then I found out she was working for me."

Is he still in touch with his first wife, whom he divorced in 1991? "Yes, very much so. She is part of our life. We have a house in Ibiza. She lives there. My old family and new family often get together. We went to a restaurant the other day, Marlene, Birgit and myself. She is an outstanding woman. When everyone is happy she is happy. We got divorced but we are still friends. Nothing has changed. What is more, Birgit is her friend too."

Nowadays, Lauda lives a little outside Vienna. "Nothing fancy," he says, shrugging. Does he ever get tempted to speed through suburbia? "No, but when I am stopped by the police if I go a little fast I always tell them I cannot help it, it’s in my blood. They either laugh or give me a hard time." He laughs now; an easy, throaty chuckle.

In Rush, Lauda and Hunt (played by Chris Hemsworth) are portrayed as extreme rivals who eventually come together out of mutual respect. "Yes, we were friends. I knew him before we met at Formula One [at Formula Three]. We always crossed each other’s lines. He was a very competitive guy and he was very quick. In many ways we were the same. I had a lot of respect for him on the circuit. You could drive two centimetres from his wheels and he never made a stupid move. He was a very solid driver."

The film depicts Lauda as serious, Hunt as loving to party, womanise and drink. Is that accurate? "I liked his way of living. I did a little bit of what he did. I was not as strict as I appeared in the movie, but I was more disciplined than he was. I would never drink before a race. Certainly after it; I had to. Every race could have been my last. It’s different today, but then it was a tougher time.

"Every race we went out and survived, we celebrated, had a party. It was a different time. With the others we would have a beer after the race and then say goodbye. That was not friendship. With James it was different. James was different."

Does he think that Britain could ever produce another driver like Hunt? "No. Today, life is different for the racers. Everything is as safe as possible. The last driver to be killed was [Ayrton] Senna, 19 years ago, and the improvements were so big since that. Now nothing ever happens. It’s just not the same." And that makes it less exciting? "Maybe. But [Lewis] Hamilton did well in the race the other day. A little into the race his tyre exploded. He is a very good guy. A great personality."

What quality does he think he shared with Hunt to make them both extraordinary drivers? "In many ways he was my opposite. We both tried to win. It’s sad that he’s not here now sitting with me. He had a rough time.

"He was sober and clean for four years and then had a heart attack. He died too early, too young. I wish he’d been here to see the movie. It would have been the best." It’s been said that Lauda is not a very emotional person. But I’m sure I see his eyes watering as he says this.