The margin. James Hunt won the 1976 world championship by a single point.
The Nurburgring
On 1 August 1976, on the second lap of the German Grand Prix, Lauda's Ferrari left the track, struck an embankment, and returned to the circuit in flames. He was struck by two other cars.
Arturo Merzario, Guy Edwards, Brett Lunger and Harald Ertl stopped and pulled him out. Marshals were not adequately equipped and were not first on the scene.
He had inhaled hot toxic gases. His lungs were burned. In hospital he received the last rites.
Six weeks
Lauda missed the Austrian and Dutch Grands Prix and returned at Monza on 12 September.
He raced with dressings under his helmet on scalp grafts that had not healed, and the helmet lining filled with blood. He finished fourth.
The decision to return that quickly was, by his own later account, partly about denying Ferrari the excuse to replace him.
Fuji
The season finale was held at Fuji Speedway on 24 October, in torrential rain. Standing water covered parts of the circuit and visibility in spray was close to zero.
Several drivers argued the race should not start. It started.
On lap two Lauda entered the pits, released his belts and withdrew. He gave the reason plainly: the conditions were not acceptable and he was not prepared to die for a championship.
The result
Hunt ran into tyre trouble late and dropped down the order, then recovered to third. Third was exactly enough. He took the title 69 points to 68.
What it cost Lauda
The Italian press treated the withdrawal as a loss of nerve. The relationship with Ferrari deteriorated and he left at the end of 1977.
He won the drivers' championship in 1977 with Ferrari and again in 1984 with McLaren, by half a point.
Hunt
Hunt won no further championships. He retired mid-season in 1979 at thirty-two, saying he no longer wanted to take the risk. He became a commentator and died of a heart attack in 1993, aged forty-five.
Why it goes on a wall
Because the same man did both things inside three months: got back into a racing car six weeks after being burned alive, and then climbed out of one while leading a title fight.
Those look contradictory and they are not. Both were decisions about risk made by someone who had actually calculated it.
He stopped in the rain.