Triple Formula One world champion Niki Lauda will have to spend weeks in hospital after the Austrian received an emergency lung transplant, even though the operation went well, his surgeon Walter Klepetko said in Vienna.
"Things are developing very well at the moment, and we are very satisfied," Klepetko told Austrian public broadcaster ORF after the operation on Thursday night at the Vienna General Hospital.
A spokeswoman of Lauda's airline Laudamotion did not provide an update when contacted on Friday morning.
According to Austrian media reports, the 69-year-old airline entrepreneur, Formula One manager and former driver needed the transplant after catching a flu-type virus infection.
Lauda has been suffering from health problems ever since a fiery crash on the Nuerburgring track in Germany in August 1976, which he survived with severe burns.
He also injured his lung in the accident, and he has received two kidney transplants.
Lauda won his first championship title in 1975 and became a Formula One legend the next year when he climbed back into his car only 42 days after his crash.
He went on to win two more championships in 1977 and 1984.
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