Lewis Hamilton Shares Emotional Niki Lauda Stories As He Reflects On "Funniest" Friendship

Lewis Hamilton said Niki Lauda "was one of the funniest people" he has ever met and that "he is still very much a part of the team."

Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton has recently celebrated his ten-year anniversary with the Mercedes team and to celebrate he has been looking over some of the highlights from those years. In a particularly emotional part of the recent video from the Brackley-based squad, Hamilton spoke about his relationship with F1 icon Niki Lauda.

Hamilton reflected:

"I miss Niki [Lauda] so much. 

"We had some of the best and funniest conversations. He was one of the funniest people I have ever met. 

Lauda was a large part of Hamilton moving from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013. The British driver revealed:

"I know he had been quite critical of me, and we hadn't actually met. So, this is while I was at McLaren and he was doing commentary and he just had an assumption of who I was and had these certain comments that he had made. 

"So, for me I was like 'Niki doesn't like me', and I remember him giving me a call in 2012 and him asking me to come to the team. 

"And I don't even know if I said, 'Niki you don't even like me, what are you talking about?'. But, we met and we had a really in-depth conversation and he was like 'oh, you're just like me'.

"I said 'yeah Niki, I'm a racing driver' - 'No, no you are a hard grafter'. And from that moment, we realised we had a lot more in common than we both anticipated and we had an amazing relationship.

"We used to fly together to races, particularly back from Japan and he had the funniest stories that you would just be on the floor laughing, me and Toto, with the stuff that he would come out with. 

"He was such a fighter and he is still very much a part of the team."

Hamilton held up a photo of him holding up his helmet at the 2019 Monaco Grand Prix, which was the same week that Lauda had sadly passed away. He continued:

"So, one of the proud moments for me was Niki used to always, if I did a good job he would take his hat off which he didn't take off for anything really and if I did a bad job he would do this [rubs together his fingers and thumb], basically saying give me my money back.

"So, this was the race in Monaco in 2019 where I dedicated my helmet to him and it was a really special day to be honest, because we nearly lost the race and it was so important for me to win that race for Niki. 

"I don't know why but I guess it's because that was the weekend, or that week, that Niki left us. So, it would mean so much to me if I got that win and I remember nearly losing it and I wasn't able to even enjoy the win afterwards.

"I remember getting back, I was so spent I went straight to bed. I didn't get up and go to dinner, I didn't get up and celebrate my win.

"Of course, you are looking back you are just like 'I wish I did'. But I just didn't have the energy, I was so mentally and physically drained and also sad that I lost a friend.