- Mercedes
'Sometimes management is pissed off with me' - Lauda
Niki Lauda says his no-nonsense attitude has at times rubbed the Mercedes board up the wrong way, but that ultimately he is the best link between the team's drivers and its management.
Lauda is non-executive chairman of the F1 team, and alongside executive directors Toto Wolff and Paddy Lowe makes top-level decisions. As an ex-F1 driver and three-time champion, Lauda has close relationships with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg and said he predicted their on-track collision before the Belgian Grand Prix this year.
However, he admits his forthright manner has at times upset the Mercedes board in Stuttgart, even if he is proved to be right.
"Sometimes management is pissed off with me because I tell them what's going to happen," he told FIA quarterly magazine Auto. "We had a board meeting in Stuttgart with all our bosses there and I said: 'They will hit each other'. 'How can you say this?' they asked. 'Because I know.'
"And the drivers know that I also defend them. I'm the only one who speaks the same language - being part of them and part of the management. So we have a very good relationship. They find it very hard to convince me of things I don't think are right."
Lauda said the collision at Spa-Francorchamps was the only time the management really needed to intervene with the drivers all year.
"We've only had one serious discussion about these things - only in Spa. There was nowhere else we had a problem, so really we've had peace between the two, no aggravation. In our meetings before the race they are relaxed, they know what they are doing.
"They know the responsibility for Mercedes - that we want to finish first and second. This is a team order. And then one or the other wins the race and the other one has to be second."
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