Niki Lauda: Inside Lewis Hamilton’s Move To Mercedes | Trending Now

In this week’s Trending Now podcast, we look back on our interview with the late Niki Lauda. The Formula One legend discussed how the team handled Nico Rosberg’s sudden retirement, Rosberg’s 2016 crash with Lewis Hamilton at the Spanish Grand Prix - including who was to blame - and the 2am hotel room meeting in which Lauda convinced Hamilton to leave McLaren for Mercedes.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Hey everybody, it's Graham and it's Friday, which means today
we get to bring you another trending clip.
This week. Racing legend Niki Lauda This
trending clip comes from our TikTok.
Hope you enjoy. I spent two days in Monaco with
Nico Rosberg shortly following his retirement from Formula One,

(00:27):
obviously wins the 2016 World Championship, is a Mercedes
Patronus driver and then abruptly, unexpectedly retires.
How fair do you think your criticism was of him?
I think it was from my point of view, completely normal because
I'm in charge. We told the world about the
whole team and if we get hit by our brand new world champion in

(00:50):
November that he's going to retire.
It put us in a very difficult situation because we need the
strongest pair of drivers to continue to win and he left the
trust in the last moment. Even I respect his decision.
The timing for us was really bad.
And therefore criticize them from the team point of view that

(01:13):
if we do not find a quick replacement who is at least as
good as he was, we're going to be in troubles.
And I have to say my quick decision is right.
He called me a couple of times. And look, this is my view, being
in charge of the team. He's a racial driver,
understand. I retired once.
We burn in the same way. Yeah.

(01:34):
And then he had no driver. So I did bad things to him, too.
So if he would have criticized me, I had to respect it.
Right, because Nico made some comment that what you said to
him privately was different thanwhat you were saying publicly.
No, I said to him privately. Understand your decision, Yeah,
Yeah. Which I have to.

(01:55):
There's no choice anyway. But the situation we are in, if
I look from the other side whereI'm responsible for 1200 people
who it's our decision, yeah. How do you feel about him today?
I'm great. Fine with him.
I'm fine with him. Because I'll tell you, we have
reacted very well, I have to sayfrom the team point of view to
get Portas, because Portas is doing a very good job.

(02:17):
Yeah, a similar job than Nico does.
Louis and and Valtteri is pushing each other hard.
So from the team performance point of view, we could replace
even in the last moment Nico with Potos properly.
To what extent did anybody at all think there was even a
remote possibility that he wouldretire?

(02:39):
There was no, no sign whatsoever.
I think he retired really because the pressure of Lewis
was too hard for him to cope with in the future because Lewis
is a tough cookie to drive for. And then he won the race with
all these tricks, Lewis holding back and the others coming and

(03:02):
it was tough for him the whole year because Lewis was the world
champion to get beaten. It was a hard work.
Do you think he's pleased with his decision now?
Yes, he looks very happy, pleased.
He makes no sign of any regret. He seems OK.
If you had to guess, what do youthink the likelihood is he ever
comes back? Never, never.
He continues like absolutely never because he's so into his

(03:25):
family. He seems to be so happy getting
now the second kid, he's a he's a different person.
He he took it all up because he wants to prove to himself that
he can't be world champion like his father.
And I think as soon as he achieved it, he has no more
motivation to continue. How did you handle the
competition between Nico and Lewis Hamilton?

(03:49):
It was very difficult because they certainly in the beginning
everything was fine, but it's more competitive.
They both got against each otherbecause the last three years we
had a Mercedes car which was quicker than any other car and
we only raced each other. The competition was only between
Nico and Lewis, who's going to be world champion.

(04:10):
How did it affect the team? We had huge competition between
the team, which in the end was sometimes too much.
But we put some regulations in. We told them, especially in in
Barcelona when they curse each other off.
This is unacceptable for Mercedes.
You know, we have to win, one ofyou guys have to win.
You cannot leave each other off.So we had some rules put in.

(04:30):
They understood what? Were the rules.
You, you are not allowed to. You have to pay penalties if you
do it again or what? We're thinking of releasing of
your contract because we're teamplayers here.
We're not. The team cannot destroy each
other. This was the thing and Toto came
up with some good rules and in the end we had peace again.

(04:51):
They fought hard and the accidents got reduced between
themselves. In what ways were they nasty to
each other? They had no relation, which is
always bad. So they were so bad that they
didn't even say hello in the morning to each other.
They I don't expect them to havebreakfast together.
If they don't like each other, you don't have to sit down and

(05:12):
have breakfast. But they had a the relationship
was really bad. It affected Louis mainly and
Nico. So it was fine, but not easy.
How did it affect Louis? Louis got job said about him
that, that, that, that, that they even on their performance,
sometimes they lost because they're playing tricks to each

(05:34):
other and then one didn't show the other one what setup he's
using, which is bad for the teamagain, because we both want to
go forward, not only one. So they played all the tricks
you can do, which I understood, I did myself too, but for the
team it was pretty tiring. When the relationship was at its
worst, I believe you sat down with the two of them in a room

(05:56):
together. Take me into that room and what
was discussed between the three of.
You. No, we had, we had discussions.
I have to remember when. Yeah, in Barcelona, when they
hit each other, Toto and myself,first of all, explain to them
that you can't do that. Very simple.

(06:19):
And then the question was, whosefault was it?
Because Nico was in the lead, Lewis tried to pass him, Lewis
went to the inside, Crossberg blocked him on the inside.
Then they crashed and both cars were out.
And this was in the first lap, so not very clever.

(06:41):
And then the big discussion was whose fault was it?
And for me it was clear that Lewis was too aggressive going
to the right, hit the grass, couldn't stop his car and then
hit him off. Even Rosberg moved.
And I said right away, straightforward, what is my

(07:03):
opinion? And I said, if I have to choose
between the two, it's more Lewis's fault and Nichol's
fault. And Lewis did not appreciate
that because it was in a different opinion.
And then what? Did he say?
He said why do you criticize me?I said excuse me, I cannot
accept that you guys crash and then we have nothing and

(07:25):
nobody's fault. It is for me.
There has to be somebody's fault.
And then Lewis really got upset and then Nico said yes, you win.
It's your Part 2. You moved to the inside, Why did
you not leave room enough for him?
He said why should I? I want to win the race so.
And then I asked Louis to come down to Ibiza to speak to me

(07:48):
personally, which he certainly did.
And then I said to Louis, that red light flashing on the back
of the cars today means that youdo not have full power because
the battery pack is not putting electricity in the engine.
When that light flashes, you know you have 150 horsepower

(08:11):
less. Therefore we have this light
installed all the cars. And I said to Louis, when you
followed him, did you see the red light flashing?
I sure did. Why did you go on the inside?
You know he has 150 horsepower less.
Why didn't you pass him easy on the outside?

(08:35):
Yes and no and yes and no. But the good thing with me, I
think, is that apart from the engineers and the team, I can
speak the driver's language. So if I speak to him, I ask him
these questions. Maybe I'm wrong, but at least we
speak the same language and we have respect to each other.
Before you signed Lewis Hamilton, I believe you went

(09:01):
around the paddock, asked peoplefor their feedback on him.
What sort of comments did peoplemake?
As I did not know him, I asked him is he an easy guy to get on
or is it difficult because I hadto find a way to to talk to him.
And some people said he's difficult, some people said he's
easy. But then in Singapore, I had to

(09:24):
meet him. I wanted to meet him.
And I went up to the paddocks that I want to talk to and he
said right away, yes. And he said, yes, come up to my
room, hotel so and so at 2:00 inthe morning, because practice
was so late, because I've never been up at 2:00 in the morning
at somebody else's hotel room. There was a lesser turn up
there. And Lewis did not know me.

(09:48):
I did not know him apart from, you know, who we were.
And I have to say, straightforward, same language.
He was completely open, transparent, asked me the right
questions. For example, you ask me one
question, why the hell should I leave McLaren and come to you if
you are now fifth in the Constructor Championship?

(10:10):
McLaren is a much more competitive car.
What did you say? I say I was for 10 seconds
speechless. I said what should I tell him
now? He's right.
And I said, but what would happen if you would win a world
championship in a Mercedes because you can then prove to

(10:32):
the whole world that you've beenthe first world champion in
Mercedes. Then I thought this was half of
my victory to make him think in that direction.
And then I, I got him really on the competitive edge to say join

(10:53):
us and, and, and I'll tell you what, I will do everything I can
do to give you a competitive car.
This I can assure you with all my efforts, the whole team, we
will support it like I do not believe.
And years later or one year later, I met him again and said
I was right. No, what do you mean?
I said I'm going to give you a competitive car because the last

(11:15):
three years, the last four years, he had the most
competitive car he could get. And the McLaren, it went the
other direction. So I have a good relation with
him. I know him, I like him, We speak
the same language, we have respect of each other.
Good. What do you respect about him?
He's the quickest guy. This is, for me, most talented

(11:37):
guy around today. He's easy to handle in a way,
for me at least, even he's completely different to all the
other guys. He enjoys life in a different
way than anybody else. He travels around between the
races, he tweets from everywhere.
He comes back, He's there. He's fit.

(11:59):
You need to give him this freedom that makes him strong.
Some other guys do it completelydifferent.
They train every day, they concentrate.
But Lewis is Lewis. I like him.
He performs fantastic. As always, thanks for listening.
To see more trending clips from my team, go to
youtube.com/graham Bensinger.