‘Niki’s passing leaves a void in F1,’ — Mercedes-AMG

Mercedes-AMG team principal Toto Wolff with Niki Lauda

THE team principal of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport said the team lost a “guiding light” with the death of Niki Lauda.

The three-time Formula 1 world champion and businessman died on May 20, around nine months after getting a lung transplant. He was 70.

Lauda began working as a consultant at Mercedes in late 2012. Since 2013 he held the position of non-executive chairman of the board of Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd. His contract for the position was set to expire in 2020, although he also had a 10% stake in the team.

Niki Lauda at the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix

Toto Wolff, the team principal, said Lauda was “always brutally honest and utterly loyal,” and brought to the organization “an energy that nobody else could replicate.

“His passing leaves a void in Formula 1. We haven’t just lost a hero who staged the most remarkable comeback ever seen, but also a man who brought precious clarity and candor to modern Formula 1. He will be greatly missed as our voice of common sense,” Wolff said.

While Lauda served his role in Mercedes Grand Prix, the Mercedes-AMG team won the drivers’ and constructors’ world championships five consecutive times — from 2014 to 2018.

“The motorsports world has lost its greatest fighter. The Mercedes family has lost an amazing mentor. And I have lost a true friend,” said Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler AG and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Cars, and who is also a fixture in the team’s F1 paddock.