Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff recalled his friend and “the most iconic Formula 1 personality” Niki Lauda in an emotional press conference at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Lauda and Wolff last spoke after the team finished first and second in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last month.

“[On the] Sunday night after Baku, we spoke on the phone. He said ‘carry on, it doesn’t go any better’. I described the race to him that he [had watched], I told him what was next in terms of development and tried to as much as possible bring normality into his life.”

Wolff described how he learned Lauda, the team’s non-executive director, had died.

“We knew it was not going well the last days,” he said. “It was probably a matter of days to receive the message.

“I got a text message from his wife on the Monday evening. Since then I am not myself somehow. It feels surreal to be in a Formula 1 paddock with Niki not alive any more. Although we could see it coming, when it happens it’s so raw in front of you that you’re not going to see him any more.”

Lauda’s multiple world championship victories and the extraordinary circumstances of his return from injury in 1976 made him a well-known figure when Wolff was growing up in Austria.

“Niki was the most-known personality in Austria,” said Wolff. “So clearly every kid coming up in the seventies, eighties or nineties knew that he was the most famous Austrian. Everybody was looking up to him and I was doing the same.

“But we had another link: My first wife is his cousin, so we knew each other from before. We started to know each other better when I was involved with Williams, started to travel together to some of the races. He’s the most iconic Austrian that is for sure, the most iconic Formula 1 personality and one of the biggest names in sport on a global level.”

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Wolff, a former race driver himself, once tried to beat Lauda’s lap record on the Nurburgring Nordschleife in a GT car. He said his “mid-life crisis that was to blame” and Lauda was bemused by his decision.

“Before I did that I said to him that I was keen on trying to break the GT lap record on the Nordschleife and I was also keen on breaking the 7’01 that he did.

“And he says ‘That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Who cares whether you break a lap record on the Nordschleife or not? The risk of injuring yourself is there and nobody cares anyway.'”

Lauda played a major role in encouraging Lewis Hamilton to join Mercedes in 2013. Wolff, who had also been due to speak to the press yesterday, explained why he and Hamilton had been excused from their media obligations.

“Maybe we’re in a similar frame of mind. It’s just, we’ve lost a friend. Bradley [Lord, communications director] and the team were so kind to let us off the hook yesterday and the FIA supported it to not have Lewis in the press conference because of that fact.

“It’s very difficult in our environment. It’s very difficult to comment 48 hours after we’ve lost a friend.”

“Besides the friendship that we both had to Niki there was an additional bond that Lewis had to Niki and that was one of a Formula 1 world champion,” Wolff added. “Therefore the over-arching feeling is just sadness within the team, for Lewis and others that were friends.

“We both got the message at the same time and spoke to each other right afterwards. Everybody will have his own personal way of mourning and feeling the sadness. But I think to conclude Niki would want us to concentrate on the race weekend and deliver on Saturday and deliver on Sunday.”

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2019 F1 season