How Lauda shaped the dominant Mercedes machine

The loss of Niki Lauda is a massive blow to everyone in the Mercedes camp - primarily, of course, on a personal level. The legendary Austrian was a close friend and colleague, as team boss Toto Wolff has made clear.

But his death also robs Mercedes of someone who played a significant role in shaping the hugely successful team that we know today and, more importantly, in ensuring that level of success has been sustained into what is now six seasons.

Over five decades Lauda gained an unparalleled knowledge of every aspect of Formula 1. As a driver he negotiated with team bosses and sponsors, invariably gaining the upper hand. His later spells as an advisor to Ferrari in the mid-1990s, and as team principal of Jaguar Racing in 2001-02, gave him even more insight. He worked with good and bad bosses, and with good and bad employees, and learned how to do things right.

Consider too the years spent running his airlines, juggling the finances, employing hundreds of people, and dealing with plane manufacturers, other suppliers, airport managements and governments. He honed management skills that he was able to call on when he was involved with teams.

It's impossible for us to imagine what he went through when one of his planes crashed in Thailand in 1991, with the loss of 223 passengers and crew. As the airline boss, he was ultimately responsible, and his subsequent fight to prove that the mighty Boeing corporation was at fault was perhaps the biggest challenge he ever faced aside from his own health issues.

After that, dealing with a pair of squabbling team-mates, or facing off an unpopular decision from the FIA or Bernie Ecclestone, was pretty run of the mill stuff.

It was in the summer of 2012 that Lauda became involved with the Mercedes F1 adventure, initially in a consultancy role. The team was in its third season under its Silver Arrows identity, with Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg in the cockpit, and Ross Brawn and Norbert Haug heading the management team.

Results had not met expectations, given the inevitable optimism after Mercedes bought the 2009 title-winning Brawn GP team and Schumacher had been tempted out of retirement. The team earned three third places and finished fourth in the constructors' championship in 2010, and repeated that outcome, with fewer points and no podium finishes, in '11.

Rosberg won in China early in 2012, and was then second in Monaco, which took some pressure off. Meanwhile, Brawn was quietly putting together a strong technical team, and there was some confidence in the camp that HPP's (Mercedes' high performance powertrains division) early start on its hybrid V6 programme for 2014 would pay dividends.

But Mercedes' management was keen to see results sooner rather than later, and Lauda was engaged to find out what was happening at the races and at Brackley, and report back. He was also involved in delicate Concorde Agreement negotiations with Ecclestone, who had what might best be described as an uncomfortable relationship with Brawn.

On track there was progress, but off track there was internal turmoil in 2013

Lauda was one of the few people in F1 who could take on Ecclestone, his Brabham boss in 1978-79, on level terms. A deal was duly agreed that committed Mercedes to F1 - whether it was the best one that the manufacturer could have extracted is impossible to judge.

One of Lauda's other assignments was to help headhunt Lewis Hamilton, whose relationship with McLaren, and Ron Dennis in particular, was unravelling. Lauda didn't initiate the discussions, since as early as December 2011 Hamilton's then manager Simon Fuller had tested the water with Mercedes, and talks had continued.

But Lauda met with a frustrated Hamilton in the McLaren driver's hotel room in Singapore, and that driver-to-driver contact, with a crucial extra push from Brawn, helped to finally convince Hamilton to jump ship. Faith in the hybrid programme, and the team's upward momentum, was the key to his decision.

The Hamilton/Mercedes deal was announced on September 28 2012, while Schumacher's retirement was confirmed. The same press release also revealed Lauda now had an official role - he was the non-executive chairman of the team's board of directors.

But much was still going on behind the scenes. In December that year, it was announced that veteran Mercedes F1 boss Haug was to leave the company. Then in January 2013 came the news that the then little known Wolff would give up his involvement in Williams and join Mercedes GP as a shareholder and executive director. Lauda's ties were further strengthened as he too became a shareholder, with a 10% stake.

Lauda and Wolff knew each other through the close-knit world of Austrian motorsport, and family ties, but working with each other was a new experience.

"Niki is the most known personality in Austria," Wolff noted in Monaco on Wednesday. "Every kid coming up in the '70s or '80s or '90s knew he was the most famous Austrian. Everyone was looking up to him, and I was doing the same.

"We had another link - my first wife is his cousin. We knew each other from before. We started to know each other better when I was involved at Williams, we started to travel together to some of the races."

Early in 2013 it was confirmed that Paddy Lowe would be leaving McLaren to join Mercedes as its technical chief - a move that unsettled Brawn, to put it mildly.

It would be a difficult season for the team. On track, there were signs of progress in what was the last year of V8s. Rosberg and Hamilton scored three race wins between them, and the team almost doubled its points total as it moved up to second, behind Red Bull.

But off track there was some internal turmoil, a result of the new management structure. His authority now questioned, Brawn was not happy, while the Lauda/Wolff relationship was in its early stages.

At the end of the season came confirmation that Brawn was leaving. Wolff landed the team principal role, putting an even stronger focus on his still fledgling relationship with Lauda. Gradually, the two men learned to work in tandem.

"At the beginning when we were both parachuted into the programme of Mercedes F1, when things were difficult, it was difficult for both of us to achieve compromise," Wolff recalled. "We were both used to having our own companies, we both took our own decisions, and the Daimler board wished to have the two of us in two roles, in two different roles, and it took a half a year to a year until we calibrated it right.

"But I remember there was a moment where we sat down and he said, 'I have come to the conclusion that it is better the two of us push in the same direction, that we are going to reach our goal earlier or sooner'. And since then our relationship developed from respect and understanding to friendship."

Inevitably Lauda's propensity to speak his mind would occasionally cause Wolff some discomfort, but he grew to enjoy it.

"Because once our journey started to settle down in terms of trust to each other, his loyalty to the team was immense. It was a huge advantage having someone who didn't need to be politically correct anymore. Niki Lauda could say everything he wanted.

"Sometimes it gave the communications team a grey hair. But Niki's comment would be, 'Who cares?'. In a world today when everything is so slipstreamed and corporate, and everybody thinks twice what he says because things can be spun around, and headlines created, it was so refreshing and important for F1 to have somebody who just didn't care. And I think that's missing."

Thanks to the foundations laid by Brawn, Mercedes hit the ground running with the hybrid V6 at the start of 2014, and it hasn't slowed down since, logging countless race wins and five double world championships. And the Lauda/Wolff axis was always at the heart of it.

Lauda's primary role was to see the bigger picture, play the politics, and crucially liaise with the Daimler board, protecting the team from high-level interference. He could talk to anyone, and always get his views across. Reflecting on how different things might have been without Lauda on board, Wolff made clear what an influence he had.

"We all would have missed out in so many ways; missed out in having a great friend, sparring partner, a mentor, somebody that was giving us direction, that was exercising pressure when pressure was needed, that was protecting us from the politics," said Wolff. "He was a foreign minister that was able to say everything, even the biggest controversy, and so his role in the team had so many facets. Equally getting Lewis into the team, which was a milestone for Mercedes, and all of these inputs are dearly missed."

"It gave the team credibility, it gave the team a big push, everybody knew when Niki was doing things he wasn't doing them half-heartedly" Toto Wolff

Lauda formed a special bond with Hamilton, one that has played a huge role in keeping the five-time world champion happy over the years.

"Lewis and Niki are bound together by an additional link. And that is the link of multiple world champions," added Wolff.

"Only a very few people have experienced what these two have experienced, winning championships over several years against the best, driving a car on the limit, and I think that Niki joining Mercedes in the summer of 2012 was a big part of Lewis joining the team.

"It gave the team credibility, it gave the team a big push, everybody knew when Niki was doing things he wasn't doing them half-heartedly. And I think that link among racing drivers, multiple world champions, is a bond that is extremely important."

Wolff relied on Lauda as a sounding board for every decision: "We have been missing Niki in every single race at the end of last season, when he fell ill, and at the beginning of this season. But again, being faced with him not being anymore among us, being faced with me personally not texting him anymore, or speaking to him after the weekend, receiving his feedback. Losing him as a sparring partner is the most difficult."

Even as Lauda's health issues worsened in recent weeks, Wolff made sure he was kept up to date with progress.

"The last time was Sunday night after Baku, then we spoke on the phone where he said, 'Just carry on, it doesn't go any better'. I described the race to him that he was watching, and told him what was next, what came next in terms of developments and as much as possible bring normality into his life.

"Niki lived his life every single day, he was able to live in the present, not look into the past. He didn't care about the past, the past was gone, he lived in the present, and he wanted to achieve more in the future.

"And that is why I don't think that Niki would have seen it that way. Niki watching on us will be interested to see how this weekend goes on track here and nothing else."