Three-time F1 world chꦜampion Lauda played an instrumental role꧒ in convincing Hamilton to leave McLaren and sign for Mercedes after holding talks with the Briton throughout 2012. 

• Hamilton: Dad told me to stay at McLaren

But Hamilton has revealed he was under the impression that Lauda, who168澳洲5最新开奖结果: died in 2019 at the age of 70, was 🌸not a fan of his prior to thꦫeir first meeting. 

“I miss Niki so much,” Hamilton said in a Mercedes video reflecting on his ♉10 years with♈ the German manufacturer.

“We had some of the best🧜 and funniest conversations – he was one of the funniest people I've ever met.

“I kno꧅w he had been quite critical of me and we hadn't actually met. 

“So this is when I was at McLaren and he was doing commentary, and he just had an as♏sumption of who I was and had these certain comments that he made - so for me, I'm like, ‘Niki doesn't like me.’

“And I remember him giving me a call in 2012. and him ask♔ing me to come to the team, and I don'🌃t know if I even said, ‘Niki, you don't even like me, what are you talking about?’

“But we met and we♉ had a really in-depth conversation and he's like, ‘Oh you're just like me.’

“I’m like, ‘yeah Niki I'm a ra🐼cing driver,’ and he said, you know, ‘no no, you're just a hard grafter,’ and from that moment we realised that we had a lot more in common than we both anticipated and we had an amazing relationsh𒐪ip.

“We used to fly together to races partic𒐪ularly back from Japan and he had the funniest stories that we just would just be on the floor laughing, me and Toto, with the stuff that he would come out with.

“He was ♎suc🧜h a fighter and he's still very much a part of the team.”

Hamilton has won six ൲of his seven world championships and broken several records 🍸since joining Mercedes to establish himself as one of F1’s all-time greats.