“You know I have no friends?”

Toto Wolff remembers Niki Lauda: “After we won our third world title in Japan,we flew back from Nagoya, and Niki was shedding a tear,” Wolff says. “What’s happening with you?’ I asked. ‘You know I have no friends?’ he replied.”

“If I was to call at three in the morning, lying on the side of the road and waiting for help, I wouldn’t be able to reach anybody. No one would pick the phone. But if there is such thing as a half-friend… well, It would be you.’ “That’s the most emotional thing you’ve ever said to me,’ I said. I really miss him.”

“At first, we regularly clashed at Mercedes, Niki and me.” The Daimler board said, ‘We can’t continue like this, with opposite opinions,’Wolff says. “So we were summoned. Before the meeting we shook hands, and from that day on I never doubted his loyalty. We were complimentary. 

Niki could say whatever he wanted in the paddock, and he came to the point quickly. I would often say to him, “by your sheer presence, you are giving the team power. You don’t need to act. Just sit there.” And it worked perfectly.