It was Ross Brawn and not Niki Lauda, who persuaded Lewis Hamilton to leave McLaren to join Mercedes in 2013.
Having entered Formula 1 with McLaren in 2007, Hamilton’s move to Mercedes shocked the Formula 1 paddock as it was widely seen as a backwards step given the advantage McLaren had over Mercedes.
Lewis Hamilton shocked F1 when he swapped McLaren for Mercedes
Time, though, proved Hamilton right as he went on to win six World titles with the Brackley squad to bring his overall tally to seven, equalling Michael Schumacher’s record.
Two-time Ferrari World Champion Lauda has long been credited for being integral in Hamilton’s decision, having spoken with the Briton after taking up a role within the team.
However, it wasn’t actually Lauda who convinced Hamilton of the Mercedes project, it was then team principal Ross Brawn.
The former Ferrari man sold his Brawn GP team to Mercedes at the end of the F1 2009 season after claiming the championship double in its first and only year on the grid, but he remained at the helm in the first four years under the silver arrows branding.
And it was Brawn who persuaded Hamilton to head to Brackley.
Where does Lewis Hamilton record in F1’s biggest records?
👉F1 points all-time rankings: Where do Hamilton, Verstappen and Alonso feature?
👉F1 race wins: Which drivers have the highest win totals in F1 history?
Hamilton was asked about Lauda at the Italian Grand Prix, the journalist saying he recalled when Hamilton joined Mercedes and “Niki Lauda convinced you”.
The Briton said that was a misconception; it was Brawn during a conversation at his mum’s house, sat in the kitchen.
“Well, firstly,” he told PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher and other media outlets in Monza, “I have so much love for Niki. But Niki didn’t convince me to join Mercedes.
“It was more Ross, really, back then.
“When we sat together in my mum’s kitchen, he told me where the team was going and what they were doing. Niki was definitely a part of it, but it was mostly that meeting that really pulled me in.”
Prior to the Italian Grand Prix weekend, Hamilton recreated one of Lauda’s iconic photographs as he posed on the grass verge at Monza with his race suit, kit and helmet laid out beside him.
Lauda did that in 1975 when he won his first World Championship as a Ferrari driver.
“Dedicato a Niki,” Hamilton wrote on his post.
Hamilton and Lauda worked together at Mercedes until 2019 when the four-time World Champion passed away.
The Briton’s move to Ferrari this season means he could one day become a World Champion for the Italian stable.
“Niki and I had an amazing relationship,” said the 40-year-old.
“When I joined Ferrari, I hadn’t even thought of Niki having driven at Ferrari. It was literally just because, as a kid, I watched Michael and was a big fan of the team.
“I always looked at the reaction from the crowd every time Ferrari was on the podium – the passion was like no other team. I wanted to feel what that was like.
“Now having joined the team and learning more about the history, it’s amazing this weekend, because I got to celebrate Niki at Mercedes, I got to celebrate winning championships with him, and now to be able to come to Ferrari and celebrate him here too. His legacy continues to live on.
“I know what he would be saying to me nowadays, and he’s always in the back of my mind that thought.
“When I didn’t do well, he would do this and he’d tell me to “give them hell” – but he would always say the word ‘assholes’! I never understood it at first. I’d say “what do you mean? Do you mean give them hell?” and he would say no “give them assholes!”.
“But he was just such a fighter.”
Read next: The change in Lewis Hamilton attitude detected by Martin Brundle