Three-time F1 world champion Lauda played an instrumental role in convincing Hamilton to leave McLaren and sign for Mercedes after holding talks with the Briton throughouꦜt 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 their first meet🌠ing. 

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

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

“I know he had been quite critica🌸l 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 assumption of who I was and had these certain comment🉐s 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 asking me to come to the team, and I don't know if I even said, ‘Niki, you don't even lik🐓e me, what are you talking about?’

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

“I’m like, ‘yeah Niki I'm a racing driver,’ and he said, you know, ‘no no, you're just a hard grafter,’ and from that mom🍸ent we realised that we had a lot more in common than we both anticipated and we had an amazing relations🅺hip.

“We used to fly together to races particularly back from J♛apan 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 such a fighter and he's still very mu🍰ch a part of the team.”

Hamilton has won six of his seven world championships and broken several records since joining Mercedes to establish himself as one of F🐻1’s all-time greats.