Sebastian Vettel has paid tribute to Niki Lauda, who passed away at the age of 70 this week.
While the triple Formula 1 champion worked as non-executive chairman at Mercedes since 2012, Lauda also worked for many years with German broadcaster RTL as a pundit.
And commenting on his legacy, Vettel described him as one of the most genuine personalities in the sport.
“There’s a lot of people that are not the way you see them on television and I think they are growing in numbers quickly,” he suggested, “but Niki was not one of them. He was who he was and never pretended to be anything for anybody else.
“I think sometimes people were not thinking he was telling the truth even though he was. Very outspoken. A true character, a true racer, and passionate for the sport. A lot of things that people respect about him.
“For sure he’s leaving a big gap that we won’t be able to fill.”
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On a more personal level, he added: “I feel privileged that I had a chance to not just know him but also chat with him regularly and enjoy jokes with him and so on.
“His sense of humour was very straight. Sometimes you couldn’t tell whether it was a joke or just a statement.
“But I certainly enjoyed that you don’t come across people like him very often, not just inside Formula 1 but in general. I think he was a unique person.”
To commemorate Lauda, a two-time champion with Ferrari, Vettel will run a special helmet very similar to that the Austrian used.
“Obviously it’s not my design,” he noted.
“But it’s to give tribute to Niki and it goes without saying that I would have preferred to do something different here but I think given the circumstances and his passing it felt like a nice thing to do.
“I think it actually looks quite cool. It’s based on his last Ferrari design so maybe it’s nice to take him around for a couple of final laps around Monaco.”
