Three-time F1💛 world champion Lauda played an instrumental role in convincing Hamilton to leave McLaren and sign for Mercedes after holdin꧟g 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澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: died in 2019 at the age of 70, was 🅷noꩲt a fan of his prior to their first meeting. 

“I miss Niki so much,” Hamilton s🍬aid in a Mercedes video reflecting on his 10𒊎 years with the German manufacturer.

“We had some of t🅠he best and funniest conversations – he was one of the funniest people I've ever met🌺.

“I know he had been quite critical of me and we hadn'ܫt actually meඣt. 

“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 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 asking me to come to the team, and I don't know if I even said, ‘Niki, ℱyou 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 j⭕ust like 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 moment we realised that we had a𒉰 lot more in common than we both a𓆏nticipated and we had an amazing relationship.

“We used to fly t🀅ogether to races particularly 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 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 F1’s all-time🐼 greats.