Mercedes chief was 'angry' at F1 champion after dropping quit bombshell

F1 champion Nico Rosberg has revealed that former Mercedes non-executive chairman and legend of the sport Niki Lauda was angry with his decision to retire from the sport at the end of 2016.

Rosberg dropped that bombshell on the F1 world just days after winning his one and only drivers' title that year, after an intense battle with team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes did not know that the retirement was coming, with team principal Toto Wolff revealing at the time that it had taken the team 'completely by surprise'.

Despite that, Rosberg says that Wolff was understanding of his reasons for calling it quits.

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Niki Lauda was angry at Nico Rosberg retirement

"Toto said in German, 'Da zieht's mir die Schuhe aus', which means you're pulling the ground away from under my feet," Rosberg explained on the Beyond the Grid podcast.

"No, no, no. He got it," Rosberg continued when asked if Wolff tried to change his mind. "That it was very clear, definitive. But I couldn't tell [him]. I was flying with him, and I couldn't tell him in person because I was so scared, 100 per cent I was going to break out in tears.

"So I was too scared. I didn't want to like end up super crying, not being able to speak in front of him because we're having dinner in the plane, so I couldn't say it. So we got off the plane and I called him right after, 13 hours, having dinner, everything. I was going to collapse, so I couldn't say it."

Rosberg, though, says that Lauda had an angrier response to the news than Wolff.

"Yeah, He [Lauda] was a bit more on the angry side," Rosberg continued. "Because, of course, I was compromising their team, unfortunately, because they now have to find a replacement, and there was nobody there initially.

"And that's why I decided on telling them all so quickly and announcing my retirement so quickly. It was only for the team, because I would have preferred to do one month celebrating, and then after one month say, 'Oh, by the way, I'm gonna end it here as well'. That would have been much nicer because the retirement almost became a bigger thing afterwards than my winning actually.

"So for me that was not optimal, but it didn't matter for me. The most important was to reduce how much I'm compromising the team, and not make it even worse unnecessarily. I wanted to tell them immediately as quickly as possible so that they could have time to replace and rebuild."

In the end, Mercedes ended up settling on Valtteri Bottas as Rosberg's replacement, with the Finn going on to partner Lewis Hamilton for five seasons.

Unlike Rosberg, he never got the better of Hamilton, though, with the Brit adding four more world championships to his tally in his first four seasons as Bottas' team-mate.

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