Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda has hit back at suggestions he lacks respect for Ferrari, and reveals that the Maranello outfit will always be top of his heart.
Last week, the F1 legend's colleague Toto Wolff had to apologise after Lauda provocatively suggested that Ferrari is better at making spaghetti than cars capable of taking on the might of Mercedes.
But Lauda told Blick the apology was unnecessary, "The Italians know that Ferrari will always be number one in my heart."
"At Ferrari I've been through it all: 15 wins, two of my three world titles, tragedies with the last rites. More emotions is not possible. So my respect for this company will always be very big," said Lauda.
Explaining his 'spaghetti' comment, Lauda added: "In Formula 1 we had one of the best races ever [at Silverstone], and still we are talking about a lot of boredom. That cannot be right.
"Everyone in formula one would be happy if Ferrari could close the gap to us," he added.
Lauda spent four hugely successful years at Maranello, winning the title twice in 1975 and 1977, and runner up in 1976 despite his near death experience at the Nurburgring that year.
His first F1 victory at the 1974 Spanish Grand Prix was as a Ferrari driver, and he went on to score 15 wins for the team be fore moving in 1978 to Brabham.
In 1993 Lauda returned to Formula 1 in a managerial position when Luca di Montezemolo offered him a consulting role at Ferrari.
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