Lauda: Hamilton-Rosberg a better line-up than Alonso-Raikkonen

Replacing Michael Schumacher with Lewis Hamilton was the right thing for Mercedes. That is the claim not only of Formula 1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, but also the German team's own Niki Lauda who is adamant that his team's current driver line up will be better than the combination of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari next year...

A year ago, Lauda was instrumental in convincing Lewis Hamilton to leave McLaren and replace seven time World Champion Schumacher.

"It was the right decision to sign Lewis," Ecclestone told

Auto Bild. "He woke the team up. And he can push the other driver [Nico Rosberg] in a way Michael couldn't anymore."

Lauda, meanwhile, revealed on Friday to Die Welt

Nico Rosberg celebrates his victory at the Monaco GP with Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes team

There, Austria's triple World Champion said he asked to take on the matter of Mercedes' 2014 driver lineup.

A few days later, he was in a Singapore hotel room at 2am, trying to convince Briton Hamilton to leave McLaren. He eventually succeeded.

"Hamilton with Rosberg was the most important part of turning Mercedes around," the F1 legend said.

"Lewis is such a natural talent and he complements Nico so well with [Rosberg's] attention to every technical detail. It is the best driver lineup there is - not even Alonso and Raikkonen will be as good," added Lauda.

Niki Lauda with Lewis Hamilton

Lauda said he that doesn't blame Schumacher for Mercedes' struggles between 2010 and 2012.

But when asked what would have happened if the great German stayed in 2013, Lauda admitted: "Not much. After a certain time you need a whole new motivation for a team, and a new top driver can do that."

Lauda said Mercedes also recognised that it needed to spend more money on its Formula 1 programme to compete with the top teams.

"We adopted this RRA-system," said Lauda, referring to the resource restriction agreement, a pact between the teams to limit costs. "But it was not respected by McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari for various reasons," he said.

Niki Lauda with Nico Rosberg

"I said from the beginning, 'Forget this RRA-system - we need new and better people if we want to beat Red Bull'," admitted Lauda.

One of those 'better people' was Paddy Lowe, who like Hamilton arrived from McLaren.

But Lauda admits there was some tension for a time between Lowe and team boss Ross Brawn.

"We have clarified it," he said. "Paddy came to us earlier than we expected, but he is now responsible for the technical side. The collaboration between him and Ross works.

"Ross is the team boss, Paddy [is in charge of] the technical side. Our results this year have shown [that] we made the right decisions." (GMM.)

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