04/08/2018
NEWS STORY
At it prepared to head off into the summer break, Mercedes took to social media last night, as Toto Wolff sent a series of 'get well soon' tweets to Niki Lauda, who is recovering from surgery after undergoing a lung transplant.
"Although we should enjoy the start of our summer holidays this evening, none of us at Mercedes will pretend that we feel happy," said Wolff, "our thoughts are rather with Niki, Birgit and the Lauda family...
"The world knows Niki as an F1 legend with incredible power and resilience," he continued. "For all of us at Mercedes he is our chairman, our mentor and our friend. We have missed him by our side in Hockenheim and Hungary, and can't wait to have him back with us...
"The recovery he faces is not a race. But I'm sure he will soon be telling every nurse and doctor that he has had enough of hospital.
"We wish him a safe and speedy recovery - in that order - and send all our positive energy to him and his family. I miss you my friend."
Meanwhile, Walter Klepetko, head of the Clinical Department of Thoracic Surgery at the Vienna General Hospital, and one of the surgeons who operated on Lauda confirmed that the transplant was not connected to Lauda's fiery crash at the Nurburgring in 1976.
"One can absolutely assume that lung transplantation is not a late consequence of the fire accident," he told Austrian broadcaster ORF.
"Everything is currently going very well and we are very satisfied," he added, though admitting that due to his age, Lauda's recovery period will be "a longer time" than usual.