Mercedes has revealed an image of the red Halo it has created for its cars at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix as a tribute to Niki Lauda, who passed away earlier this week.
The three-times world champion was also the team’s non-executive chairman, and played a major role in encouraging Lewis Hamilton to join them in 2013. The red design echoes Lauda’s trademark bright red cap and his red crash helmet.RaceFans understands Mercedes will use the red Halos for the rest of the race weekend.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff paid tribute to Lauda’s determination to win, saying his only concern this weekend would be how the team performed.
“Niki watching us would be interested to see how this weekend goes on track, here, and nothing else,” said Wolff.
“I think one of the most immense character traits that Niki had was that he never stopped fighting. His accident definitely is a date that is important in his life but Niki would have seen it differently.
“He lived his life every single day he was able to live in the present, not look into the past, he didn’t care about the past, the past was gone. He lived in the present and he wanted to achieve more in the future.”
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Islander
24th May 2019, 16:37
I’m just guessing Lauda himself would have been scathing and dismissive of an inane gesture like this.
He might even have said that if the halo had existed when he had the accident, he would not have survived..
RB13
24th May 2019, 16:39
Inane gesture? Do you you think they’re marketing the colour red or something? What a stupid comment.
Islander
24th May 2019, 19:06
It may seem stupid to a stupid person, I can’t help that…
Green Flag (@greenflag)
24th May 2019, 19:12
You, sir, have no soul. You’re an asoul.
Foggy
25th May 2019, 0:33
Spot on … what a jerk.
Ram
24th May 2019, 19:19
Bad day , eh?
Sergey Martyn
24th May 2019, 20:19
Dismissive and inane comment by a scathing person.
I love the idea. Hope they’ll put Niki’s name on it too.
Islander
25th May 2019, 10:42
yeah, we all have to think changing the colour of a halo is a grand and fitting tribute for Niki, or we get called names LOL…. I like it!
RB13
25th May 2019, 17:48
You’ll notice I called your comment stupid and you decided to try and label me as such for having that opinion of it. The comment. Now who’s calling people names?
Crawl back where you came from. (You’ve earned a direct insult now, well done.)
Invisiblekid (@invisiblekid)
25th May 2019, 5:46
what and eh?!
Martin
25th May 2019, 18:56
Yep you’re the stupid one
Chaitanya
24th May 2019, 16:50
I hope they run red halo for Austrian GP as well.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
24th May 2019, 17:10
Awesome!
Ioannis (@ioannisk)
24th May 2019, 17:26
Nice one! I would add some stickers on halo and rear wing for the on-board cameras with a “Thank you Nikki” or something like this. Let’s see tomorrow. I have a feeling that they have already thought of this!
ColdFly (@)
24th May 2019, 17:41
I would put some Parmalat, Oerlikon, Aabar, Novomatic decals on it.
@ioannisk
Ioannis (@ioannisk)
24th May 2019, 18:05
@coldfly Lol, unless you are being ironic, what you suggest would be advertisement. Too far fetched.
socksolid (@socksolid)
24th May 2019, 22:03
They could just superglue niki’s cap on top of the airbox.
Nicolette Nicol (@nico21)
24th May 2019, 21:37
Inside the halo it says Niki we miss you.
Ioannis (@ioannisk)
24th May 2019, 22:34
@nico21 Well, you possibly ruined the element of surprise for me but that’s ok!
“We miss you” is way too cliche for my taste, but anyway I won’t google anything, I’ll just wait and see it on FP3 as I imagined that it would be.
@socksolid I am not sure about your intensions with this, but for sure it initiated a nervous laughter that I am still trying to control!
socksolid (@socksolid)
26th May 2019, 2:15
No intentions at all. Just a funny quip.
Sham (@sham)
24th May 2019, 18:43
Great tribute. I really like the idea.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
24th May 2019, 19:53
They should keep it.
Boomer
25th May 2019, 4:18
Lauda hated the Halo. And getting rid of the grid girls.
KR
25th May 2019, 7:25
The nicest tribute to this great man would for the top step of the podium to have one of his trophies on and for the top three to stand as one in front of the 1st 2nd 3rd podium.