Has Hamilton fallen out of favour with Mercedes?

[dj_bytedisaster]

Here's an exact Transcript of Lauda's interview. The translations in Englisch speking media are all of questionable veracity:

Situation. “Sport&Talk” in Red Bull owned Servus-TV’s “Hangar 7”. A table for four, on one side Swiss commentator Roger Benoit next to Nicki Lauda, on the opposite side, the Moderator next to Red Bull’s Dr. Marko.

R. Benoit (complaining about lack of spark in F1): This concerns Mercedes, now. The fans, you know, they all have their favourites, Verstappen, Ricciardo or whoever is toiling about out there. Hamilton-Rosberg, (exasperated hand gesture), now Hamilton, of all the things he could do, even starts acting as a conciliator.

Annotation: The German original says: “Jetzt holt der Hamilton auch noch den Weichspüler raus.”, which literally translates to: “And now, of all the things, Hamilton unpacks the fabric softener”

Using or fetching the fabric softener is a common German euphemism for either whitewashing or suddenly abandoning hostilities and switch to a concilliatory approach.

R Benoit: (puts his arm around Lauda, overacting sarcastically): “Rosberg, in reality he’s my friend, and things between us become better and better, and all that. Well, in that case it’s over. It’s like two boxers coming to the ring, arm in arm.”

Lauda interrupts Benoit: “He lied. It’s as simple as that”

Annotation: In German Lauda says: “Der hat gelogen.”

He refers to Lewis by a generic article only which is (in formal German) considered rude, however in southern Germany and Austria, it is quite common to talk like that.

Lauda: “The conciliator act was just so he so he had something to say again. But when those two start driving, he will try anything, and it become worse and worse the longer Rosberg is ahead of him.”

All four guest start talking over each other, until Benoit yells the loudest and asks: “But the whole world says they are friends again.”

Lauda and Marko (in unison): “Hello? It’s all show, pure show!”

R.Benoit: “Well, then I want to know: Why did he destroy his room in Baku?”

Annotation: It should be noted that Benoit used the verb ‘zertrümmern’, which doesn’t mean causing damage. It explicitely means significant or total destruction.

Lauda: “I was there, you know.”

Benoit: “So why?”

Lauda (laughs): “Because he drove into the wall.”

Benoit: “And who pay for the damage?”

Lauda: “He [of course]. You can rely on that. (laughs about Benoits naivete) To me he said, I’m not allowed to come in because he’s going to bash in everything. (shrugs) That’s what he did.”

Benoit wants to launch into an interpretation of the scene, but Lauda interrupts him and pats his arm. “The conciliatory act was just a bullshit story.”

(video ends)

original video (may be geolocked to Austria)

http://www.servustv.com/at/Medien/Me...uemmert-Zimmer