James Vowles describes how Niki Lauda created a lot of friction at Mercedes at the start of his stint

Former Mercedes head of strategy James Vowles has said that Niki Lauda created a lot of friction because of his blunt answers in his early years as the team's advisor.

The former three-time world champion was known as a no-nonsense person and would always speak his mind on every matter. While appearing on the Beyond the Grid podcast, the Williams F1 team boss spoke about his first meeting with the Austrian legend and what he learned from him as a leader.

He said:

"The first time I met Niki, I'm gonna paraphrase because a lot of swearing won't be appropriate for this podcast but long story short it was, 'Power unit is great, chassis is poor'. Different words he used, a lot more words but that was the concept behind it. I said, 'Okay, I'm James'.

"What I like about him was that there was no bulls**t, it was just really direct. And at the beginning actually, he created a lot of friction by basically being very direct and in your face on things.

"He was just a racer pure and pure. I formed a very close relationship with him during that period of time because he would call a spade a spade."

Former Mercedes director compares George Russell to Lewis Hamilton

James Vowles also went on to say that Lewis Hamilton has a lot of natural talent in comparison to his Mercedes teammate George Russell.

While appearing on the Sky Sports podcast, the former Mercedes director said:

"Lewis has such an amount of natural talent. But his work... every year, he steps it up. What he did last year was not good enough for the following year. That's the definition of F1.

"George was a talent I've known for many years and really grew up into who he is today. He has such potential in front of him. He's very different to Lewis.

"It's not so much one preference or otherwise, they all bring something different to the table, but [are] successful as a result of it. It's more about learning from each of them as individuals as to what makes them tick and what makes them grow.

"What they all have in common is they are all world champions or future world champions. That same dedication for going after every millisecond is inherent in all of them."

It will be fascinating to see if Russell becomes the first driver to beat Hamilton in a Mercedes in consecutive years.