F1: Lauda wants quick choice on Rosberg replacement

Niki Lauda has suggested the Mercedes's F1 team's choice of a replacement for retired world champion Nico Rosberg needs to be made quickly. Lauda (pictured at right, with Rosberg and Mercedes motorsports chief Toto Wolff) wants to ensure the new driver can be integrated into the team quickly enough for him to be ready to push Lewis Hamilton from the start of 2017.

"It is a huge loss because we had the quickest driver setup over the last three years," Lauda, the team's non-executive chairman, told BBC-TV's 'Sportsweek' when asked about Rosberg's abrupt decision to quit. "I need a driver for the first test in February when the new car is ready. We have to train him on the simulator and into the team, so we should have a decision before the end of the year."

In a separate interview with BBC Radio 5, Lauda continued: "Nico and Lewis were pushing each other. Lewis won two championships and Nico won one. Now we have to find a better man than Nico, because we want to continue to win."

While the surprising availability of such a top seat coming open inevitably stirred suggestions that one of the sport's top stars might want to break their contracts to take it, team boss Wolff is playing down suggestions that the likes of Sebastian Vettel or Fernando Alonso might be available.

"It's not my intention to interfere with Ferrari's internal issues, and I don't even know if Sebastian really has the intention to come to us," Wolff told Italy's Gazzetta Dello Sport.

Asked about Alonso, he replied: "It's the same thing: What would Ferrari and McLaren do without Vettel and Alonso in December? Or Williams without [Valtteri] Bottas? [That] option is the one I like the least."

However, Wolff indicated that all options would be on the table, including promotion of a Mercedes junior driver as well as going on the open market, when the selection process begins in earnest on Monday at Mercedes' Brackley, UK headquarters.