Wolff and Lauda hail efforts of entire Mercedes team

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This week saw the Mercedes workforce at Brackley and Brixworth turn out en masse to celebrate clinching the 2017 drivers' and constructors' titles.

The entire team came out to celebrate its latest double championship success. Lewis Hamilton admitted that he had been "blown away" to be greeted by a totally unexpected guard of honour

But Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda made sure to salute the efforts of each and everyone of the people who had contributed to the teams' latest success.

"For the fourth time in a row I’m in the fortunate position to say thank you to the entire team," he said.

"2017 has been a challenging year because of the rule change," he acknowledged. "A rule change always means uncertainty - no one knows what the other guys are doing.

"We started with a difficult car, but the team was able to consistently improve it throughout the season," he said. "[That] was the key to winning the championships.

"The team did a fantastic job and Lewis did a fantastic job.

"I’m really proud of everyone, it’s an incredible achievement," he added. "This year was the most difficult one so far - and next year it will be even more difficult. But I trust the team 100 per cent."

Gallery: Mercedes turns out in force to celebrate title triumph

Lauda's words of praise to the assembled personnel were echoed by team principal Toto Wolff.

"We are fortunate to have the right resources, which isn’t always a given," he told them. "But importantly we have the right people.

"I still see many of the same faces who were here when I joined. But also new faces as we have continued to build the strength of this group.

"Since I was fortunate enough to join this team in 2012, I have seen it go from strength to strength.

"We have a team that works together in the right spirit and the mind-set of success in Brixworth and Brackley," he added.

"We have not allowed ourselves to become complacent, but remain motivated and energised. For me, I could not imagine working with a better group of people."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.