Was Lauda Mercedes' Secret Weapon?

[Jericoke]

Watching Mercedes 'struggle' in the 2021, 2022 and now 2023 seasons, I'm wondering if Niki Lauda was the secret weapon to their dominance.

I always thought of him as a sort of figurehead, someone to wear his red hats, wave to the crowd and give pep talks to the drivers and factory.

However, since his passing in 2019, the Mercedes team has been trending downwards.  (2020 is an anomaly season, I wouldn't draw any conclusions from it).  We know that it was Lauda who convinced Hamilton to join Mercedes, what was it that Lauda told him?  Was Hamilton trusting a promise, or did he see something that Lauda could demonstrate? 

Modern F1 teams are so tightly wound and detail oriented, has losing Lauda lost that little bit of focus that made Mercedes so effective?

[John S]

Nice try Jeri, but it was the now legendary ICE from Brixworth that deserves all the credit for that long run of success under previous regs regime. Oh and very deep pockets for upgrades whenever they fancied.

We all remember 'Party mode' & 'Hammer time' when Lewis & Nico/Valteri were allowed to turn the engines up to 11....or more. 

All other engine manufacturers have pretty much caught up now so chassis/aero now defines the order not just the power plant and deep pockets for endless upgrades. 

[Willy]

I imagine Nicki was a huge help to Lewis as a mentor.
He was also someone who could understand what a driver goes through in the way of emotions and help the team drivers deal with that.
His death would be a blow for sure but I don't think it is the reason for the results Merc has gotten since his passing.
If I knew what the reasons were, I might be able to get a huge payout from Merc to tell them.