Helmut Marko admits being the one who told Mercedes that Lewis Hamilton could be poached from McLaren.
The seven-time world champion won six of those trophies following his switch to the Silver Arrows. He first became a title-winner with McLaren in his second year as a Formula 1 racer, after narrowly missing out in his debut campaign.
But following his 2008 triumph, opportunities for Hamilton to summit the F1 world again were limited. His frustration over that fact was a major part of the reason why he made the shock decision to leave for Mercedes in late 2012.
Red Bull was right in the middle of their first dominant era at that point. Sebastian Vettel won his third consecutive title that year and a fourth would follow 12 months later, while Mercedes was still a fledgling F1 outfit which had yet to become the force we know it as today.
That is why Marko had no issue with helping out his old friend Niki Lauda, who was non-executive chairman of the German carmaker's motorsport division at the time. "I gave him some information that Lewis would be available," Marko admitted to Sport Bild.
"Of course I was not being altruistic. At the time, we thought Lewis would be less of a threat to us at Mercedes than at McLaren, for whom he was driving at the time.
"In retrospect, that was a complete misjudgement, although at the time it was really not foreseeable. But with the knowledge I have today, I would definitely not do that again."
Mercedes leapt to the front of the grid at the start of the sport's hybrid era in 2014 and won the next eight constructors' titles in a row. Hamilton took six drivers' titles in that period, beaten only by team-mate Nico Rosberg in 2016 and Max Verstappen five years later.
Hamilton has previously said that Lauda's influence played a huge part in his decision to join Mercedes, while few others encouraged him to quit McLaren. He said: "My dad said stay, loads of people said stay. But something inside of me told that this was what was right for me."
