Niki Lauda was in the ICU in Vienna

Niki Lauda has been missing from the F1 circuit for the last couple of weeks. Earlier reports had stated that Lauda had a small cough and hence wasn’t risking being around the Mercedes paddock, however, the situation is a little more serious than that.

According to reports in Oe24, Lauda has been infected by a severe summer flu in Ibiza. From the Spanish Island, Lauda took a jet straight to Vienna and has been in the General Hospital of Vienna ever since.

Lauda was also shifted to the Intensive Care Unit as the flu that he had caught was affecting his immune system.

However, he has now been moved out of the ICU and has shifted to a normal room, where he is recuperating and hoping to recover completely from the flu.

Mercedes have upped the ante in the last two races, winning in Hockenheim and in Hungary, thanks to two impressive and inspired drives from Hamilton.

Lauda would thus be happy with how Mercedes is doing and would be hoping to get back into the thick of things by the time the summer break ends.

The Belgian Grand Prix in Spa is close to 4 weeks away and hopefully Lauda can land there in time to be of some help to Mercedes.

Mercedes and Hamilton have gone into the summer break with momentum on their side and they’ll be hoping to get that title race wrapped up as soon as possible by strong performances in Spa and Monza.

However, Vettel has warned Mercedes and Hamilton by saying that Ferrari still have some power left in the tank, one that they will unleash after the summer break. An interesting second half of the season awaits us.