Niki Lauda: Mercedes' winning streak more impressive than Vettel's 'easy' streak last year

Niki Lauda is feeling great about Mercedes' hot start to the 2014 season, suggesting it is even more impressive than the way Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel finished 2013.

Vettel ended his fourth world championship season with nine straight victories, while Mercedes is on a four-race winning streak to start 2014. Lauda believes wins this season are more impressive because of the upgrade to more powerful V6 engines.

Lauda explained his logic to Autosport:

This year we have new engines, new gearboxes, new electric brakes, and new cars, and the Mercedes cars finished the first four races, which for me is the outstanding result. If you have shitty engines like last year, and nine races in a row like Vettel, to finish all of them, this is easy. But to do the same now, with four races in a row, I think is an outstanding performance.

Lauda is in his second year as non-executive chairman of the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 team, so his perspective is at least partially motivated by his professional affiliation.

There is no doubt Mercedes has a leg up on the competition to start the V6 era of Formula 1, but the real challenge will be continuing to win once other teams solve their problems.