Niki Lauda (pictured right) will miss all of the remaining races this season, Bild newspaper has revealed.
The F1 legend and Mercedes team chairman is reportedly still in intensive care in Vienna following a life-saving lung transplant.
Lauda’s friend Dr Helmut Marko (pictured left), of Red Bull, told Bild that he has not been able to visit the 69-year-old.
"Only his family, so his wife and his children, can visit him," the Austrian said.
"The doctors say the danger is that he will become infected with a virus or other people’s bacteria.
"We all miss him. Mercedes misses him, formula one misses him. Everyone misses him — his charisma, his straight words," Marko added.
The newspaper said Lauda will not attend any of the remaining seven races this year, but Marko insisted: "Niki will fight through this and be with us again. We need him."