Jun.2 (GMM) Norbert Haug has laughed off a joke made by Mercedes mechanics about Michael Schumacher's advancing years.

A Dutch website this week revealed that the mechanics had pasted a 'photoshopped' photograph of the 42-year-old German to the garage toilet at Monaco depicting Schumacher as wrinkled, grey and bald.

"On the wall there are many funny photos," Mercedes' motor racing vice president Haug explained to Bild newspaper.

"Even those who love each other must never forget how to laugh at themselves," he insisted.

Haug defended the right of the team's hard-working mechanics to have a laugh.

"If our boys did not have a sense of humour, they wouldn't have been able to repair a badly crashed car in half an hour," he said.

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