Thursday 24 April 2014

Mercedes may impose team orders

(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)

Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff that the Brackley based outfit may impose team orders on their driver's if Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton's on track rivalry gets out of hand. The pair have finished 1-2 in the last three Grand Prix in a row with Lewis Hamilton aiming to make it four Grand Prix victories in a row next time out in Spain.

Nico Rosberg currently leads the championship, four point's ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Wolff has stated:

'Bahrain was particular because our package worked very well and we had quite a competitive advantage there, so it's easier to take a decision for the sake of racing because you know you're going to have quite a margin to the car in third place.'

Mercedes will be hoping that they do not experience something similar to what happened at McLaren in the late 1980's when Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were team mate's which caused friction within the team which eventually resulted in Prost leaving the team at the end of the 1989 and moved to Ferrari.

Wolff confirmed that rule number one within Mercedes is that your team mate is not your number one competitor as the team comes first and not the individual. 

Mercedes won't care who wins the Driver's championship as long as it is one of their driver's as the Constructors championship is where the money is for the team. The high track temperatures expected in Barcelona should suit the W05 and in particular Lewis Hamilton as he has been able to manage his tyre wear better then team mate Nico Rosberg.

©Ben Johnston 2014

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