Mercedes may impose team orders

(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has warned his drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton that any on track collision between the pair will lead to team orders being imposed on the pair. Nico Rosberg heads to the Canadian Grand Prix with a four point advantage over team mate Lewis Hamilton at the top of the driver's standings following yet another 1-2 finish two weeks ago in Monaco which saw some controversy between the two drivers in qualifying after Rosberg was accused of deliberately impeding Lewis Hamilton in the final part of qualifying by bringing out the yellow flags however the German had just made a mistake.

Wolff explained:

'It's so difficult, because you have to ask how did the crash happen? Is it black and white so you can really say it was caused by one single driver or individual? If it really came to the ugly situation where it is clear that it is the fault of one of them, then this would mean our system has failed; our system of letting them manage themselves and letting them race has failed. This would mean we would have to intervene in a way to make the whole thing more boring, which would mean team orders.'

Mercedes are currently out on their own in the Constructors championship on 240 points, 141 ahead of Red Bull Racing who are in second place in the championship. Despite his assertion about the possibility of imposing team orders Wolff explained that as it stands the drivers are free to race:

'You have two possibilities. Either you do it the way we do, which one day could end up in tears and people saying 'How stupid were they'. But we are lucky because we have quite a gap to everybody else, which is why we can keep that philosophy, but it would be impossible if we had a close championship [with other teams].'

Rosberg is really looking forward to the Canadian Grand Prix as it will allow the team to reach top speed on the long straights around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve where it is the first time in the season that the teams will use a lower down force set up on the car.

Mercedes have shown that they have been able to challenge at every race far this season as they have six wins on the bounce and the circuit in Montreal is similar to the Barcelona Circuit De Catalunya. Lewis Hamilton has three victory's at the Canadian Grand Prix taking his first ever F1 win here in 2007 for McLaren.

©Ben Johnston 2014