(Mercedes AMG F1 Team)
Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff has described Lewis Hamilton and team mate Nico Rosberg's relationship as going from amicable to extremely tense. Wolff, who oversees Mercedes involvement in Formula One both as a 'works' team and indeed engine supplier to their various customer teams has stated that the pair who are embroiled in a fight for this years championship as 'Almost like enemies'
Wolff told the BBC:
'It's also a learning process. These boys have been calibrated their whole life that their main priority is to win the Drivers' Championship in F1. And here they go - they are in the same car, competing against each other for that trophy and one is going to win and one is going to fail.'
The Brackley based outfit have had to deal with various incidents between the pair over the course of the 2014 season culminating in an on track racing incident between the pair on the second lap of the Belgian Grand Prix. However the team dealt with that situation extremely well and last time out at the Italian Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton lead home a Mercedes 1-2 tightening the teams grip on the Constructors championship.
The Constructors championship is the Silver Arrows main focus and they have continuously stated that they don't care which one of their drivers wins the title as long as one of them does. This comes amid reports that they were favouring Nico Rosberg over Lewis Hamilton however this is absolutely not the case and that both drivers are given equal equipment and equal treatment by the team.
This was made evident by the fact that the pair remain free to race each other for the rest of the season which of course would not be the case IF the team were favouring one over the other as they would have imposed team orders.
Wolff concluded saying that it is a new experience for both Hamilton and Rosberg competing against each other for the Formula One world championship and he suspects that it is possibly an uncomfortable position for the pair to be in.
Mercedes head to the Singapore Grand Prix this weekend with their drivers separated by 22 points with Hamilton doing the chasing. The 2008 world champion has already stated that following his victory in Italy last time out that the championship fight is still well a truly on and that he will continue to challenge Rosberg and claw away at his advantage until the chequered flag in Abu Dhab in November which of course counts for double points this season.
© Ben Johnston 2014
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