Hamilton/Rosberg Rivalry: Mercedes on Alert
2014 could be the year of triumph for the Mercedes team. Their two drivers, Rosberg and Hamilton, shared victories in Australia and Malaysia. No team orders are in sight, but Toto Wolff remains vigilant about the situation. It must not degenerate.
When a team dominates, the competition often comes from within. The Prost-Senna rivalries at McLaren and Piquet-Mansell at Williams in the late 1980s are perfect examples. More recently, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber battled it out at Red Bull, with a highlight: their collision at the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix. A nightmare for the Austrian team’s management.
A vision Toto Wolff, the boss of the Mercedes team, would like to avoid, as his team largely dominates the rest of the field. For him, the situation of 2014 is not new. “The internal rivalry within the team has been there since the beginning, in January 2013,” he confided to our British colleagues at *Autosport*, following the first one-two finish of the modern era for Mercedes at the latest Malaysian Grand Prix.
Memory of the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix
For the moment, he trusts Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. I think what makes the difference is that these two guys have known each other for so long. They have an open and fair relationship. But that doesn’t mean they’re not extremely competitive, and they will try to use any situation to their advantage.
Last year in Malaysia, a team order clearly instructed Rosberg to stay behind Hamilton, as they battled for third place. The German driver agreed, while delivering a sharp « I hope you remember this one! » Toto Wolff remembers. « We realized that we were not handling the situation as we should have, because we were surprised by our performance level. We spent time discussing that, scenarios, and situations. Mercedes comes first above all. » The tone is set.
