Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Wolff reiterates threat to change Mercedes drivers

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has reiterated the threat to Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg that the team's driver line-up could change.

Wolff is concerned about the dynamic within Mercedes as a result of tension between the two drivers following consecutive seasons fighting for the championship. Having already admitted Mercedes may look to change the driver line-up in future, Wolff says there is a limit to how much he will tolerate before the relationship becomes damaging.

"If it were to become detrimental to the team that would mean that we would not maintain the long-term set-up in the team with the drivers," Wolff said at the Autosport Awards.

"It's very important to keep the spirit within the team, and the competition between Nico and Lewis has been very fierce, very competitive at times. It's understandable because they are fighting in a car that is capable of winning the championship against each other.

"The guy in the other car cannot be your friend, but we need to be careful that it doesn't spill over on both sides of the garage. We've seen teams in the past where there is a competition being created that is not good for the dynamics within the team."

Hamilton recently said he expects the relationship with Rosberg to always be tense but says any problems between the two have not had an impact on Mercedes' results.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.