Lowe: Challenging to balance team and drivers' interest

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Mercedes’ Paddy Lowe admits balancing the interests of the team and its two drivers “present challenges” but adds that it is part of “what makes Formula One exciting”.

Mercedes won a third consecutive Drivers’ world championship with Nico Rosberg, as he came home second to Lewis Hamilton at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

However, it was not all plain sailing for the German, who saw his team-mate try to hold him up to boost his own title chances. Hamilton was given the hurry-up several times, including from Lowe himself, but the Briton openly ignored the instructions.

“I don’t want to comment on the subject because we were not driving the car, so who knows what the real pace is of a car when you’re not driving it,” the Mercedes executive director told Sky Sports F1 after the race.

“It presents some challenges. In the end, Lewis and Nico were out there racing. It was great to see Sebastian coming through with great strategy from Ferrari, that put him ahead of the two Red Bulls, which was quite unexpected.

“Our main objective to win the race and we did not like the look of a red car [Vettel] coming through at a far higher pace than ours.

“What makes Formula One exciting in a way is that we as constructors, we have the inevitable conflict between what a team and what two individual drivers want. They are two guys in a team, two team players but in the end they each want to win.”

Then talking about the newly-crowned champion, Lowe added:

“I’m very happy for Nico. He has 23 wins, which was by a long way the largest number of wins by a driver without a championship. It’s just great that he has put himself out of that category.

“For me winning a championship is not just about winning races, it’s about sustaining that energy, that commitment, and that nerve throughout the whole season.”

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Julien Billiotte