Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says the team had to immediately deal with the fallout from the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday night to prevent any lingering issues resurfacing in Bahrain.
Nico Rosberg was unhappy with Lewis Hamilton’s race management in China, accusing his team-mate of deliberately backing him up to leave him under threat from Sebastian Vettel. While Hamilton was left perplexed by Rosberg’s outburst, Wolff said the team had “a good debrief” on Sunday night.
Looking ahead to this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix just a few days after event in Shanghai, Wolff admits Mercedes had to act quickly to try and prevent the issue from impacting on the next race.
“We saw tensions between Nico and Lewis in the race [in China] and we tackled them directly on Sunday night to stop anything carrying over to this weekend,” Wolff said. “When you have intense competition, it's normal that it causes emotions to run high - and that's not something we want to change.
“But both drivers are now very focused on delivering maximum performance in Bahrain and our package should cope well with the demands of the circuit. We maintain our philosophy of letting the drivers race - but they both know that the number one priority for the team is to win for Mercedes-Benz.”
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