Yet the potentially corrosive effect of having two drivers from the same team
contending for the same prize is undeniable.
Jo Ramirez, McLaren’s team coordinator in the days when Alain Prost and Ayrton
Senna were at each other’s throats, says: “I didn’t think it would happen
before the half year that they are getting so tight up between them. I
probably see that they are going to end up completely separate. The first
time that they collide is going to be the crunch. It’s not just the drivers
it’s everyone behind them. I can see why Toto is saying that it can be
contagious.”
Wolff’s warning after Austria was also pointed in the context of Rosberg
suggesting that while openness is king, he will still keep back tips. “If I
find a little bit of an advantage somewhere then I’m not going to tell
everybody about it, I’ll keep it to myself,” he said.
And why should he not? Both drivers have expressed frustration, largely when
it suits their agenda, at how their closest rival can learn from their
advantage and apply it.
Damon Hill, the world champion in 1996 when Williams, like Mercedes now, were
the dominant team, believes that such tactics form a crucial part of a
driver’s arsenal. “I wouldn’t count that as skulduggery, that’s being smart,
not showing your hand,” he says. “If you set a marker then it’s just there
to be knocked down.”
This culture of constant data sharing is part of the problem, according to
Hill, now working for Sky as a pundit. “In some ways it’s like robbing one
guy of their talent. It’s too much information. It leaves very little for
the private domain of a sportsman’s particular mystique, their talent or
gift. If Lewis’s special techniques are being stripped to the bone then it’s
a little bit too intrusive.
“In the old days we didn’t have all this data. A driver would have to go out
on the circuit and watch and figure it out. There was no way of knowing
other than working on your own knowledge. Now, every detail, every nuance is
shared among the engineers. It’s getting to the point now where the
engineers are telling the drivers what to do to drive. I think it’s going
too far.”
However, the concealing of information by drivers becomes an issue when it
envelops their engineering teams, and the focus of the team becomes insular.
This is the great paradox of a Formula One outfit: the primary task is to
beat the opposition but half of the garage always wants to beat the other
half as well.
There is no textbook or guide to how a team begins to focus the eyes and
brains of its engineers on beating the other side of the garage rather than
the opposition: the simple fact is, it happens.
Mercedes are a million miles away from McLaren’s experiences in 1989, a
campaign which proved so bitter that Prost walked out. But it is revealing
to hear how such a slow split can manifest itself. “When it got bad, it
really got bad – we had two teams within one,” Ramirez says.
“They would hide things from each other. At McLaren it was almost like having
two different briefings in two different places. Very often they had
separate meetings, or in the same room but in different corners.”
While the two sets of engineers did not totally dissociate themselves from
each other – Ramirez confirms they still travelled, wined and dined together
– the dividing lines were still obvious. “Senna’s engineers would generally
keep to themselves and Prost’s engineers would keep to themselves,” Ramirez
says. “They were both more interested in their driver winning.”
For Mercedes, the challenge now is to stop the rivalry between Team Hamilton
and Team Rosberg turning toxic and heed the warning of Gary Anderson, the
former Jordan technical director. “The engineers join the club of their
driver,” he says. “It will fester and escalate if you don’t stamp it out
now.”
Mercedes seemed genuinely alarmed by how close Williams were to them in
Austria. The concern must be that if they begin to look inward then further
ground will be lost. Their admirable avoidance of team orders is by no means
unconditional.
It is all likely to depend on the inevitable moment Ramirez referred to: when
the two drivers first collide on the track. The team have a delicate 11
races to navigate, starting at Silverstone.
The best of enemies
Alain Prost v Ayrton Senna
Two great drivers (pictured) who clashed repeatedly at McLaren. At Japan in
1989, with both men vying for the drivers’ title, Senna attempted a
dangerous overtake. Prost turned in and the pair collided, ruling the latter
out of the race. Prost quit the team at the end of that season.
Mark Webber v Sebastian Vettel
Red Bull’s stars were at loggerheads from 2010 when Webber complained at not
being given the same equipment. The Australian – who declared “Not bad for a
No 2 driver” after winning at Silverstone soon afterwards – was fuming again
three years later when Vettel ignored orders not to overtake him in Malaysia.
Fernando Alonso v Lewis Hamilton
In 2007, Alonso was furious that rookie Hamilton was proving his equal and
told team boss Ron Dennis that he wanted the Briton to be told he was the
junior driver. The pair repeatedly clashed on the track, hindering each
other’s efforts to win a world title which was eventually claimed by Kimi
Raikkonen.
Nigel Mansell v Alain Prost
The pair clashed frequently after Prost joined Ferrari in 1990. Mansell
suspected Prost was receiving better treatment from the team in terms of
equipment and resource, and their rivalry came to a head in Portugal, when
the Briton blocked his team-mate at the start of the race.
Alan Jones v Carlos Reutemann
After helping Williams win the constructors’ title in 1980, Reutemann soured
the relationship in Brazil, refusing to let Jones by despite team orders.
They clashed for the rest of the season, until Jones retired. When Reutemann
suggested they buried the hatchet, Jones is alleged to have replied: “Yeah.
In your f*****g back, mate.”