Hamilton & Rosberg are on the same page

Has it all been a clever ploy from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff to get Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg on the same page?

Since the end of the 2015 Formula One World Championship season, where Mercedes picked up their second consecutive F1 constructors title and Lewis Hamilton won his third Formula One World Championship, team boss Toto Wolff has been throwing around the threat that he could drop either Hamilton or Rosberg from the team if the relationship between their pilots worsens further.

The German manufacturer have dominated the sport since the introduction of the new V6 Turbo-Hybrid engines were introduced for the 2014 season.

However the camp is far from harmonious, the two drivers, who were once friends whilst growing up are now fierce rivals and it would appear that this has caused frictions within the team itself.

The situation has been put under the spotlight by Wolff who has now taken it upon himself to mention the situation both in the media and on stage at the Autosport Awards.

Mentioning it once just to grab the attention of the drivers to make them think about it over the winter is one thing, but saying it twice in the public domain? Wolff clearly wanted a response from both Hamilton and Rosberg and quickly.

Nico Rosberg’s current contract runs until the end of the 2016 Formula One World Championship season, whilst triple F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton’s deal runs until the end of 2018.

It seemed unlikely that there would be any changes to the driver line-up for next season, but the more Mercedes engineered the speculation themselves, the more it was thought that perhaps Mercedes could be at breaking point.

But speaking at the Stars & Cars celebration in Germany, the trio now seem to be on the same page.

Smart work from Wolff or just an overreaction to a simmering rivalry within the team?

?I hope that Toto always comes back to the conclusion that it’s actually good the way it is. That’s all I can say. Rosberg said at the event.

?I pretty much agree with Nico. I don’t believe anything negative has come from the competition, it’s natural.

?In any environment, you want to make sure the atmosphere remains strong and we are a winning team, so we want Mercedes to be at the front the whole time.

?And there’s nothing we can’t do together. We’ll always communicate and we always have and we’ll always rectify if we had any issues – and we don’t now. There are no issues.? Hamilton added.