The tension is building at Mercedes between team-mates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.
It threatened to boil over on the streets of Monaco between the competing team-mates who appear to have given up the mantle of ‘friends’ and replaced it with rivals as the German and Brit go head-to-head for the 2014 Formula One World Championship.
Mercedes boss Niki Lauda has refused to play down the rivalry, instead admitting that the tension is building between his two drivers.
But the former three-time champ insists that things will continue in a controlled manner.
‘The tension is building up, no question, but the team has to make sure the tension does not get out of hand,’ said Lauda to the BBC.
‘I know with my experience with other drivers in the past when it does get out of hand.’
‘They’re not children, They’re grown-up professionals who have their difficulties, but I will help them to overcome them in a nice way and they will understand.’
‘All I have to do is make sure it doesn’t get out of hand, I will tell you they will continue in a highly professional way, hard fighting each other. There is nothing more you can expect.’
German Nico Rosberg currently leads the Formula One World Championship by four points ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, after Rosberg ended a run of four consecutive wins by Hamilton in controversial circumstances in Monaco.
Rosberg expects more Hamilton tension
