Having had his own fair share of 'internal team strife' Mark Webber predicts further problems for Mercedes.

His relationship with teammate Sebastian Vettel is the stuff of legend, and whilst Red Bull tries to keep a lid on things, as much as possible, Webber knows that once the rot sets in - once a teammate appears to be treated more favourably, once a teammate breaks an agreement, once a teammate compromises your race - things will not get any better.

Therefore, now enjoying the team sport that is the World Endurance Championship, the Australian can look at the situation at Mercedes from a unique perspective.

"This is not just about one incident in one corner," he told the Herald Sun. "Obviously this whole situation has been brewing like it always does inside the teams and you've got two guys fighting for victories. You don't generally have trouble with teammates fighting for third, fourth, fifth... but when all of a sudden the wins are coming, it's not easy for the team to manage."

Reflecting on the incident that sparked the latest 'war of words', Webber says: "It's a passing move. Nico is trying to have a look on the outside, but it's Lewis's corner. Nico knows he has no chance to get the move done. It's strange that he tried to come in so tight behind Lewis. That was a little bit uncharacteristic of Nico, not normally his style, but he made contact. It wouldn't have been a big deal at all, it would have been nothing if there was no puncture, but the puncture changed the whole race. In the end both of their races were in trouble.

"Now we have a very difficult situation at Mercedes where the drivers are not enjoying a good relationship," he continues. "It's going to be interesting, not just for the rest of this year but can they drive together in the future? Is it okay for 2015 for the team to have the two guys together?

"The thing is, who is now going to try to put this back together? Is it the people who pay Niki's and Toto's wages? Because at the end of the day, if the drivers are not listening to these guys, do they have to say, 'Lewis and Nico, you go chat to the big guys at Mercedes, because they're paying you guys to get the job done in a team environment.'

"At the moment it's not a team, it looks like the drivers are doing their own thing," he concludes.

With the team seeking to manage the situation behind closed doors, away from the media spotlight, Webber warns that no matter what is done or said in the coming days the situation will most likely kick off again when the fight for the title resumes at Monza just over a week away.

The tough thing is for the drivers to stay focused on driving the cars now, because for them it's going to be a nightmare," he says. "The Thursday, the Friday, all the stuff out of the car, the media... and this will just keep going up."

"When they get to the track, they'll only be thinking about each other. There's no-one else really in the race," he adds, referring to the fact that - much like his situation at Red Bull with Vettel, because Mercedes doesn't have any direct competition it is the two teammates who must constantly go head-to-head.

"They are really only focused on beating each other, and that's what happens when you have a car that is so dominant. They are going to win the constructors' easy, so the drivers know that the constructors' is done, so all that's left is the drivers' championship."

Chris Balfe

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by The Canadian, 29/08/2014 21:34

"The results stand as they do.....Lewis should just solve this by taking Nico out behind the trailer and Punching him in the guts....Maybe he'll think twice next time. Some things about NASCAR are worth noting, after all."

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2. Posted by fredfrog, 29/08/2014 14:47

"@ Robert
Dude, you must be all worn out from watching the video clip "over and over"! Sheesh ... get a life!
And stop regurgitating crap that has already been refuted by the team principal - Wollf has said that Nico's comments were taken out of context. The whole incident was adjudged to be a racing incident.
How many times have we seen contact between front wing and rear tyre without a puncture resulting? To suggest that Nico "knew" his contact would result in a puncture is stretching the imagination beyond reasonability.
Face it, Hamilton is no angel ... "I want to inflict pain on Rosberg" ... nice! There's a character flaw there?
Now do us all a favour and get over this thing instead of whining like an old woman with wet panties.
Nothing is going to change it, so suck it up and move on.
"

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3. Posted by Robert, 29/08/2014 8:22

"To all the Nico fans or anti-Lewis supportors:

I would say, it's not even about supporting Lewis or supporting Nico, but I think everyone should just weigh up all the obvious evidence!
The obvious ones are that both Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda blamed Nico and were extremely anger! And most fair top drivers including Jenson Button put the blame on Nico! So we know these kind of biased so called 'journalists' will write any rubbish just cause a stirl!
Anyhow, I have been watching the video of the Belgium collision over and over, and clearly Nico never had even half a car length next to Lewis's car at any point, and not only should Nico had aborted the move, he also didn't need to cut back so quickly and so hard behind Lewis to make that corner! I don't know what everyone else is watching, but to me, Nico's second turn-in of his steering was deliberately more harder, earlier, and 'more deliberate' than necessary! In my opinion, Nico did it on purpose knowing that it was likely Lewis would have a puncture, which is obviously worst than losing a piece of end-plate on his own front wing!
The truth of the matter is, and Lewis heard it from the horse's mouth which was 'confirmed' by a Mercedes 'spokesman', Nico 'did on purpose' 'to prove a point'! Nico gambled because he was already 11 points in front of Lewis, and he won his gamble! As one steward said, it's was a 'cunning' drive/move (you would expect from a ruthless driver, or what I would call unsporting or 'cheating')!
And honestly, I don't know how the steward can even call a 10 second review of the Belgium collision to be a fair review because we're talking about title contenders, not Alonso and Magnussen or someone else down the field, and also it's very high stakes now, as we are closing nearer to the conclusion of the Championship!!!
I hope the stewards at all future races will take this more seriously, I really do, because in my opinion, if the ones at Belgium did their jobs 'more thoroughly', then none of us now would feel the results there were as 'unfair' as it was!?"

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4. Posted by kiwi2wheels, 28/08/2014 13:01

"I think that Christian Horner is proving that he is the most effective team manager ( oops, or should that be team principal ........?) I hate this " new speak "!

Lauda and Wollf would do better to remember that it is better to say nothing and be thought a fool than speak and remove all doubt ."

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Webber predicts "nightmare" for Mercedes

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