Toto Wolff admits that his biggest nightmare is a technical failure deciding the title in Abu Dhabi.

Try as it might, Mercedes cannot shake off claims that this season it has attempted to favour Nico Rosberg over teammate Lewis Hamilton as they battle for the title.

In the wake of a string of technical failures the German team was forced to write an open letter to fans insisting that there was no agenda and that the Briton had merely had a run of bad luck.

Then came the Briton's late retirement in Malaysia and his subsequent comments about higher forces being at work, and even the though the Brackley PR machine went into overdrive and Lewis insisted he was referring to the ultimate technical director, he of the flowing white robes and white beard, the doubts lingered.

Of course, the media hasn't helped, endlessly suggesting that Rosberg 'lucked' in to his 9 wins and 367 points while Lewis was essentially 'robbed'.

Now, as the title fight heads to Abu Dhabi, a venue which as Fernando Alonso knows only too well can end in heartbreak and frustration, having mostly cast aside talk of bias, Mercedes is aware that failure in the full glare of the championship showdown could see it back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons again.

"As Bernie would have ordered it we now have a showdown in Abu Dhabi," said Toto Wolff, according to Autosport. "There's a 12-point gap so they are going to fight it out on track.

"We just have to give them two cars so they can do that," he added. "My biggest nightmare is a mechanical issue, but this is how it is."

To be fair, while Hamilton has had 6 internal combustion engines, 8 turbochargers, 8 MGU-Hs and 6 MGU-Ks, Rosberg is on 5 of each and the remaining Mercedes runners 4 apiece, raising the question of whether the Briton might be that little bit more demanding of his equipment.

Nonetheless, should a technical failure, even a poor start, decide the championship next week, especially in favour of Rosberg, it would indeed be the ultimate nightmare for Mercedes.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 17/11/2016 16:05

"An assortment of mechanical failures and other issues has already influenced the championship.
The "law of averages" suggests it's Nico's turn for a DNF-inducing failure. Sad for Wolff & Mercedes perhaps, but maybe poetic justice?

"

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2. Posted by Thomas1, 15/11/2016 20:42

"Other possibilities do exist. For example, both of them do not finish. A scenario is there is an accident or spin off. This puts the other drive under tremendous pressure to win the title and need to score points.
In that process, he breaks his engine while he is being chased by four different drivers. Both Mercedes drivers finish 3rd or 4th or further down. This can happen due to minor accidents, caution to finish the race to win (for one driver) while the other need an outright win. It can happen at pit stops. There can be other accidents and red flags initiated by other drivers during the race because each one wants to do better to keep a seat or get a pot of gold for their team! Das Karma has many handles to decide the destiny of this game and the race history! This is the World in its full Glory! Some win! Some lose! The show goes ON!
"

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3. Posted by Kkiirmki, 15/11/2016 19:41

"Really, a (single) engine failure has decided the championship? A number of years ago, it wasn't uncommon for multiple engine failures; even for teams/drivers to have more DNFs than actual race finishes. How spoilt we are these days, to have only a handful of retirements, over an entire 21 race season between 24 drivers."

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4. Posted by Pavlo, 15/11/2016 18:53

"I understand him. In the mechanical sport F1 is, that's expected that something can break, it's normal. But if it happens in the last race there will be so much dirty rumours everywhere..."

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5. Posted by sumpnz, 15/11/2016 18:51

"Just the engine failure at Malaysia alone accounts for a 28 point shift in points. Hamilton would have easily won without that failure, and therefore Rosberg would have been 4th rather than 3rd. Which would have put Hamilton at a 16 point advantage rather than 12 point deficit going into the final race. Not to mention all the earlier season problems which no doubt cost Hamilton a lot of points, and possibly wins. Had Hamilton had similar reliability to Rosberg it's probably he'd have clinched the WDC already, even with his poor starts at so many races. So Wolff has already seen technical failures deeply effect the WDC."

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6. Posted by Edge, 15/11/2016 15:44

"What Wolff means is he hopes its not an engine failure for Rosberg. "

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7. Posted by ZSPilot75, 15/11/2016 15:10

"I think that is a pretty poor set of comments. Hamilton has raced along side Rosberg for a few seasons already. If his driving style was so demanding on equipment, it would have shown itself before this.

The sad thing is that despite the comment that he fears technical failure could decide the championship, technical failure has already done so I fear!"

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8. Posted by Kkiirmki, 15/11/2016 14:35

"An engine failure would be a tragic way to end the season for either driver. However, that (overly) long back straight must put a lot more strain on the engine, running at full throttle for a good 15 seconds. "

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Wolff admits to biggest nightmare

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