15/11/2016
NEWS STORY
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.