06/06/2017
NEWS STORY
With monotonous regularity, whenever Lewis Hamilton appears to have the points advantage over his teammate, so follow the calls for the Briton to be made number one driver at Mercedes.
Having reached a peak following Sebastian Vettel's win in Bahrain, the calls, led mainly by the British media, died down after Valtteri Bottas took victory in Russia.
By the start of the Monaco weekend, following Hamilton's win in Spain, the calls had begun again, only to fade as the Briton enjoyed a difficult weekend.
Clearly anticipating more of the same over the months ahead, Toto Wolff has jumped the gun, insisting that for the foreseeable future there will be no number one at Mercedes.
"It could be a tricky race for us in terms of the layout of the track," said the Austrian. "But, equally, it's a circuit that suits both of our drivers.
"Lewis has won a number of times in the past and Valtteri has always gone strongly there for Williams," he continued. "It will be about doing our homework right to give the drivers the car they need to succeed.
"We have two excellent drivers," he added, "and we will hold true to our philosophy of letting them race each other to drive the team forward - even if sometimes it can be difficult because you can't always have the one who is ahead in the Championship winning."
In the wake of Sebastian Vettel's Monaco win, which saw the German stretch his title lead to 25 points, Hamilton was among those to suggest that Ferrari has already decided to throw its weight behind Vettel's title bid.
"It's clear to me that Ferrari have chosen their number one driver," he said. "They are pushing everything to make sure Sebastian will maximise on all of his weekends."
His comment followed a race which saw pole-man Kimi Raikkonen lose the lead to Vettel when the Italian team put them on different strategies.
While the Maranello outfit denied that team orders were involved, a poor call in terms of the Finn's pit stop did little to discourage the speculation... nor did Raikkonen's demeanour on the podium.