29/07/2014
NEWS STORY
With Mercedes virtually assured of the 2014 Constructors' Championship perhaps now is the time to let its drivers go full-on head-to-head.
Sadly, Sunday's race was somewhat overshadowed by the public bickering over 'team orders', a situation not entirely helped by Niki Lauda's subsequent admission that there was an element of "panic" on the pit-wall.
In reality, one can see both sides of the argument as far as Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are concerned, for whilst teammates each, at heart, is a very determined racer targeting the ultimate prize and to come out on top one cannot afford to take prisoners.
Although the fact is that Mercedes could still be beaten for the title - all part of the "panic" at Brackley - the reality is that should Mercedes fail to score a single point in the coming races - unlikely seeing as it has averaged 35 points in the eleven races thus far - even if Red Bull finished 1-2 it would take until Japan before the Austrian team closed to within two points of the championship leaders.
Barring a reversal of form of unheard of proportions it simply isn't going to happen.
Consequently, surely Mercedes would be best advised to let its drivers off the leash from Belgium, albeit imposing a few ground rules.
Not only would this give us something to savour, it would go some way to ending the conspiracy theories that inevitably followed Hamilton's disastrous qualifying in Hungary.
The hammering the German team took on social media on Saturday as Hamilton's car smouldered away at the end of the pitlane is something that will continue until the German team faces facts and makes it clear that, within reason, the gloves are off and there are no favourites.
Unless a decision is made and the drivers are told they are free to 'go for it', whichever of them win the title there will always be an element of 'yes, but what if…'
Faced with one of the most dominant seasons in living memory, and having produced a package that is the envy of the pitlane, it would be a tragedy if the Silver Arrows were the suspicion of bias.
Chris Balfe