Alain Prost has likened the constantly intensifying fight between Mercedes’ two drivers to his legendary battle with Ayrton Senna within the McLaren team that dominated at the time.
Prost told L’Equipe recently, “If with two or three grands prix until the end, Toto Wolff issues instructions, it will have to be accepted but of course it’s a shame,” he told the French sports daily L’Equipe. “I would do the same thing.”
“In a team, there is always one of the drivers who wants to gain the upper hand, but as far as I am concerned, the problem should be resolved between them.”
“That’s what happened with myself and Ayrton Senna, even if our relationship deteriorated after that. But I think as long as they [Hamilton and Rosberg] are out the front, team orders are not necessary,” Prost added.
But Prost thinks team orders could eventually be imposed by Mercedes at the business end of the 2016 season.
The German team openly contemplated imposing team orders after Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s collision in Austria, deciding instead to only toughen the rules of engagement and impose secret ‘deterrent’ measures.
The two previously collided on the first lap of the Spanish Grand Prix in mid-May, and although team imposed restrictions are in place the pair acknowledge that future clashes are inevitable as they battle for the same goal every race weekend – winning and ultimately the F1 world title.
Prost and Senna, at the time teammates in the dominant McLaren team, famously came together during the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix which erupted into controversy afterwards.
Prost scored a DNF as a result of the incident but Senna got going again, thanks to assistance from track-side marshals, and went on to win the race only to be disqualified and as a result denied that year’s F1 world title which went to Prost.
The feud continued even after Prost left McLaren to join Ferrari in 1990. The pair again colliding at Suzuka, this time as they raced into Turn 1. They both scored a DNF, but this time Senna won the title.
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