Mercedes F1 has "a difficult decision to make after colliding teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg gave Formula One fans a day of drama in Austria," according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. From an entertainment perspective, "the response should be simple -- continue to allow the two to race unfettered from start to finish." Their last lap coming together at the Red Bull Ring "put the sport on front and back pages, reviving a narrative of battling teammates going back to the days of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost" in the late '80s and early '90s. But Mercedes has "sponsors to satisfy and corporate objectives." Collisions between drivers that "deny the team a one-two finish are not allowed." Mercedes Motorsports Dir Toto Wolff's response to what he called a "brainless" accident was to threaten the imposition of team orders -- "a practice that was banned for some years and is now legal again." He said, "We need to discuss internally how we want to manage situations going forward when the two are close to each other. ... We will make decision irrespective of what they say, it could go in either direction. We need to avoid contact between the two cars whatever the decision is. Everything's on the table." At "its most extreme," as was the case at Michael Schumacher's Ferrari, one driver is given priority. But Mercedes is "in a different position." The team has "no number one, Rosberg and Hamilton fighting equally for the title," and the team is "dominant despite Ferrari and Red Bull raising their games" (REUTERS, 7/4).
