Wolff denies Lauda ’power struggle’

Toto Wolff, a new shareholder at Mercedes alongside Niki Lauda this year, has denied rumours of a ’power struggle’ between the Austrian duo.

"I am going to use Niki’s words by saying that is the biggest bullshit I have ever heard," Wolff told Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Actually, the rumours of a power struggle between the German-speaking faction and the old guard led by Briton Ross Brawn are much stronger.

After Malaysia, both Wolff and Lauda were said to have loudly disagreed with Brawn’s imposition of ’team orders’ that kept the faster Nico Rosberg behind Lewis Hamilton for the last rung of the podium.

"From a sporting point of view, team orders are an absurdity," Wolff insists.

"I speak as a fan, as a sportsman, as a race car driver.

"From the team’s point of view, you need to make sure you don’t throw away the team result.

"If we had let Lewis and Nico race each other, we would certainly have had a fuel problem with both cars. We knew this and so we used the team order.

"We did it because we didn’t want to look like idiots at the end."