Mercedes may reconsider team orders to allow Hamilton, Rosberg race 'freely' if rivals catch up

Mercedes has said that they might be forced to reconsider their policy of letting their drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg race freely if their rivals catch up with them.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said that there might be situations where one cannot lose lots of time in battle if one has their enemy right up their back.

Mercedes' current approach led to a thrilling duel in Bahrain Grand Prix where Hamilton won a race-long battle with his teammate Rosberg and Wolff said that the race had been a very particular situation because the team's package worked very well there, the BBC reported.

Wolff said that Mercedes had a quite a competitive advantage at Bahrain, which made it easier to take a decision for the sake of racing because they knew that they had quite a margin to the driver in the third place.

However, Wolff said that the narrower that margin between the third and second driver gets, the more they have to look out, adding that Mercedes' rule is that the competition is enemy number one, not the teammate, so there might be situations in the race where one has to consider that, but they would see what happens.

Mercedes has been in dominant form in the first four Grand Prix races of the season, with Hamilton bagging three wins and three pole positions and his teammate Rosberg taking one of each, the report added.