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Toto Wolff has defended Mercedes decision to offer equal treatment to both of their drivers.
Both Lewis Hamilton and newly-crowned champion Nico Rosberg have both had equal status at the team since their partnership began in 2013.
Despite their frosty relationship in public and Hamilton's alleged quit threats earlier this season, team boss Wolff maintains that Mercedes were correct to treat both drivers the same.
"As a group, we have now won World Championships with both of our drivers - something that was last achieved in the 1980s by McLaren with Senna and Prost," he remarked at a sponsor event in Malaysia. "That kind of comparison makes a big statement about the hard work put into achieving these results by every single person at Brackley, Brixworth, Stuttgart and here in Kuala Lumpur - including, of course, both of our race drivers."
"We knew we had two world class talents on our hands and that giving them equal opportunity to fulfill their potential would bring the best out of them," Wolf insisted. "At the same time, we knew that this approach would sometimes give us some tough moments to deal with. It's something we took into account and accepted as a challenge worth tackling."
Despite criticisms of Mercedes' handling of certain situations over the last four seasons, Wolff is confident that the team have been approaching things correctly.
"When you see the results we've had together, it's clear that this is the right approach. One of the keys to our success has been that they constantly push each other - and that in turn kept raising the bar even higher," he said. "They are both born fighters and the intense competition has been good for them, for the team and for the sport."
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C. Sainz jr
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