Rivalry in competitive sport is an essential ingredient — but when it deteriorates into cold-eyed animosity and spills out of the arena and into private life, it becomes a distasteful feud.
And that, sadly, is precisely what has happened between warring Formula One teammates Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, whose Mercedes bosses have negligently failed to stamp out an infection of dislike threatening to further their mutual hatred.
The swipes the two drivers have all season taken at each other were, at first, looked upon as minor tiffs forgotten once the race was over. But not any more.
The uneasy truce, at least up front, has ebbed into a tide of recrimination on both sides and, if the Mercedes hierarchy are not careful, it could overspill into the garage where the back-up crews unashamedly support their own man.
I fret that the up-front bosses, Toto Wolff, Niki Lauda and Paddy Lowe, sharers of overall responsibility, but apparently divided in their driver loyalty, without there being a clear cut and positive voice, are in a three-way mess of indecision.
I would forecast that there is now no way back for the two drivers, once such good friends as junior-class racers, seemingly hell-bent on wrecking one another’s reputation with asides and digs whenever they clash. Which is too often.
Ex-team owner Eddie Jordan, now a BBC TV pundit says the drivers are like spoilt kids doing what they want and blames the head boys for not taking control.
And he adds “The team is weak. Rudderless. If Ross Brawn was there it would be different.”
We shall never know just how productive and positive are the secret meetings organised by the Mercedes bosses and whether the at-odds twosome even listen to whatever internal recriminations, if any, they will face if they continue to serve up such distasteful fare.
If I were in any position of authority, I would dig deep into the team’s bank account and, for whatever he asked and how much, I would do my utmost to persuade single-minded Ross Brawn, now spending his time fishing the world’s oceans and rivers, to make a return with overall responsibility and a guarantee of the non-interference of the other trio of indecision.
It will need his authoritarian like to quell the unrest and settle the team into a championship winning style without the two drivers needing to slight each other and risk yet more brainless collisions, like the embarrassing one last week in Belgium, in the heat of the 200mph melees.
Formula One has a history of feuding factions in the same team, notably Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber and current Mercedes voice Niki Lauda and James Hunt.
But I don’t recollect them being quite as deep seated and petty as the feud tainting the two top men right now.
This is one championship chase that will long be remembered as a never ending dispute with two opponents ready to play dirty.
And that’s not good for the spectacle or the sport.
— The author is a motorsport expert
