Prost advice helped contain driver fight - Wolff

Toto Wolff has recognised he has learned a great deal from four time World Champion Alain Prost when the latter gave him advice early in the season on how to prevent a driver war.

When it was obvious Mercedes was going to dominate the season and the championship could become an internal team fight, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff asked Alain Prost for advice on dealing with the matter, knowing he had experienced issues at McLaren in 1988 and 1989 in his battle with Ayrton Senna.

"At the beginning of this season I was talking with Prost and I asked him his opinion about what I should do not to fall into the same all-out war situation he had with Ayrton," Wolff admitted to Italy's Autosprint.

"Then he said the magic word - transparency. He told me that at the time McLaren did not act in a transparent way with the drivers. Perhaps because Senna was the last to arrive so he was the novelty.

"Prost said that in the end he couldn't understand how the team was organised as disagreements and rivalries between the drivers spread to the mechanics. The team was split in two.

"Alain told me: 'Put the two drivers on an even footing and tell everyone exactly the same things. Do not play favourites. It is the only way to contain the rivalry'.

"And so I did. It was one of the most important lessons I have learned about becoming a good team leader".

The situation within the team culminated at Spa when Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg touched at Les Combes when fighting for the lead. Mercedes subsequently forbid its drivers to speak to anyone on the team before being contacted, hence allowing the team to first set matters straight and preventing an internal team split that Prost warned about.