Alonso: Difficult to keep Merc drivers happy

Fernando Alonso believes Mercedes were always going to have their hands full in terms of keeping both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg happy…

Fernando Alonso believes Mercedes’ team bosses were always going to have their hands full this season in terms of keeping both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg happy.

With Mercedes having the fastest car on the grid, the Drivers’ Championship appears to be a straight battle between Hamilton and Rosberg, leading to extra pressure.

The tension went up a notch at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday when they collided on lap two, which left Hamilton with a puncture and damage to his car’s floor that eventually forced him to retire late in the race. Rosberg went on to finish second and he opened a 29-point lead at the top of the standings.

The fallout appears to be far from over and Alonso admits the Mercedes’ powers that be “have very narrow line to make everyone happy”.

“They have touched a little bit [on track] and there will be some talks about this, but it’s difficult,” Alonso is quoted as saying by ESPNF1. “If a team lets the drivers fight and they don’t touch, that team is fantastic. But when they do touch that team is not good anymore.

“It’s a very narrow line to make everyone happy. They are leading both Championships with big margins, so they are doing something good. Part of the problem they can have is because they are dominating everything. From the outside it’s difficult to judge any other team.

“They have been racing fantastically well all season and we have been saying how good they were fighting and how good the team was for letting them fight. Bahrain, for example, was a fantastic fight and a fantastic race that everyone enjoyed.”