Horner: Merc line up could become untenable

Christian Horner reckons Mercedes' driver line-up could become untenable if Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg continue at the team.

The team-mates clashed in Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix, resulting in a victory for Hamilton and a broken front wing for Rosberg.

The German was blamed for the crash and hand a 10-second time penalty while Mercedes say they could introduce team orders to prevent further antics.

But whatever the immdiate consequences, Red Bull team boss Horner says Mercedes have to look at their line-up.

"Longer term, how tenable is it for that pairing to continue as a team?" he told Autosport.

"While they are in the situation that they are in, with the competitiveness they have, they are obviously going to have….these issues are not going to be isolated to this race.

"But then that is an attractive element for the sport.

"When you do have a dominant car, it's great to have the guys going head to head."

Horner also feels that Mercedes should not impose team orders as their driver feud is going a long way to create interest in the sport.

"They have sufficient margin on the rest of the field, why do they need to consider that?

"It actually creates interest in Formula 1, it's good for Formula 1 to have two team-mates that may not be the best of mates."

The Brit, though, understands how trying it can be to manage two feuding drivers have had to deal with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber at Red Bull.

He added: "It's enormously difficult, because no matter how much those guys say they are team players, they are contractors and they are racing for themselves.

"They are going for the biggest prize in motorsport so inevitably, they will do what is right for them at the end of the day.

"I haven't seen a replay of it, and I'm sure it won't be the only one during the rest of the year."