Mercedes will leave Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to "fight it out" on track this season as the team looks to reduce the amount of control it has over its drivers.
One of the biggest complaints of 2015 centred around how Mercedes controlled its drivers by placing them on mirrored strategies which reduced the likeliness of them overtaking each other – a move Hamilton became increasingly critical of toward the end of the season.
However Mercedes motorsport chief Toto Wolff says that likely won't be the case this season as the team will look to reduce its input as a result of new radio limits, allowing Hamilton and Rosberg to fight it out between themselves.
"We are reducing the rules because we [as a team] have got more comfortable in working with each other," he told reporters during a media event in Stuttgart.
"The [new radio] regulations help us because there is much less engineering input into the car and into the driver," he explained. "There much is less guidance in terms of strategy, tyre optimisation and how to drive the car so it is much more down to them to drive the car anyway.
"That's very good for the sport. It puts more pressure and brings in additional new effort for the drivers.
"By continuing with those regulations, our role has been to step back a little bit. It pretty much fits our strategy in leaving it up to these two to fight it on track."
Wolff believes Mercedes owes it to the fans and the sport to allow its two stars to prove themselves, even if it risks the championship.
"We owe it to them and we owe it to Formula 1 to let them race. The ride will be a bit more difficult but I think that is absolutely necessary," he added.
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