Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has questioned whether Mercedes must consider refreshing its driver line-up in future, believing the line-up of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg may not be sustainable for the long-term.
The pair clashed once again this season, with Rosberg punished by the stewards for "causing a collision" on the final lap of the Austrian Grand Prix. Just four races previously, the pair failed to finish the Spanish GP after colliding on the opening lap.
Both incidents have cost the team valuable championship points and Horner predicts it won't be the last time it happens this season.
"Longer term, how tenable is it for that pairing to continue as a team?" he is quoted as saying by 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."
Horner himself has similar experience of the problem, having had a dominant car and two drivers fighting for the championship, which ultimately boiled over and forced Mark Webber to call a day on his F1 career.
When asked how difficult it was to manage such a situation, he replied: "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."
The Britain doesn't believe employing team orders is right for Mercedes or the sport because the advantage they have means they're unlikely to miss out on the championship, even with driver infighting.
"They have sufficient margin on the rest of the field, why do they need to consider that?" he added.
"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."
