Mercedes will continue to allow Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to race each other despite their dramatic opening-lap collision in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.
Both Hamilton, whose winless streak now stretches to eight races, and Rosberg refused to accept blame for the crash on the exit of turn three.
And while Niki Lauda, the team's non-executive chairman, was quick to point the finger at Hamilton, describing his bid to overtake Rosberg as "too aggressive", Mercedes did not wish to apportion blame. It was a view shared by the FIA which decreed the sensational accident to be nothing more than a racing incident.
"By continuing with the approach of letting them race it was clear that eventually this could happen, but we will continue to let them race", said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
"It was a very unfortunate racing incident triggered by various circumstances."
Rosberg, who was bidding to become only the second driver in the modern era to win eight successive grands prix, was slower than Hamilton out of turn three after he selected the incorrect engine mode.
The Briton suddenly sensed his opportunity, but ran out of room when Rosberg moved over to thwart his attempt. Hamilton ran on to the grass, lost control of his Mercedes, and crashed into his team-mate.
It is the first time the pair have collided since the Belgian Grand Prix in 2014. Rosberg was made the scapegoat then, but Mercedes are keen to draw a line under Sunday's incident.
"We have moved on from Spa and it was a completely different situation in the team back then," Wolff added. "We have had great spirit in the team in the last couple of races through many ups and downs, and we never threw the toys out the pram. This is another challenge for us to demonstrate as a team we can move on from difficult circumstances."
Reflecting on Hamilton and Rosberg, Wolff added: "You can't expect them just to be easy about it. Each of them is going to have an opinion and this is how racing drivers function.
"We can't expect them to react any differently, but I am 100 per cent sure that it is not going to influence their relationship in a negative way going forward.
"We have let Lewis down in the last couple of races and we have apologised to him. It is a normal culture that we have in the team and we move on."
Hamilton, who remains 43 points adrift of Rosberg with 16 grands prix still remaining, added: "Today we've lost 43 points, and there's only two of us that were part of doing that.
"I didn't score those points for the team. These things happen in racing but it's the right thing to apologise to all these guys, just like when the engine fails they apologise to me."
Source: PA
