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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says it’s no surprise that emotions are running high in the Lewis Hamilton v Nico Rosberg battle – and he insists that the team doesn’t want to put a stop to it.

It’s been apparent since Ferrari’s win in Sepang that it will be harder for the team to manage the dynamic between the two drivers.

“After the wake-up call in Malaysia, it was satisfying to see how the team pulled together for the race in China,” he said in a team preview. “We did our homework, made improvements and scored a strong one-two finish. But China also confirmed that Ferrari will be a threat in all conditions this year, not just when it’s very hot, and that we will have new challenges to face as a team, with another competitor who is much closer to our level of performance.”

Regarding Hamilton and Rosberg in China he said: “We saw tensions between Nico and Lewis in the race, and we tackled them directly on Sunday night to stop anything carrying over to this weekend. When you have intense competition, it’s normal that it causes emotions to run high – and that’s not something we want to change.

“But both drivers are now very focused on delivering maximum performance in Bahrain and our package should cope well with the demands of the circuit. We maintain our philosophy of letting the drivers race – but they both know that the number one priority for the team is to win for Mercedes-Benz.”

McLaren boss Eric Boullier says that the double finish for Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button in China was a boost for both the team and order

It was also positive to see that the drivers could at least fight with other cars on Sunday.

“It was good for their motivation and good for us, and at least we got some excitement during the race,” the Frenchman told this writer. “We’re still frustrated because we’re not where we want to be, but definitely happy because we had a reliability package, and we had an absolutely troublefree race.

“That’s new for us, a good achievement for Honda, and I think a good reward for both of us. Now we have achieved this we can power up again because we know there is some potential still in this power unit, before we go to the next power unit upgrade.

“In an ideal world we would have loved to gone to Australia and go for pole even if you blow up the engine at the first corner! But we can’t do that. Especially after the winter testing issues we had we are obviously unsure about the reliability so we had to be very constructive let’s say, and in some ways conservative.”

Boullier says while there will be less of a jump in Bahrain, the package is constantly getting better.

“To be honest with you we want to keep bringing performance like we do. We are not gaining a tenth like you normally do at a race, we are gaining half a second. I’m not sure in Bahrain we’ll have half a second, because it’s a back to back race, but we need to keep this development pace. We are now close to the midfield pace so we can maybe break into that group in the coming races. That’s the target – but our real target is the top spot.”

Toto Wolff has reiterated that after China Mercedes may have to focus more on how best to manage the team’s two drivers in the light of the increasing challenge from Ferrari.

He stressed that the priority was team wins, and that might involve interference in the Hamilton/Rosberg fight.

However Wolff, who already said after Malaysia that strategies might be split, insisted he wouldn’t be telling the drivers to hold position and not fight each other.

“It could come to a situation where you see that we are risking the win against the Ferrari that we night do any unpopular call,” said Wolff. “We wouldn’t freeze anything like this, that is something that we decided not to do, but it could be a situation where we need to manage them more.

“Our objective number one, and this is what we decided with the drivers, is that we have a big responsibility to the team, to a big brand. It’s not just about the two guys out there but about a thousand people working on those cars. And if it would ever come to the call between interfering between the two of them because we risk to lose a race, then we would do that. We don’t have the gap any more from last year where we can just let them push each other until the very end. We need to manage the gaps between the two of them.”

Regarding any ‘hold station’ orders he said: “What we understand as a clear team order, which we’ve seen in the past, is saying ‘you’re not allowed to overtake,’ because you’re the faster car for example. This is not something I can honestly see happening.

“I can see why teams in the past did it, because they were under threat of losing a championship. Knock on wood we haven’t been in that situation yet, but managing more, without making such a drastic call, is within the possibility now.”

A little over six months after his accident in Suzuka the condition of Jules Bianchi remains unchanged, according to his father.

A clearly emotional Philippe Bianchi spoke for the first time in some weeks in an interview with Nice-Matin.

“The only thing we can say is that he fights with force, as he always fought before and after the accident,” said Bianchi Sr. “Every day, Jules is doing a marathon. From a medical point of view, his condition is stable. He is fairly autonomous. No physical problem. All his organs are working without assistance. But for now, he remains unconscious, in a coma.

“For this kind of trauma, as we know, evolution is very slow. Compared to what was said by the Japanese professor who was immediately operated in Yokkaichi, this is already day and night. There, when we arrived, with Jules‘s mother, there was no hope. The prognosis was alarmist. There was talk of irreversible damage, and a one year period at least before the transfer, which was finally done after seven weeks, as he quickly could breathe again on his own.

“Neurologically, the doctors told us that there is no specific intervention to do. Most importantly, to stimulate Jules is that he feels a constant presence at his side. That’s why we take turns every day, his mother, his sister, his brother and me. Also Gina, the German girlfriend of Jules, who lives here now.”

He added: “From time to time, at his bedside, we see that things are happening. At times, he is more ‘active,‘ he moves more, his hand shakes. But is it mere reflex reactions or real? Hard to know. The important thing is that he is followed by excellent specialists.”

Romain Grosjean’s seventh place in China was the Frenchman’s first score since the 2014 Monaco GP – and the Lotus driver dedicated the result to his countryman Jules Bianchi, who also made the points in that race.

China also came a little over six months after Bianchi’s accident in Suzuka last year.

“When I crossed the line there were big thoughts for Jules,” said Grosjean. “Last time I scored points he was scoring points as well. I think if I can give him a little bit of energy and a little bit of something for the fight he’s in – I believe if you never give up, it goes true.

“It was a shit day, that six months anniversary. It feels hard, he’s with me on my helmet, I’m sending him as much thoughts and power as I can from what we do. I’m just hoping that a miracle happens.”

Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene insists that Kimi Raikkonen can deliver this season – but he has to feel that he has the full support of the Italian team.

The Finn finished fourth in China after passing both Williams drivers on the first lap, and he was running close behind team mate Sebastian Vettel when the safety car emerged.

“They have different characters.” Arrivabene said of his drivers. “Seb is a kind of strong guy, very committed, etc. Kimi, he needs to feel the support of the team around him, and especially the team principal. I mean in Malaysia I was talking with him after the practice, and he knows me, we’ve known each other since many, many years. I said, ‘Kimi, if you’re attacking for nothing, expect me to react.’

“But Kimi likes this kind of relationship, when you talk with him straight into the face. He’s called Iceman, but actually apart from this image of Iceman he’s a guy who is very sensitive. If he feels that the team is around him and is pushing for him as it’s pushing for Seb, then Kimi can give us very good results and perfect performances.

“The race in Malaysia, I mean we were jumping like kangaroos – even if it was Malaysia not Australia – for the victory, but actually if you look back and look at the race of Kimi it was wonderful. The new news in Ferrari is that we have a team now, and we have two drivers, two very good drivers.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has moved quickly to defuse tension in the camp in China after Nico Rosberg accused Lewis Hamilton of making his life difficult by backing him up and allowing Sebastian Vettel to stay on his tail.

Wolff said that after the matter was discussed in a team meeting the drivers understood the situation more clearly.

“It was a good debrief, because it was a positive debrief,” he said. “There wasn’t any animosity. There is much more positive today. We didn’t do any mistake in the race. Everybody was in good spirits.”

Wolff insisted that the main issue was that Hamilton wasn’t sure how the option tyres would play out over the second stint, and thus in effect kept something in reserve. The team had planned to put the prime on at the first stop, but the strategy was changed.

“Lewis was the car in the lead, he was controlling the pace. We were putting the option tyre on, although we were actually expecting to put the prime on, so our expected race would have been option-prime-prime. Also because we learned the lesson from Malaysia, we thought we might run into trouble with the option. And then we found out that our option was actually holding on much better than we expected, and much better than Ferrari.

“We tried to make sure that we could cover Ferrari with the option. We put the option on, the driver realises he has the option in, doesn’t know what’s going on behind him, and controls his pace, because he needs to take the option longer than expected. And he was controlling that pace. From his point of view, completely understandable.

“Nico on the other side was really running into trouble, because he was bunched up behind Lewis, he couldn’t go any more near, so he asked for a 2secs gap to Lewis so he could at least protect the tyres a little bit, which he did. And on the same time Sebastian was increasing the pace behind him. So understandable from both of them.”

Wolff was adamant that Lewis had not tried to handicap his team mate.

“I think he didn’t do it on purpose, and we’ve cleared that now. There wasn’t any intention from Lewis to slow Nico down in order to make him finish third or worse, one hundred per cent. He didn’t know the gaps behind Nico. What he knew was that he needed to take the tyre longer than we’ve ever run it the whole weekend, and this is why he decided to slow down in the way he did.

“Now after a while we realised after a while that this was putting us into trouble, putting Nico into trouble, risking the second place – or even worse, if Lewis has a DNF you could potentially lose the race as Mercedes, so there were lots of thoughts on the pit wall about the possible consequences. And he didn’t know that. So I think you can’t really blame anybody.

“You cannot take the DNA off a racing driver and expect him not to look after himself, which he did. Whether it was in the back of his mind, and he saw the Ferraris in the mirrors, and he thought that was interesting… But I don’t really think that was the case. He didn’t know how long the tyres would last, and this is why he decided to manage the gap the way he did. When we came on the radio it was the moment to act. Then he increased the pace, and as a remedy we pitted Nico first, which normally we wouldn’t have done, to take him out of trouble.”

Nico Rosberg says that tyre degradation at Mercedes will be the key to the Chinese GP – but adds that will open up an opportunity for him to beat pole man Lewis Hamilton.

“I’m going for the fight, for sure,” he said tonight. “That’s what I’m going to do tomorrow, definitely. I’ve got the car to do it, I prepared well for the race on Friday, I’m comfortable with driving the car on high fuel.

“It’s going to be a very challenging race, because we have the option tyre to start off with, and that’s going to fall apart at some point, quite dramatically, so there’s going to be a lot going on at that point in time in the race, and there the Ferraris who might be able to go longer than us, as we’ve seen in Malaysia.”

Rosberg is pleased that things could be mixed up a bit: “So I wonder how that will then play with the strategy and everything. Even the prime tyre, it’s going to be on the edge. So tyre degradation wise it’s going to be an interesting race for us, and plenty of opportunities also, and that’s a great thing.

“There’s been a race like Melbourne where there was no opportunity. I was very, very close, but the strategy, there was just one, there was no tyre degradation, so there was just no opportunity for me to take. Here tomorrow there’s many opportunities, and that’s a very good thing.”

Lewis Hamilton continues to struggle with an overheating backside due to unexpectedly high temperatures in the Mercedes cockpit.

However he insisted today that it wouldn’t slow him down if he’s leading the race tomorrow.

“If you are winning you can do anything!,” he joked. “I don’t know what it is. Sometimes you have heat coming in – you have hydraulics in the car and sometimes your ankles and feet start getting very warm in some races. Sometimes with the tubes that come into the cockpit or wires that come into the cockpit there’s heat [that] comes through them.

“So there will be a small leak somewhere. They’ve been patching it up, and also I changed the seat, which has less insulation or less heat protection on. I’m sure they’ll do everything. But yesterday was kind of warm. It doesn’t burn through the overalls but your butt’s pretty hot! It felt like you’d had a real whoopin’, that’s all I can compare it to.”

Meanwhile team boss Toto Wolff added: “There is an electronic box below his bum, so it’s either that or the engine itself. We changed the seat, we put more insulation between the seat and the chassis, and hoped the problem is solved. It’s not solved yet.”

Nico Rosberg admits he’s concerned about how split strategies at Mercedes could impact his battle with Lewis Hamilton.

Until now the team has tried to be fair to both drivers by usually running near identical strategies, but after losing out to Ferrari in Malaysia Toto Wolff admitted that it was time for a rethink.

Rosberg said that while it could work both ways he’d prefer it didn’t have to happen.

“Last year I was the guy in front in Hungary and I ended up having the little bit worse strategy,” he said. “You do that because the strategies are really close and you’re not sure which strategy is the better one. Definitely I don’t like that personally, because it’s an artificial addition to our fight, it’s not a fair fight after that for one or the other. So I don’t like that.

“But that’s the way it is, we’re racing for Mercedes and in the first instance we need to win for Mercedes. Whenever they need to do that they will do it and it’s clear for us, so we accept that to make sure that we win. In Malaysia we would have had a better chance to win if we split the strategies, definitely, because I was completely compromised by that one. That’s just an example of where you need to split strategies as a team.”

Asked by this writer for his views Hamilton said: “I haven’t got any worries just yet. Ultimately the car in front gets the best strategy, so I put myself in the best position for that, hopefully.”