Toto Wolff is happy to see the rest of the paddock play “musical chairs” with their drivers while his duelling Mercedes pair continue their title battle in Japan.
On a day when it was announced reigning champion Sebastian Vettel would be leaving Red Bull, talk of driver changes stepped up a gear.
But out on the Suzuka track, it was Nico Rosberg who sealed his eighth pole position of the season, with team-mate and title rival Lewis Hamilton starting alongside him on the front row.
The duo have led every session so far this weekend in Japan and will want to continue that trend today with the threat of poor weather conditions caused by the approaching Typhoon Phanfone.
Rosberg is just three points behind the Brit heading into the race and, with Mercedes head of motorsport Wolff ‘99.99 per cent’ certain his two drivers will be remaining in place next year, he is not concerning himself with paddock gossip and rumour.
He said: “There was some movement going on in the market for quite a while. I’m quite happy that we are not participating in musical chairs and maybe being a bit upset. It is really nice to have had a quiet atmosphere in here while everyone was running down between Red Bull and Ferrari and that is an advantage for us. Of course, it is always interesting and exciting to hear big changes.
“We want to have the best drivers in our team who work together in a respectful way, who nurture the team and eventually win races and championships. We are very happy with our current line-up. The way we all work together doesn’t justify messing it up by running around the paddock and trying to speak to other drivers.”
With Mercedes fully focused on their on-track commitments, it was Rosberg who proved to be the quickest when it counted as he put in two fast runs in the final qualifying session to seal what could be, if the rain does arrive, a crucial pole.
Both Rosberg and Hamilton are now preparing for what looks increasingly like being a wet race, but Rosberg believes rain could increase their margin over the chasing pack.
He said: “I’m here to try and win and it was a great day today. It is only one step on the way but it was a real pleasure today because the car is so amazing to drive. We are as prepared as we can be and we are expecting it to be wet. The last time we experienced the wet was in Spa when we were really quick; if it rains it could be even better for us.”
Hamilton, who earlier crashed out towards the end of final practice, had no answer to his counterpart and admitted he was not quite hooked up for the session.
He said: “Nico was extremely quick today. I did the best I could and my guys did a fantastic job to rebuild my car after I binned it. Today, I just wasn’t really feeling it, I was still fast but Nico was fantastic.
“Tomorrow is the day you get the points and I’m looking forward to the tricky weather. I wasn’t happy with the balance. Instead of taking out front wing, each time I came in I left the car the same and I should have perhaps changed something but it doesn’t matter, we still have a good shot tomorrow.”
The Williams of Valtteri Bottas could not catch the Mercedes but he will be happy to sit third, with teammate Felipe Massa just behind in fourth. Fernando Alonso, seemingly on his way out of Ferrari, took fifth and was over eight-tenths quicker than team-mate Kimi Raikkonen who was 10th.
Vettel endured a poor session, only able to seal ninth place having had problems in free practice.
