Team boss Toto Wolff is concerned his team's dominance of Formula One could be bad for the Mercedes brand.
Mercedes has won 32 of 38 races in the last two seasons after developing the best overall package ahead of major changes to the regulations in 2014. Its rivals have struggled with Red Bull going backwards over the last two years, while Ferrari only started to make gains this season.
Wolff recognises the impact a single team's dominance can have on the popularity of the sport and, if the others do not catch up, he wants to encourage competition between his drivers to ensure racing does not become boring.
"Our dominance is bad for Formula One," Wolff told the Daily Mail. "It is. It makes the racing boring. It becomes predictable how the result is going to be. The sport needs multiple winners. It needs the odd freak result. It needs the underdog to win. The moment you become a dominant force, you suffer and your brand suffers. You become the dark side of the force.
"It even happened to Red Bull. They joined the sport. They were the Jedis. They jumped in the pool when they finished third in Monaco with Coulthard. They had the Formula Unas, the girls around the paddock. They had the Red Bulletin. They were controversial. They had a superb brand. But after winning the world title four times in a row, they developed into an unsympathetic brand. Nobody wants the establishment.
"If you start to behave like the establishment, you are finished and people will have animosity against you. So our dominance is bad for Formula One and it's bad for us, but what can I do? The only thing you can do yourself is stay humble, keep both feet on the ground, acknowledge that these are special circumstances and it might be different in the future and try to enjoy the moment.
"But we are living in a world where people don't want anybody to do well. It seems that we are feeling happier with the misery of others. That's wrong. If you are happy with the misery of others, it is going to make you miserable, too. That comes back like a boomerang.
"This is still a competitive environment but I'd rather be inspired by somebody who does well. I would rather look up to him than envy him. Even my biggest enemy has a best friend.
"So I want the dominance to continue but if it were to continue like this, I need to think what to do so we do not become the enemy and how we can help the show. Maybe it's about unleashing the two of them [Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg] completely. Make them have their own strategy cars. That would be a solution."
Wolff said the trick is to balance out-and-out fighting with healthy competition between the drivers.
"I still believe that our pairing has done the team a lot of good in accelerating the development of our car," says Wolff. "If that were to become not limited to the track and the usual spiel with the media, the solution would be to have what happened to McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari and have a No 1 and No 2.
"That would be my second best option. I would rather continue like it is. For F1 the volcanic eruptions may be what's needed between them. Maybe the big fall-out ending in a crash and animosity, in terms of the entertainment factor, maybe that's what's missing with Mercedes being so dominant. Maybe you need that, but fundamentally, I don't think we need that as a team."