Mercedes exec: Hamilton, Rosberg rivalry a volcano ready to erupt

Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will be teammates only by name on Sunday as the 2016 Formula One season winds down in Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton trails Rosberg by 12 points heading into the year's final race, and the latter needs only a minimum third-place finish to secure his first F1 World Drivers' Championship, while Hamilton needs to finish top to stand a chance at the prize.

Those circumstances, along with the added fuel of heated incidents between the pair this season, has Mercedes executive director Toto Wolff warning about a mounting tension between the two rivals during Saturday's practice sessions.

"It's normal that here this is like a volcano to erupt with two of them, the two very different personalities. One is going to dig a little deeper, the other one is going to do it in a different way," Wolff told Reuters' Alan Baldwin on Saturday.

If Hamilton doesn't finish for whatever reason, Rosberg will be declared champion regardless of the result. Wolff, though, doesn't see the German resorting to any dirty tactics to end Hamilton's chase, a la Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in 1989.

"I think it is very difficult to construct such a situation and make it work. I don't think that's the way Nico operates and it would certainly not look very good," Wolff said. "There are so many unknowns at the moment. It's about reliability and finishing the race for both of them.

"It is about qualifying, who is in the lead and how the race is going to pan out, that I don't think anyone of them is seriously considering playing that way, because it could come out completely different."