Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff admits he isn't sure whether favouring one driver is the best approach for a team.
Since the arrival of Valtteri Bottas in 2017, the German manufacturer has tried to keep the use of team orders to a minimum but has had to ask the Finn to help teammate Lewis Hamilton for the sake of a championship.
The clearest example was last year in Sochi when, for the first time, Bottas handed victory to the Briton at the request of Mercedes, a moment Wolff claims "broke my heart".
Even so, the Austrian admits that sometimes the way a team operates can occur naturally.
"You can disagree on this and I do not know what works best", he said speaking to Holland's Formule 1.
"Look at the dominant years of Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull and us and it seems that always one driver was the unofficial number one.
"On the other hand, it may be an advantage to have two drivers who chase each other a lot because as a team you might develop faster and perform better."
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Mercedes do know what it's like to be on both ends of the equation, with the unrestricted racing between Hamilton and Nico Rosberg creating a very turbulent atmosphere within the team.
"It can then become rotten between the drivers and if that spills over to the engineers, it can also affect the team," Wolff explained. "So I don't know what is the best [approach].
"Ideally, however, you should have two drivers who can find each other and compete with each other on the track, but limit it to the track."
