Mercedes boss Toto Wolff does believe increased tension between Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel is inevitable at Ferrari.

His comments come after the Monegasque felt unfairly treated by the Italian team during the Singapore Grand Prix, as a call to pit his teammate a lap earlier resulted in a huge undercut which ultimately gave Vettel the win.

It also comes at a time when Leclerc has been challenging the superiority of the four-time world champion with two wins of his own in Belgium and Italy.

"I think always two alphas competing for position has the potential for a rivalry and an escalation within the team," Wolff explained.

"We've been there and I think today as a team we're very strong with a clear philosophy.

"On the positives, they [Leclerc and Vettel] keep taking points away from each other, which is an advantage [for us], but I don't want to look at points at that stage.

"It's about optimising what we have, winning races and doing the best you can, and we didn't do that [in Singapore]."

Also Read:

• Brawn: Singapore GP result beneficial for Vettel and Leclerc
• Leclerc denies being an 'egotist', insists Vettel relationship fine post-Monza
• Berger: Vettel has 'too much good faith' in Leclerc

On their relationship, both Ferrari drivers insist their relationship remains strong and also noted the strength in communicating in order to help the team move forward.

However, focusing on the events in Singapore, 2016 world champion Nico Rosberg believes Leclerc's real reaction behind the scenes will be different from what he said publicly.

“Leclerc after the race I think he was quite smart because it’s a fine line. One is to go full-on in public, complain, which is not the right way to do it, I myself have experienced some of those situations where it’s just a mistake,” he explained on his YouTube channel.

“To go too strong in public is wrong, but to do nothing in public is also wrong because you do need to set a tone and not make it too easy for your team to walk all over you as a driver, so I think he found the balance right there.

“He questioned it a lot in the race, then after the race, he didn’t speak about it at all and just congratulated and was very happy for the team to finish 1-2 which is most important.

“But internally there’s going to be fireworks.”

Having had some time to reflect on his loss to Vettel though, Leclerc claims a lot of his frustration has now eased.

“As I said in the car it was very frustrating, but now out of the car I understand a lot more the whole situation,” he said via PlanetF1.

“I am extremely happy for the whole team, very happy for Seb too. He deserves it, and now we’ll move forward.

“Obviously I wish I was one step higher [on the podium], but it’s part of life sometimes it goes that way and I’ll bounce back stronger in Russia.”