Mercedes F1 team conceded that they had a problem with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg when Niki Lauda, their nonexecutive chairman, said: “The tension is building up, no question.”

Lauda was speaking after the two drivers refused to shake hands or even celebrate afterwards, despite landing the team their fifth straight one-two result this season in the Monaco Grand Prix. “We are not friends,” Hamilton said. “We are colleagues.”

Rosberg regained the lead in the Formula One world championship with his second win of the season. But a clearly upset Hamilton is convinced that Rosberg should have been penalised for the incident which led to the German winning a crucial pole position the day before.

He had locked up late in qualifying and the yellow flags that followed forced Hamilton to abort his potentially pole-winning lap. Rosberg was cleared after a three-hour investigation by stewards but Hamilton said on Sunday night: “I wish you could have seen the data. I saw something late on last night and all I could do was smile.”

And Hamilton is in no mood to make up with Rosberg just yet. Asked if he was ready to hug Rosberg, Hamilton replied: “That won’t be for a while. There’s not much to say about our relationship at the moment.” And when Hamilton was pressed on how exactly he planned to put things right in the future he replied simply: “I’m faster.”

The paddock was divided on Sunday about whether Rosberg’s action in qualifying was deliberate. Hamilton refused to accept an apology from the German.

The English driver was upset all over again on Sunday when he was not pulled in earlier for a tyre change and also when he lost vision in his left eye as he attempted to chase down Rosberg. When the two were brought into the pits, Rosberg was dealt with first.

Lauda said: “The pit stop strategy is simple. The guy who is in the lead is the first to come in. Everybody knows this. This is what happened. It’s logical that Lewis is not happy when he’s second. I was not happy when I was second. This is normal. [Mercedes technical chief] Paddy Lowe makes the strategy and the strategy was clear from the beginning.”

But Lauda knows that Mercedes may have to step in to prevent a season-long feud developing. He said: “We have to make sure that it doesn’t get out of hand. And I know with my experience when it gets out of hand. So if they don’t say hello to each other in the morning any more, I think it’s out of hand.”

Did they say hello on Sunday, Lauda was asked? “I don’t know. I wasn’t there, thank God. One thing is clear, that Lewis, from my point of view, has a one or two tenths advantage on Nico. He can get the laps in qualifying. And Nico is working hard – he’s my type – with the mechanics and engineers with the tyres, so we have one natural talent, very emotional. And we have another guy who is doing the same job in another way.

“So we are in a very comfortable situation. We have two different drivers but in the end they do the same speed or the same results.”

Lauda said he would speak to Hamilton at the next round in Montreal, if not before. “Give him time and he will sleep tonight. Hopefully he will make a good party with his girlfriend. I will speak to him tomorrow and I guarantee you it will be fixed. If not I am his mentor anyway. If there are any more issues I will call him. We are going to work it out.”

Mercedes’ executive director, Toto Wolff, said of the feud: “As long as it isn’t detrimental to the team spirit, as long as it is not underhand, we will handle the situation in the way we did before. But the moment it goes in the direction where we believe it is not in the spirit of Mercedes-Benz we will act accordingly.”

Lauda, who won three world championships, admitted he had issues when he drove with Alain Prost. “I hated the guy. When I saw him I got upset, because he was my biggest enemy, in the same team. If you have an enemy in another team it’s much easier to fix because you don’t see him every day.”

Lauda added: “You have to be a bastard if you want to win in Formula One. No question. You cannot win being a nice guy. Tell me one nice guy out there. Do we start with Fernando Alonso? This is a breed of people who are 110% focused and use every trick to blow the other one off.”