London: Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg will receive no special instructions ahead of their all-Mercedes shootout for the Formula One world title.

The marathon 21-race season reaches its climax in Abu Dhabi, with Hamilton trailing his teammate by 12 points. Rosberg only needs to finish third or better to be certain of emulating his father, Keke, who won the world championship in 1982.

"Regardless of the standings, we won't tell them how to race," said Niki Lauda, the Mercedes chairman. "There will be no deals about how they go into the first corner. No special lessons for them. It is the same at every weekend - they are free to race.

"They will both want to get on pole and win. They will work on set-up and work hard to be the quickest. Then when it comes to the last few laps and, say Nico is second or third, he will just be praying, 'Please car, don't stop on me'."

Technical ill-luck has been Hamilton's enemy this season, while Rosberg's machinery has been near-faultless throughout. The imbalance has led to conspiracy theories, along the lines of Mercedes being a German team wanting their countryman Rosberg to prevail.

Such speculation fails to recognise that the F1 team is very much a British enterprise, based in Northamptonshire in factories in Brackley and Brixworth.

Lauda said: "There is no favouritism. Honestly... Toto (Wolff, the team principal) and I have been clear from the start that we leave it open for both drivers. That is the view from Dieter Zetsche (president of Mercedes' parent company Daimler) down.

"We have done everything we can in the factory to make sure that both cars will finish the race. We have looked at every detail.

"Because it comes down to the last race, everybody is taking extra care with this."