Toto Wolff has vehemently denied claims that Mercedes secretly manipulated and hid the true performance of its first 'hybrid' engine in 2014.
Paddy Lowe, who has now left Mercedes and also his most recent team Williams, revealed on F1's official podcast this week that Wolff, Daimler and Formula 1 were "worried about the negative politics of looking too good".
"The thinking was 'if Mercedes had looked ridiculously good, then something would be done about it'," he said.
Lowe said Mercedes therefore controlled the full extent of its dominance by turning down and constantly tweaking engine power throughout the 2014 season.
Team boss Wolff denies it.
"I think Paddy must have been in a different place than I was," he said at Portimao.
"There is no such situation that you turn back an engine just to have regulations tweaked in your direction.
"We were very competitive in 2014 and I think everybody could see that. It was the start of a regulatory environment that wouldn't have been changed anyway. So, yeah, maybe Paddy had that impression," Wolff added.
