Michael Schumacher was happy with his step forward in Barcelona, while his teammate Nico Rosberg rued a step backwards.
After the "big joy" saga following Schumacher’s poor showing in Turkey two weeks ago, Rosberg was narrowly beaten to sixth place in the Spanish grand prix by his famous teammate.
Auto Motor und Sport believes Rosberg, who openly said the sister W02 ahead of him was struggling with "balance problems", would have been happy if Mercedes had ordered Schumacher aside.
"Whoever wants to pass, must pass," said Norbert Haug, ruling out the imposition of team orders in those circumstances.
"When the drivers are on different strategies, it might be an option. But today they both had the same strategy," he added late on Sunday.
While Schumacher was happy to beat Rosberg, the latter was not happy with the performance of the team in Spain.
"We did a small step backwards," he said. "The guys up there (on the podium) are pretty far away."
Haug admitted: "We didn’t have a good speed. Red Bull and McLaren were in a different league, even if we were not the only ones who looked bad."
"But that’s no consolation," he lamented.