Mercedes officials have continued to slam suggestions that they are "sabotaging" Lewis Hamilton's title charge.
The reigning world champion threw fuel on the conspiracy theories in Malaysia, after suffering yet another engine problem, this time while on the cusp of regaining the 2016 points lead.
However, Mercedes's engineering chief Paddy Lowe denied that Hamilton ever "hinted" at sabotage.
"Lewis has been very clear, certainly with us, that that's completely out of the question," he said at Suzuka.
Team chairman Niki Lauda also denies that Mercedes secretly engineered Hamilton's engine blow-up at Sepang.
"Bullshit," the F1 legend told Swiss newspaper Blick.
"We wanted to give the world title to our main sponsor Petronas in Malaysia. "Now we have to wait for Japan. That is embarrassing enough.
"Nico [Rosberg] and Lewis will fight for the title between them, and hopefully neither will be stopped by technical problems. Any engine failure now would just be embarrassing."
Rosberg leads Hamilton by 23 points heading into the Japanese Grand Prix.
