Mercedes have rejected talk of conspiracy theories in relation to Lewis Hamilton's engine problems during the 2016 Formula One season.

Hamilton has been beset by reliability issues this campaign and has already used the maximum amount of power units for 2016.

His latest disappointment came last weekend at the Malaysia Grand Prix when the Briton's engine blew on lap 41 in Sepang, denying him a seventh win of the season and seeing him drop 23 points behind team-mate Nico Rosberg.

The three-time world champion expressed his frustration at the problems, with some on social media accusing Mercedes of assisting Rosberg's title push.

Paddy Lowe has vehemently denied those accusations, though, as the team hope for better fortune at the Japanese Grand Prix.

"If we were good enough to arrange such a sabotage, we wouldn't have any failures," said Mercedes' technical chief.

"F1 is a tough business. The engineering operates right at the boundaries of performance so things do go wrong.

"Anyone with an ounce of intelligence analysing the situation would realise that the prospect of us designing a piece of equipment to fail at that precise moment… if we were that good we would be able to control everything."