Sky Sports’ Craig Slater has suggested Mercedes were somewhat taken by surprise by Lewis Hamilton’s decision today.

He said: “It seems to me with no obvious Mercedes replacement standing by and having to have Hamilton at the team for a further year, they maybe knew less about it happening than Ferrari did.

“Have they been left rather exposed by all of this? We’ll have to see what they say. First we heard this morning that Toto was going to come to the factory to present his message. Then it ended up being via video link.

“Normally they’re such a well-oiled machine, if something like this happens, there’s a news conference called and they explain their side of things. They’re in control of the chronology and the timescale and how things are happening.

“I’m not saying he was entirely blindsided. Let’s see. There’s two possibilities – one that Hamilton had a break clause in his contract.

“Or the second that the close relationship between Lewis and Toto allowed him to go to Toto and say, ‘This is what I want to do.’ And Toto says, ‘I respect the fact what you’ve given to the team, I understand, better that you go than stay.’

“Yes Fred [Vasseur] and Lewis get on well. But to what extent has this come from John Elkann? I’m sure he’ll be delighted to have Lewis but the initial thoughts were that this story was to drive down Carlos Sainz’s terms with his contract extension. Not so.”