Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes need him, so how do they manage Abu Dhabi fallout?

The issue is what to do now? Wolff is taking his time to think the matter over and as he does so, a number of factors will come into play.

The first is that Mercedes are facing here a situation with which no team has been confronted since McLaren with Senna and Alain Prost in 1989.

Ron Dennis’ inability to handle that dynamic led to an implosion – Prost signed for arch-rivals Ferrari and the title was decided in a collision between the two drivers in Japan.

A not dissimilar situation arose when Dennis failed to handle the tensions created when Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were team-mates in 2007.

Wolff is keen to avoid falling into that trap. But, realistically, what can he do?

After Rosberg and Hamilton collided in Austria for the second time in five races, he threatened both with suspension if it happened again. However, that’s not what happened in Abu Dhabi.

So a suspension can surely be ruled out – despite Wolff’s post-race remark that “everything is possible”.

In time, Wolff will probably sit down with Hamilton and discuss it. But what then?

Wolff said: “Throughout these last three years we have really tried to create an environment and a set of values in the team and one of the reasons is the individuals in this team are very much part of it.

“They bought into these values. You cannot invent a rule for every single situation. This is motor racing and it would make it the most boring sport ever if we would have a corporate solution for every single situation.

“The tricky bit here is what does that mean for the future of the team and how can we progress and not be over-corporate and boring but allow them to race?

“It wasn’t acknowledged that we have let them race over the last three years.

“We could have had a much smoother run and decided that ‘you are going to win or you are’ and this is how it happened in Red Bull and in Ferrari many years ago and how it happened many years in other teams.

“We are not here in the credit-taking business because it needs headlines – but I think we have coped quite well with this situation the last three years.”