Toto Wolff has said that if the title fight between his driver Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen goes down to the wire in Abu Dhabi, whichever of them is in front [in the championship] is going to ‘absolutely do the same as in the Senna–Prost years’, ie have an accident which takes them both out and become champion by default.

Hamilton seemed surprised in the extreme when told of the comment. “I have never won a championship in that way and I wouldn’t want to. I am here to win in the right way and that is through sheer skill, determination and hard work… and if you are going to lose it, you lose it in the right way, with dignity, giving it your all, and working as hard as you can. If it doesn’t work out, you live to fight another day.”

Verstappen was similarly dismissive. “I like what I’m doing, you know, so that takes the pressure off. It’s not the first time I’ve been in a championship fight. Yes, the first time in F1. But that doesn’t really change. You need to win and you just try to do same. If the car is capable of winning I’ll win. If it’s not I won’t. I don’t think about historic fights about previous drivers. I’m just doing the best I can and that’s how to win a championship. My approach with a points lead will be the same. I race hard, like Lewis does, but will always try to keep it clean.”

But let’s think about where Toto may be coming from when he makes that provocative comment. Quite a bit of what Wolff says in public is calculated and has a certain propaganda element. The title fight extends out to the psy-ops and neither he nor Christian Horner are ever shy about engaging in those. From that perspective, anything which diverts pressure onto the other or creates questions in their heads is worth doing and all part of the game. Toto has made that comment at a time when Verstappen is ahead in the points and with the possibility that he may still be ahead as they arrive for the final race. He has almost certainly raised the subject early to make the watching world aware and attuned to it, especially now in this Netflix era of enhanced storylines. If all eyes were upon Verstappen in Abu Dhabi waiting to see if he did what Wolff had suggested if challenged by Hamilton, it would be psychologically even more difficult to do. That’s where Wolff is coming from, believe me. That was not just a throwaway line, but a well-aimed tungsten-tipped sniper’s bullet in the ongoing war.