Aside from the shock of Andy Cowell's decision to leave Mercedes' hugely successful engine division - Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) - there remains the speculation over where the Briton might head once the ongoing period of transition comes to an end.

While his departure is seen by many as a blow to the German team, Toto Wolff points out that it is not the first time a key player has moved on, and as in previous cases the team will need to "reinvent" itself.

"There are two angles to it," he tells the official F1 website. "Obviously, Andy needed a new challenge, and I completely understand that. He came to the decision in December that he wanted to do something else, and it was about reinventing HPP without this one single point of reference, because Andy is very charismatic, a strong leader, with a lot of skills.

"We've been there before," he continued, "Ross leaving, Bob Bell leaving, Paddy Lowe leaving, Aldo Costa leaving, Mark Ellis leaving, and we've always been able to replace with the next generation up.

"Equally we have also realised in the past that there have been vacancies that we weren't able to replace from within," he added, "James Allison is probably the prime example, joining a few years ago."

The transition period will see Cowell working with Hywel Thomas, who has been with HPP for 16 years.