On top of that, it has also managed to weather one major rules change – the switch to higher-downforce cars in 2017 – and last year’s more minor tweaks without losing ground. It’s the only team to have gone through such as substantial chassis rules change and remain at the top of the pile. That’s a measure not just of how good it is, but also the planning functions, the capacity to balance up development of one year’s car with that of another, and to zero in on the right blend of characteristics to thrive. And never has the team appeared to go overly-aggressive just for the sake of it.

These are just a few examples of areas where the Mercedes team works so well. You could turn the spotlight on every single department and find countless such ways of working that have contributed to making the team so strong, but the common factor is the culture that Wolff – among others – instills. Yes, you can point to budget, facilities and sheer resource as crucial, but it’s how you use these that matters. As, say, Toyota showed in the first decade of this century, that simply gives you potential that, inadequately exploited, wins you nothing.

There remains one test for Mercedes to pass that it has yet to take on, and that’s responding to outright failure. There will come a time when it does not win the championship, and that will be the ultimate test of its culture and robustness.

But it’s so effective an operation that this reckoning might be some way off yet. Its rivals can’t hope for the 2021 regulation changes to trip up Mercedes – instead, they must find a way to become better, and raise the bar yet further for teamwork and culture.

Mercedes-AMG F1, Formula 1,