Outside Line: Toto Wolff showed great leadership at the Chinese Grand Prix

It was a class act by Wolff when he sent Peter “Bono” Bonnington up to collect the team trophy with Toto’s boys Antonelli, George Russell and Sir Lewis Hamilton on that historic podium, one on which Wolff himself deserved to stand.

Stretching back to the early seventies, when Formula 1 became my religion, I had never witnessed anything like the racing empire Wolff inherited from Norbert Haug, evolved, and turned into the most potent team in the history of the sport. The 14 Formula 1 world titles are a testament to that.

Before Wolff, we had Colin Chapman at Lotus, Ron Dennis at McLaren, Sir Frank Williams at Williams and Jean Todt at Ferrari. Now we have Toto Wolff at Mercedes, who has bettered them all.

On Sunday, we witnessed Hamilton, for the first time as a Ferrari driver, standing on the podium after defecting from Mercedes to Maranello with seven world championships under his belt, six with the works team and the first with the Mercedes-powered McLaren.

And he owes a great deal to Wolff, who always had his back. The fondness was apparent then and remains so after all these years, and Hamilton’s clear pleasure at being on Sunday's Shanghai podium, despite wearing the red of Ferrari, was priceless.

To replace Hamilton, despite aggressively courting Max Verstappen, Wolff went against the grain and, ignoring so-called common sense, put 18-year-old Antonelli in the second car alongside Russell.

I, for one, thought it was too early for Antonelli. I seemed to be correct in my assumption until the middle of last season. Kimi came alive in the second half. A changed kid. A man. An elite race driver.

Since then, he has never failed to impress me, particularly with his amazing escape acts in qualifying when the chips are down. That sealed it. I was wrong. The kid is potentially Max Verstappen-level brilliant. Wolff knows it and deserves it. His boy. A diamond.

Also, there is George. Another of Wolff’s boys. Earmarked early for the big team. A spell at Williams, at the wrong end of the grid, gave him a solid grounding before he arrived mature and ready for the big leagues, owning Hamilton for two seasons in a row.

And of course Bono, clearly the boss’s pick for such a historic moment in Mercedes history, as they once again stand on the cusp of a dominant run if the first two rounds of this Formula 1 title race are anything to go by.

No one would deny the quartet we saw on Sunday night being there. However, I believe Wolff should have been there too. The fact that he opted out of the limelight directed at him, to me, was great leadership. Respect and applause.