Hamilton: We'll see at the end of the year

But team chief Toto Wolff laughed it off when asked about the comments, "It's Bernie! I just had a game of backgammon against him and I lost. He comes in and throws a hand-grenade and it's in the papers - it's great!"

"How the news runs these days we are oscillating between exuberance and depression, and back again, and when things are not going in the right direction it's doom days and when you win two races in a row it's the 'Mercedes dominance destroying the sport'. Maybe it's somewhere in the middle."

Mercedes have yet to win a race so far this season, something unheard of in the previous four seasons, Wolff acknowledged, "We haven't collectively performed on the level we would have wanted to."

"There were three races we could have won and we didn't, that's a fact. I still see the fire and desire very much burning in him [Hamilton]."

"Lewis is remarkably easy with these kind of things. All of us very much respect Bernie, but we have also learnt to take the comments with a smile. It's the same way he does it."

Four times F1 world champion Hamilton was pushed in the post-qualifying press conference to respond to Ecclestone's taunt, but refused to be drawn into a slanging match and said simply: "We'll see at the end of the year."