Wolff: The Bottas or Russell decision has been made

A first indicator that the call on Hamilton's teammate must have been done at least when the Briton inked a contract extension, as it is highly unlikely he would have put pen to paper had he not known the identity of the guy in the other car.

And clearly condoned the decision, whatever it might be.

Now, twice during qualifying day for the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix, Wolff was asked by Sky F1 if a choice had been made, he replied the first time: “Yes. I have been always genuine with you.”

Later to the same question he confirmed it again, before elaborating: “Yes. If it would have been an easy decision we would have made it earlier as we know what we have with Valtteri and we know what we have with George, and both of them deserve to be looked after in the best possible way as both of them are part of the family and we hold them up high.

"There are pros and cons, with any driver line-up but, in the end, there is no such thing as a perfect discussion. We just need to manage it well, and manage the situation well with whoever driver is not going to be in a Mercedes next year and make sure there is an exciting programme and on the other side manage the situation internally as we’ve always had with Nico [Rosberg] and with George.”

Even with the decision made, Russell's performance on Saturday at a treacherous Spa-Francorchamps was the stuff of legend as he put no-hopers, Williams, in the once familiar spotlight for them, namely the sharp end of an F1 grid.

It was a mammoth achievement not only trouncing Bottas but handing it to Hamilton too, which of course Wolff witnessed: “We know what we have with George, who has been outstanding in the junior drivers, who has been outstanding in a Williams, he has been outstanding in Bahrain, and if I needed to have that ultimate proof then something would have been wrong.

"The decision is considering other factors," he added cryptically.

Of the performance that saw Russell go top of the timing screens late in Q3 on Saturday, before Red Bull's Max Verstappen toppled him, Wolff said: “I looked at the onboards of the drivers and from the beginning, he’s the only one who in La Source gained so much time to everyone else as he’s the only one who’s on the apex, so that is a fact of driving and also have the right set-up and the tyre temperatures in the window.

“The way Williams approached qualifying was very clever, risky but clever, with two consecutive laps and the first one defensive, so they took a risk and won. And it was very committed through Eau Rouge and the car also looks very good through the rest of the lap.

"But it needs a driver to maximise that or exploit the full potential of the package or overperform the package, and all that came together today, and you saw a brilliant lap from a brilliant young driver," Wolff acknowledged.

Williams boss Jost Capito, like most, is rooting for Russell to move to Mercedes despite the loss it would be for his team: "We would love to keep him of course but this result today, if Toto hasn't got the decision done yet I think this puts George even more to Mercedes.

"He's just a talent. He deserves to be in the car that is capable of winning the championship and we fully support him in that," Capito told Sky F1.

Thus the inevitable questions: Why the delay in announcing the 2022 Mercedes line-up? What is Wolff's end game?