LAST MAN STANDING

Four days after he had won the F1 World Championship, Max Verstappen received the coveted trophy at a glittering ceremony in Paris. As he posed alongside his boss (Red Bull Racing team principal, Christian Horner) and Jean Todt, outgoing president of the FIA, the absence of Toto Wolff from the official photograph told the story of a hugely controversial championship denouement that continued to fester.

Wolff should have been present on behalf of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team to acknowledge winning the Constructors’ Championship. Instead, a slightly embarrassed technical director James Allison collected Mercedes’ eighth constructors’ trophy; a remarkable achievement for a team that was more concerned about how the drivers’ title had been