To listen to recent comments made by Niki Lauda, the Non-Executive Chairman of Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, saying that, for the team, the title chase is on the brink of being finished is to me quite amazing after just six races into a 20-race season.
He then adds "One thing is clear: Vettel needs to retire at least once, otherwise its over".
This from the man who made sensational "he cheated death" headlines in 1976, then missed two complete races due to his severe injuries out of a 16-race calendar, and still came back to narrowly lose the title race to James Hunt then later won the Formula 1 Drivers Championship by just a half of a point at the last race of the 1984 season after starting the final race 11th and finishing second.
This statement was then backed up by the assertion from Toto Wolff, the Executive Director of Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team who maintains "From now on Ferrari is the favourite for the Championship and we are just the underdogs."
It seems extraordinary that a team so dominant over the past few years, who are the current world champions, holding both the drivers and constructors titles, having arguably the fastest driver on the grid as a de facto number 1 in the team and with, once again arguably, the strongest engine on the grid can so quickly start talking of needing the competition to fail in order for them to succeed.
Has the last recent and extended period of dominance taken the fight out of the team or have they forgotten that Formula 1 is in a constant state of change with developments coming race by race, almost day by day?
As this season has already shown, much depends on the balance and set up of any of the cars at any given circuit as well as depending upon the personal set up of the driver over the race weekend.
Looking at the first six races of 2017 we start with the Australian GP where Ferrari announced their 2017 campaign with a win for Sebastian Vettel from the Mercedes pair of Hamilton and Valterri Bottas.
Next was Shanghai where Hamilton dominated. On to Bahrain and it was Vettel again winning from Hamilton then to Sochi in Russia where Bottas scored his so far solitary win then to Barcelona and it was the turn of Hamilton and finally just two weeks ago in Monaco it was that celebrated 'one - two' for Ferrari with Vettel winning from Raikkonen.
The first Ferrari one - two since the 2010 German GP, seven long years.
So six races into the season and the score is Mercedes three, Ferrari three.
Hamilton's "disastrous" (Niki Lauda's word) performance at Monaco was blamed on the difficulty that the Mercedes had in getting the Pirelli tyres, made in Turin, Italy, up to the correct operating temperature, a problem that clearly did not affect either Ferrari and that prompted a veiled reference by Toto Wolff to an "Italian Mystery'.
A reference that was immediately leapt upon by Tronchetti Provera the President of Pirelli who asserted that "The tyres are the same for everyone. Perhaps Mercedes, have been used to lots of success and now face an uphill task, but they will come back"
He went on to say "It was a very serious piece of work on the part of Vettel and Ferrari, Vettel was always ready with humility, to test when others were 'not available' and the results are the fruit of a lot of passionate work from a team that is totally focussed on winning."
A clear reference to Mercedes not putting enough effort into pre season tyre testing and perhaps getting just a little complacent after years of domination.
In fact the Ferrari duo completed more than 3,200kms of Pirelli tyre testing to Hamiltons mere 50kms. A case of "what goes around" perhaps?
Perhaps the ever present politics of Formula 1, suppressed amongst smiles and paddock bonhomie for weeks now, are just starting to bubble to the surface again, just like the sport's water borne cousin, the Americas Cup.
This weekend sees the circus in Canada racing on Montreal's 'Île Notre-Dame' circuit, another of the 'great' Formula 1 tracks still surviving. A real race track without the vagaries of the streets of Monaco to confuse things.
Mercedes cars have dominated at this track for the last two years but Ferrari have not won there since 2004 with Michael Schumacher. However, both Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen have one win to their names with Red Bull and McLaren respectively.
It may be that the directors of the Mercedes team, both Executive and Non-Executive, see themselves as some modern day King Canute, three pointed star held aloft, while trying to stem the inexorable tide of the rampant black 'Cavallino Rampante' threatening the silver hued beaches they have made their own.
Perhaps after this weekend we will see Mercedes back on top of the enthralling title chase and the Mercedes management will get back on an even keel of talking competition and not vague or cloaked accusations or defeatist talk undeserving of their stature.
