Where were Mercedes in Japan?

For anyone watching the world feed for the Japanese Grand Prix you could be forgiven for not know what had happened to Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg during the race.

The Mercedes duo roared away from the grid and side-by-side into the first two corners battling wheel-to-wheel for the lead of the race, not that we saw what happened next as the pictures switched to the action further back with Massa and Ricciardo coming together with both suffering punctures.

It was a sign of things to come, two-time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton dominated from the front all afternoon and the we barely saw him throughout the race, even his pit-stop was missed with a brief few seconds of him exiting the pit-lane shown.

Rosberg fell back to fourth following being squeezed by Hamilton at the start [which was eventually briefly shown on a replay], the German got back into second place but his coverage was just as limited.

Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle had questioned the coverage during the race itself, whilst Sky also asked Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff after the race and it was clear he had no understanding why.

One person who is never shy in giving his opinions is Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda, who intends to have words with Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone about the matter.

‘It was funny, to be honest, I was watching TV all day long, and funny enough I saw Saubers and a lot of Honda cars, but I don’t know why. Lauda told the media, including Autosport Magazine.

‘I want to see Bernie next week and ask him what is the reason.

‘At the moment I can’t say much but it was funny today that even the pitstop of Lewis – the leader – you only saw him driving out.

‘You didn’t even see if he changed his wheels. So it was interesting.’

One of the conspiracies as to the reason why was Mercedes decision to not provide Red Bull Racing with Mercedes power-trains for 2016 and beyond.

That decision from the German manufacturer has left Red Bull Racing on the brink of leaving the sport if they cannot conclude a deal with Ferrari.

However Lauda denied this: ‘I don’t think you can go in that direction, I spoke to Bernie on a couple of occasions about this engine deal and it was very clear [Dietrich] Mateschitz [Red Bull owner] never really approached us.

‘Then Ferrari came and offered an engine and it is now being negotiated.

‘So Bernie is not upset with us about the engine, that’s for sure.’