Lewis Hamilton's dreams of teaming up with Ross Brawn appear to be over before it even started as the latter appears to be on his way out at Mercedes.
The 2008 World Champion made the move to the Brackley-based squad this season and he was no doubt expecting to team up with one of the most successful team principals in Brawn.
The 58-year-old not only masterminded Michael Schumacher's two Drivers' Championships at Benetton in 1994 and 1995, but was also at the helm when the German won five titles at Ferrari and when Jenson Button was crowned Champion in 2009 with Brawn GP.
Brawn's future at Merc, though, has been plunged into doubt though after Eddie Jordan told BBC Sport that he is on his way out with the team's chief executive Nick Fry also set to be moved on.
New Mercedes-Benz Motorsport boss Toto Wolff has played down the speculation saying "Ross is here as part of the leading team and I hope Ross is going to stay".
He added: "I haven't been in Brackley yet. I have had conversations with Ross. I admire what Ross has done but I need to understand the structure and what Ross has done.
"At this stage it would be foolish to come in and speak about replacing anybody."
Jordan also claimed that Mercedes have signed Paddy Lowe from McLaren, adding he "won't be technical director, he'll be more senior than that. But he won't be called team principal either, because that will be Wolff. But Lowe will effectively be running the team on a day-to-day basis".
The deal, though, appears to be far from done with the Daily Mail reporting that McLaren executive chairman Ron Dennis ready to take out his cheque book to hold onto Lowe.
"Lowe earns around £600,000 a year at McLaren and could expect £900,000 at Mercedes," the paper claimed.
"Dennis has offered Lowe a rise but not so much that it gravely distorts the company's pay structure.
"The argument was put to him that he might prefer to stick to purely engineering matters rather than involve himself in a wider role of hiring and firing and balancing budgets.
"Lowe had not made his mind up as of last night."
