Lewis Hamilton's former boss, Toto Wolff suggests that the Briton's return to form could be down to the Kardashian effect.

Whilst clearly regretting his own team's failure, George Russell failing to capitalise on pole position, despite his clear dominance throughout the rest of the weekend, and Kimi Antonelli's DNF, Toto Wolff didn't begrudge Lewis Hamilton's return to the top step of the podium.

"I'd rather not fight with him for a title, because I know what he's capable of," said the Austrian, when asked about the possibility of a head-to-head with the driver with whom he won six titles.

"If he smells blood, he goes," he added. "I've seen it many years where suddenly the Lewis Hamilton train started to go and then it's very difficult to stop it."

Asked if the Ferrari driver is a genuine threat to Mercedes, which has six of the races thus far, Wolff was in no doubt: "Yes, absolutely," he replied.

"We're so early in the season and the gap is 41 points," he continued. "You can see a DNF robs you of 25 points, and it's wide open. That's why we can't afford to not finish. We need to just keep putting performance on the car and the power unit, not make mistakes, be clever with the strategy, and stay absolutely on it."

Asked what he puts the rediscovering of Hamilton's mojo down to, the Austrian said: "Hard work. And I think this is a car that is maybe different to the previous era cars with the bouncing, with the stiffness, maybe not easy to feel. This is back to more conventional driving in terms of, I would say, at least aerodynamics and vehicle dynamics.

"Obviously the engine management is completely different," he continued, "but you can see he's driving strong. The dynamics in the team look to be good between him and his race engineer. I saw him on the podium on the telly, I mean, that face shows me that he's very happy.

"Maybe the girlfriend helps," he grinned. "It helped me to have a partner that, you know, you have a stable family life and they seem to be getting on really well.

"I think it's all of those factors that put together the emotional and personal and professional perspective: if they are in a good place, you win."