Back in April 2013 I was invited to dinner with Ross Brawn and Toto Wolff, at Mercedes' request, over the weekend of the Bahrain Grand Prix.
It was a predictably civilised affair, held in an Italian restaurant at the swish Sofitel, near the circuit. The dinner had been arranged by Mercedes' F1 comms chief and was ostensibly an exercise in imparting a tone of good relations between Wolff, newly appointed as the team's executive director, and Brawn, then team principal.
The evening progressed amiably enough as both men spoke openly about the huge F1 ambition of Mercedes' main board and how that had translated into a push for the team's management to be restructured.