I've seen several videos speculating about Lewis quitting the sport and even those hinting that Toto and maybe Mercedes would walk away. However, I would put it down to a combination of anger at how the season finale ended and a concealed possible threat to the FIA to sort themselves out, or else.

Lewis is a 7 times world champion. He knows the ups and down of the sport, and he still has that fire in him to achieve more. What better for him than to surpass Michael Schumacher's total. Would he really be prepared to walk away from all that because of the outcome of one race?

Likewise for Toto and Mercedes. If Lewis walks away, they need another top driver to take his spot, along with Russell, and the season starts again in three months. If Toto walks, Mercedes need a new team principal. I suppose Mercedes could decide to walk away and take their engines with them (as you mentioned earlier), which would really screw up F1. That's why I think it's all posturing towards the FIA (and maybe Liberty Media) - Lewis walks, Toto walks, Mercedes walk. You're now faced with a grid of 18 cars, 6 of which don't have engines, and three months to sort it all out before the flag drops, and you can't just drop in a Ferrari or Honda/Red Bull engine in it's place.

have a look back at the year when hawthorn won the championship instead of moss when moss went to the stewards and explained to them that hawthorn shouldn't be black flagged

It was still a sport in those days.
American money hadn't become involved.
I'm just showing my age.

It's State sponsorship from countries with a minimal or non-existent grasp on democracy and human rights that are a huge factor. :tuttut:
I don't know when that became significant but Bernie Ecclestone's name springs to mind.....

I vaguely remembering hearing about this on TV, not at the time :D so thought I'd Google it, and came across this article. A fascinating read and as Ray said 'It was still a sport in those days':

https://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id...d-championship

Also came across this article written prior to the last race of 2016. You can ignore the first four paragraphs as they are the antithesis of the real story further down:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/bl...rg-formula-one