Toto Wolff revealed that he adopted strict measures to control the rivalry between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg during the team’s period of dominance in Formula 1 between 2014 and 2016. At the time, Mercedes established itself at the top and Hamilton won the 2014 and 2015 titles, while Rosberg intensified the dispute the following year.
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The critical point happened precisely in 2016. At the Spanish GP, the two cars touched on the first lap and retired from the race, which ended with Max Verstappen’s victory. A few races later, they were involved in another incident in Austria, on the last lap. Faced with the escalation of conflicts, Wolff toughened his speech and made the team’s limits clear in an interview with The Athletic:
“You are representing the Mercedes brand and you need to accept that it is not all about you,” he said. “So, fact: they are competitors. We accept competition. We accept that they race against each other, as long as they respect certain red lines. And that is very simple: don’t hit each other. And I was never afraid to make that very clear. In 2016, [Nico] Rosberg and [Lewis] Hamilton crashed, and then they crashed again. So I fired them both.”
“I called my CEO, Dieter Zetsche [chairman of Daimler], and said: ‘Listen, you need to sign something.’ And he called me back and said: ‘Are you firing both drivers?’ And I replied: ‘Yes, because otherwise they won’t understand how important this is for the interest of the brand and the team above their interests.’”
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Wolff also stated that the rivalry ceased to be healthy and began to harm the team, which led him to intervene directly with the drivers and establish tougher rules. “It was their personal rivalry that took control,” he said. “And from healthy competition, it evolved into a rivalry and then into animosity. And that is not something I would allow in the organization.”
The season ended with Rosberg winning the world title in Abu Dhabi. He announced his retirement days later.
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