‘I fired them’ – Wolff reveals initial strong reaction to Hamilton and Rosberg crash

Toto Wolff has revealed he decided to fire both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg after they crashed in Barcelona, but backed out as he could not decide who was to blame.

In the midst of a heated intra-team battle, the 2016 title rivals collided at the start of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, which led to crisis talks within the Mercedes Formula One Team.

Toto Wolff ‘fired’ Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg

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Rosberg was the defending race winner and entered the round with a forty-three-point lead over teammate Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship.

Hamilton started from pole position having beaten Rosberg by a quarter of a second in qualifying.

But it was Rosberg who made the better start, passing Hamilton into Turn 1. Hamilton tried to fight back at Turn 3, but as Rosberg defended his position, Hamilton went off track, spun and the two collided at Turn 4. Both were out of the race.

Having seen a certain one-two become a double DNF, team principal Wolff was left furious at the actions of his drivers.

Speaking to The Athletic, Wolff has now revealed that he had decided to fire them both, going as far as asking the Mercedes CEO to sign off on it.

“I have never had any fear of making that very clear. In 2016, Rosberg and Hamilton crashed, and then they crashed again. So I fired them.

“I called my chief executive officer, Dieter Zetsche, and said, ‘Listen, you need to sign something.’ And he called me back and said ‘You’re making both drivers redundant?’

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“And I said, ‘Yeah, because otherwise they won’t understand how important it is to the interest of the brand and the team above their own.’

“It was their personal rivalry that took over. And from a healthy competition, it went to a rivalry and it became animosity. And that’s just not something I would allow in the organization, and based on these factors, we sent them an email and said, “At the moment, you’re not part of the team.”

“On Wednesday, we called them and said, “Come in tomorrow,” and I said, “My problem is that I don’t know whose fault it was.” Because it’s nuanced. Like everything in life, it’s never 100 percent wrong. It may be 50-50. It might be 51-49. It’d be 70-30. And I can’t judge.

“And so what I said to them is that if it happens again, one has to go, and I may make a mistake. I may send the wrong one away.

“People who need to repay their mortgages who work in the (Mercedes) factories, what do they think? That you two crash into each other because you don’t like each other? And it directly affects the lives of two and a half thousand people.

“Who do you think you are? And that’s an important understanding that you need to have with your drivers.”

In the end, Wolff’s decision was made for him as Rosberg opted to retire having bested Hamilton for the 2016 crown.

The German announced just five days after the season finale that he was done, retiring at age 31.

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