Toto Wolff shares ruthless plan to sack Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg

Toto Wolff has detailed the extreme measures he undertook to manage the fallout between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes.

The duo battled for the F1 title each year from 2014 to 2016 as Mercedes rocketed to the head of the pecking order following a seismic regulation change.

Hamilton came out on top in 2014 and 2015, but in their third year of battling for the title, Rosberg was able to offer his team-mate a more significant challenge.

At the Spanish Grand Prix, the opening lap saw the pair wipe one another out before Max Verstappen went on to score his maiden race win.

A handful of events later, they collided once again at the final lap in Austria, which forced Wolff to take action.

“You’re representing the Mercedes brand, and you just have to accept that it’s not all about you,” Wolff told The Athletic.

"So, fact: they are competitors. We accept the competition. We accept them racing against each other as long as they respect certain red lines. And that is very simple: don’t crash into each other.

"And I have never had any fear of making that very clear. In 2016, [Nico] Rosberg and [Lewis] Hamilton crashed, and then they crashed again. So I fired them. 

“I called my chief executive officer, Dieter Zetsche [Daimler chairman], and said, 'Listen, you need to sign something.'

"And he called me back and said, 'You’re making both drivers redundant?' 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.'”

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Wolf told Hamilton, Rosberg: 'Who do you think you are?'

Hamilton and Rosberg did not collide again that year after they were called into a high-intensity meeting with Wolff.

The Austrian declared that he would not shy away from sacking one of them if they hit each other again, citing the detrimental impact it was having on the many workers at the squad.

“It was their personal rivalry that took over,” he said. “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 organisation, 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% 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 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."

Rosberg went on to win the title at the season finale in Abu Dhabi before retiring a handful of days later.