Toto Wolff reveals he "fired" Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg before dramatic Mercedes F1 U-turn

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has revealed his stunning plan to sack both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at the height of their fierce Formula 1 rivalry in 2016.

Hamilton and Rosberg engaged in exclusive intra-team battles for world championships during a spell of Mercedes domination between 2014 and 2016. After Hamilton prevailed to secure the 2014 and 2015 world titles, Rosberg fought back in 2016 to claim his one and only world championship before sensationally retiring from F1.

The Silver Arrows pair had several on-track clashes during an intense battle for F1 title supremacy in 2016, the most notable coming at the Spanish Grand Prix, where Hamilton and Rosberg wiped each other out on the opening lap.

Wolff was left so angry in the aftermath of the Barcelona incident he wanted to fire both drivers on the spot, he has now sensationally admitted in an interview with The Athletic.

“You’re representing the Mercedes brand, and you just have to accept that it’s not all about you,” Wolff said. “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 crTiashed again. So I fired them. I called my chief executive officer, Dieter Zetsche [at the Mercedes-Benz automotive company]. 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.”

Wolff added: “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 organisation, and based on these factors, we sent them an email and said, “At the moment, you’re not part of the team.”

Wolff explained that he ultimately backed down because he could not decide who was ultimately at fault for the collision.

“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,” he said.

“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.”