The title battle between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg reached such a boiling point in 2016 that Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff even threatened them with dismissal, he has revealed. In the period between 2014 and 2016, now known as the Silver War, both drivers pushed each other to the limit. The heated rivalry led to several costly crashes, after which Wolff had to intervene harshly.
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Nico Rosberg previously revealed that Mercedes deducted the costs of mutual crashes from the drivers’ salaries at the time, regardless of who was at fault for the incident. In a new interview, however, Toto Wolff reveals that he went a step further. After consulting with the company’s top management, he threatened them with dismissal. According to the Austrian, Hamilton and Rosberg’s egos got in their way, causing them to forget that they represented the team first and foremost. Furthermore, their antics on the track had a direct impact on the F1 team’s staff.
Speaking to The Athletic, Toto Wolff looked back on the Silver War and the hostility within the walls of the Mercedes garage. “You represent the Mercedes brand,” he said of the role of both drivers. “You have to accept that it’s not just about you. They were crashing all the time back then. So I fired them.” To prevent further accidents – and the associated damage to reputation – Wolff went to Mercedes CEO Dieter Zetsche in 2016. “I said: ‘Listen, you need to sign something.’ He called me back immediately and asked, bewildered: ‘Are you going to fire the drivers?’ I said: ‘Yes.’ Otherwise, they would never understand that the interests of the brand and the team must be leading.”
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Ultimatum
Wolff then sent a strongly worded message to both Hamilton and Rosberg. “We sent an email with the message: ‘At this moment, you are not part of the team.’ Then we called them and said: ‘Come by tomorrow.’” The team principal gave them both an ultimatum. “It’s nuanced,” he explained. “Where two fight, two are always to blame. So I said to them: ‘If another crash like that happens, someone has to leave. And I might make a mistake in doing so, because I might send the wrong person away.’”
Wolff noted at the time that drivers bear a great responsibility for all the F1 personnel within a team. “People who have to pay off their mortgages and work in the factory, what do they think? That you’re driving into each other because you don’t like each other?” he stated sharply. “It directly affects the lives of 2,500 people. Who do you think you are?”
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