Mercedes F1 News: Toto Wolff reveals the moment he 'fired' Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton

Toto Wolff reveals the moment he 'fired' Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes

Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton worked together between 2013-2024

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 13 April 2026 13:55

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has revealed a heated conversation that he had with Lewis Hamilton, where he temporarily fired the British F1 legend.

Hamilton won six world championship titles at Mercedes between 2013-2024, and helped the team to claim eight consecutive constructors' championships between 2014-2021.

But there was a stage at which Hamilton was not in the good books of his boss Wolff.

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In 2014, 2015 and 2016, Hamilton and his team-mate Nico Rosberg were involved in three fierce championship battles, with Hamilton winning two of those and Rosberg one.

The 2016 season in particular was ill-tempered between the pair, with a thrilling championship battle ensuing.

The Spanish Grand Prix that season saw Hamilton and Rosberg crash into each other and out of the race, leaving Mercedes with zero points as Max Verstappen won on his Red Bull debut.

Wolff temporarily fired Hamilton

Now, Wolff has revealed to The Athletic how, after that race, he temporarily fired both Hamilton and Rosberg in order to make them think about their actions.

He explained: "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?' 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 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 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.

"[Wolff said] '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."

Hamilton and Rosberg part ways

While both drivers were reinstated, Wolff did not have to wait long until the matter was taken out of the team's hands anyway.

After becoming 2016 world champion, Rosberg opted to retire from the sport with immediate effect, leaving Wolff and Mercedes looking for another driver to partner Hamilton.

Valtteri Bottas stepped into the seat for the 2017 season onwards, and had a much more harmonious relationship with Hamilton, allowing the team to claim the next five constructors' championship titles.

Hamilton and Rosberg's relationship remained frayed for a while, but German legend Rosberg revealed a few years ago that they had made up and were friends again.

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F1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Toto Wolff Nico Rosberg