George Russell & Kimi Antonelli beware! Toto Wolff almost fired Lewis Hamilton & Nico Rosberg in 2016!

Mercedes put Hamilton and Rosberg—both rivals and supposedly friends since their days in karts—as teammates from 2013, and in 2014 the team dominated the first V6 turbo-hybrid era, and the teammates soon found themselves in contention for a Formula 1 Championship.

But with all their rivals way behind, Hamilton and Rosberg ended up fighting each other, which turned into a bitter rivalry that culminated in their crash while fighting for the lead in the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix.

Wolff may have the same problem on his hands in 2026 with a dominant Mercedes and two drivers—George Russell and Kimi Antonelli—fighting in contention for the championship.

But from what the Mercedes boss revealed about the 2016 incident between Hamilton and Rosberg, Russell and Antonelli should be wary.

Asked about managing drivers, the Austrian said: “You’re representing the Mercedes brand, and you just have to accept that it’s not all about you. 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," Wolff recalled, "and then they crashed again. So I fired them. I called my chief executive officer, Dieter Zetsche [at the Mercedes-Benz automotive company at the time], 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 organization.

"Based on these factors, we sent them an email and said, 'At the moment, you’re not part of the team,'" Wolff revealed in a sensational admission.

However, history showed Hamilton and Rosberg continued to race at Mercedes that season.

Rosberg went on to win that year's title before retiring days after the feat, while the Hamilton won four more titles between 2017 and 2020. He lost out on 2021 to Max Verstappen and ultimately left for Ferrari in 2025.

So why did they stay? Wolff said: “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 explained to Hamilton and Rosberg at the time what the consequences their actions had on the team; he said: “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," Wolff concluded. (Source: The Athletic)