Wolff: Nico and Lewis were like a volcano

The tale of Hamilton and Rosberg is well told, the pair were rivals who became good freinds during their karting days and during the junior phases of their respective careers.

They remained so through to Formula 1, but when Hamilton replaced Michael Schumacher and joined Rosberg at Mercedes the relationship started to go south.

From 2014, the first year of the turbo hybrid era, until Rosberg's shock decision to quit at the end of the 2016 season the relationship had deteriorated to the point that the pair hardly spoke.

They actually went out of their way to ignore one another even when they shared podiums the animosity was visible. The pair collided from the lead on the first lap of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, and on more than one occasion rubbed wheels as they tussled for the title.

Wolff recalled those tumultuous years on Beyond The Grid podcast, "You realise that both of them are complete Alpha drivers - both of them want to attempt to win the world championship, neither of them are slotted in as a number two."

“It is a little bit like a volcano that has started to shake and then eventually erupts. Every single controversy grew into something bigger and that became quite a distraction for the team to manage.

“Because we are humans it always gets complicated emotionally because at times you like one [driver] more than the other - and that is completely normal. But I had a conversation with Alain Prost back in 2014 which gave me a good learning.

“I asked him the question about what went wrong between him and [Ayrton] Senna. Two great drivers saw their relationship breaking down and ending in collision on track."

“He said the biggest problem for him was the transparency of the management. They never knew what the agenda of the senior management in McLaren was.

“You never knew if you were in or out, whether you were the flavour of the month or not, whether there were politics against you or not."

“What I tried to implement very early in the team was the ultimate transparency - we talk about things. Sometimes it’s the inconvenient truth - things you don’t want to hear."

“But over time, over the years, we got to know each other better, we started to trust each other and the inconvenient truth is something that can be very helpful in helping you to achieve your objectives."

“You just put it all out. Sometimes you agree, sometimes you agree to disagree and then at least understand each other’s standpoint."

"This is very important. This is how we handled the situation with Nico. It wasn’t me alone, in the process there were many others in the team that were really helpful and managed it in the same way I did," explained Wolff.

In the four years as Silver Arrows teammates, Hamilton won two world titles, while Nico walked away with the one he wanted. The Briton won 31 times while the German bagged 22 victories during the period.