The battle for the Formula 1 title in 2016 saw Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton fight tooth and nail. Despite Toto Wolff claiming the Mercedes teammates were close to being fired over the heated battle, Rosberg doubts it would have come down to it.
The infamous title fight between Hamilton and Rosberg saw the two former childhood friends go head-to-head. With the two teammates both desperate to secure the title, the battle ended with Rosberg on top for the first time. The German grabbed his maiden title and, days later, announced his retirement from Formula 1.
Rosberg: ‘It never came to that fired thing’
One of the most explosive moments of the fight came in the form of the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. The two Mercedes drivers crashed into each other, with both claiming the other was at fault. Speaking to The Athletic about the incident, Toto Wolff said he had decided to fire both Mercedes drivers.
While Rosberg explained that Wolff was furious with his drivers, he does not believe it would come down to firing them.
“He came in hard. He was like, ‘What the hell are you guys doing out there?’” Rosberg said on the High Performance podcast.
“Because we handed the win to Red Bull, of course. That’s the worst thing you can do, hand the win to the fierce enemy, Red Bull. That’s the most horrible thing. So, Toto was not happy with that.”
When asked whether Wolff had informed them they were fired, the German contradicted the claim: “It never came to that fired thing, no.
“But I know he actually had internal discussions with the big boss, Dieter Zetsche. About taking that step as a… I don’t think it was… probably a suspension or something, would have been a first step, for a race, something like that.
“So, there was actually that conversation behind closed doors. It never came to us. That’s pretty crazy.”
Paying for the crash
The Spanish GP incident left the drivers furious with each other, but it also led Wolff to consider repercussions. While fighting for the title had the two going toe-to-toe, it could not go on like that. There needed to be consequences for the damage caused by the heated battle.
“Toto put a contract on the table that we had to sign, and it was 50/50 of the damage I had to pay myself,” Rosberg explained.
“It didn’t matter whose fault it was. So, even if it was 90 per cent Lewis’s fault, I had to pay 50/50 of the actual damage we caused.
“So, one of the crashes I had to pay $360,000, so that definitely calmed us down. That was expensive. That was not really a fun exercise. So one crash was $360,000.
“So that was one thing he did, contract on the table.”
The fallout from the incident served as a reminder, and Mercedes kept the damaged cars’ side pods. The team hung them on the walls of their Brackley office.
The difficulty of knowing who was at fault
Moreover, both drivers blamed the other for the big crash. Regardless of who was at fault, they both had to pay for the damage and suffer the consequences. Despite this, Rosberg believes the Mercedes team could have handled the aftermath of the incident better.
“One thing that they could have done better, the most important thing is a lot of communicating, preparing for every possible scenario as best you can, and the team also could have done… but it’s hard to predict all these things. You can’t predict that there’s going to be such wheel-to-wheel incidents with teammates.” Rosberg admitted.
“But they could have made more of an effort, really laying out exactly whose fault it is in what different situation.
“We did a good job then in doing more and more of that. So it was really like all the way to the details, like if your tyre is there, then it’s the inside car, his corner, but if you’re blah blah blah. So we really went to the extent of every single detail.
“At least you have guidelines that you can then refer to afterwards. Because if you have a crash, and it’s a big, big, big fight behind those doors, because no one really knows who is at fault, then it really becomes difficult, because then people take sides, and feel unfairly treated, and that’s when it all spirals out of control completely.”
Looking at the possibility of another title battle among teammates, the team could consider Rosberg’s reflections on handling wheel-to-wheel battles with a different set of Mercedes teammates.
READ MORE: Mercedes admits intra team ‘dilemma’ as title battle intensifies
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