“Don’t Challenge Me”: Mercedes Boss Once Threatened to Throw Out Lewis Hamilton Over Rivalry With Nico Rosberg

The waters at Mercedes may have calmed now in the last few years, but there was a time when the situation was getting out of hand. As the Silver Arrows’ era of dominance started in 2014, teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were each other’s competition. The duo that used to be good friends, turned foes quickly. The worst of the friction between them came in 2016, when they crashed into each other twice. Team principal Toto Wolff had enough of their shenanigans and finally had to crack the whip.

Hamilton arrived at Mercedes in 2013 from McLaren. The team, however, could not challenge for the championships that season and things with Nico Rosberg remained friendly. However, the dynamic changed the next year when the car had enough pace to not just challenge, but also win the championship. Hamilton won back-to-back championships in 2014 and 2015, whereas Rosberg got one over his teammate in 2016 and retired.

Toto Wolff’s harsh words to keep Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in line

That year, the friction between Lewis and Nico reached its peak. In the Spanish GP, the Briton saw some space to lunge and overtake his teammate. However, Nico was caught off guard and pushed his teammate off the track. Resultantly, Hamilton lost his grip and crashed into his teammate. Both Mercedes drivers bowed out of the race. Similar scenes repeated in Austria, but this time, Rosberg alone DNF’d while Hamilton took the win. Furious with both of them, Toto Wolff had to take matters into his own hands.

In a 2022 interview with The Times, Toto said, “After the race, I asked both drivers to come into the room where all the engineers were sitting. I told them, ‘Look at everyone in this room, imagine everyone at home and their families, and see how you make us look.’ I used some harsh words that I’d rather not repeat.” [Translated using Google]

He continued, “I saw the engineers looking down, the drivers looking down. I said, ‘Next time you guys want to push each other off the road, think of all the faces here, you’ll think twice'”.

“And I told them that if that happened again, I wouldn’t hesitate to throw them out of the car. I said, ‘Don’t challenge me – you don’t want to find out what I’m capable of.'”

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Hamilton once recalled how the rivalry with Nico started pretty early when he was just thirteen. Now it looks like they have both put the past behind them, as Rosberg had the highest praise for his old teammate.

Nico Rosberg counts Hamilton among the F1 greats

After the conclusion of the 2022 season, Nico Rosberg uploaded a video on his YouTube channel where he picked his top 5 drivers of the season. While listing out the names, Rosberg also revealed his all-time best F1 drivers. While he praised Max Verstappen, he felt the Dutchman wasn’t ready to make the list that included Hamilton yet.

He revealed, “For me, it’s almost sure that he’s going to be a top-five driver of all time, with the likes of Senna, Hamilton, and Schumacher and someone else where fourth you’d pick Fangio, of course. It’s Schumacher, Senna, Hamilton, and Fangio. That’s top four and it’s quite an easy one, I think. And then you’d put Verstappen there very soon, not yet because he has only two titles, but he’ll be there very soon, I’m sure. So that’s very impressive. He’s only 24-25 years old.”

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It will be interesting to see if Max will make the list if he continues the great run and wins 3 consecutive world titles in 2023.