Rosberg responds to Wolff's shock 'fired' claim over 2016 Hamilton rivalry

Speaking to The Athletic in April, Wolff explained that he went as far as telling then Mercedes CEO Dieter Zetsche that both drivers ought to be "fired," in a message to Hamilton and Rosberg that their own personal interests must never be placed above the team's.

Wolff said: "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.”

As the rivalry between childhood friends Hamilton and Rosberg spilled over into animosity, Wolff also revealed an email was even sent to the two drivers. He added: "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, and based on these factors, we sent them an email and said 'at the moment, you’re not part of the team.'"

The eventual winner of that 2016 title battle, Rosberg, recently spoke about the situation on the High Performance Racing podcast. The German said he remembers a "conversation behind closed doors," but that Mercedes never went as far as actually considering sacking the drivers - instead suggesting a one-race suspension was a more likely punishment at the time.

After their Lap 1 crash at Barcelona in 2016, which allowed an 18-year-old Max Verstappen to secure his maiden F1 victory, Rosberg recalled Wolff's anger. "He came in hard," Rosberg said. "He was like, ‘What the hell are you guys doing out there?’

As for the prospect of the drivers being let go, Rosberg added: "It never came to that fired thing, no. But I know he actually had internal discussions with the big boss, Dieter Zetsche.

Rosberg then shifted his focus to the infamous 'crash clause' Mercedes implemented into the pair's contract. This clause stipulated that Hamilton and Rosberg would split the repair bills equally for any accident between the two of them, regardless of whose fault it was.

He said: "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. 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.

That eye-watering figure was indeed as a result of the coming together in Barcelona, with Hamilton's equal sum totalling a $720,000 bill. In the end, it was Rosberg that came out on top after a dramatic season finale in Abu Dhabi, with the German announcing a shock retirement from F1 just five days after becoming world champion.