Toto Wolff explains how a Christmas party talk in the kitchen built a strong relationship between Lewis Hamilton and himself


Toto Wolff explains how a Christmas party talk in the kitchen built a strong relationship between Lewis Hamilton and himself

Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes’ Team Principal Toto Wolff and 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton currently share a robust relationship. But it hasn’t always been like that. In their 8 years of association, things had been rocky between the duo at a point of time. Their relationship hit rock bottom when Lewis Hamilton was defeated by then teammate Nico Rosberg in the 2016 World Drivers’ Championship. It was then that Hamilton unwillingly attended a Christmas party hosted at Wolff’s Oxfordshire mansion, that forever changed the equation between the two.

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It was in his kitchen that Toto put forth the suggestion to Hamilton that they need to work as a team and not according to their personal goals in order to succeed. “You want to win as a driver, I want to win as a team. Sometimes our different agendas are going to lead to conflict and we need to decide whether we can cope with that situation,” added the Austrian executive on recalling the conversation between the two that day. He put forth a parallel where he and his wife Susie Wolff tend to disagree on a lot of things but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’d divorce. Similarly, he told Lewis how he doesn’t want to divorce the driver and sever his ties with him as he considers him to be the best driver in the world.

He reassured the Briton that he wants him in the Mercedes car and wants to provide him with the very best car to accentuate their association together. “We kind of went into this discussion at loggerheads and then, after four or five hours in the kitchen, we found ourselves on a totally different level.”

Toto Wolff talks on the toxic rivalry shared between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff
Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff

When Hamilton and Rosberg clashed on the penultimate lap of the Austrian Grand Prix in 2016, Wolff believes the competition between them got so toxic that he had to yank them back down to reality. It was then that the drivers first faced the fury of their boss. Wolff then further talked about how the two drivers were only stressing on their personal goals and completely disregarding the work that thousands of other employees put for them behind the scenes. Wolff added how he had to make it a point that such behaviour won’t be tolerated in the Brackley-based racing team.

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“After the race, I demanded that both drivers come out to the space where all the engineers were. I told them, ‘Look at everybody here in the room, imagine everybody back at home and their families, and realise how you are making us look.’ I used some harsh words I cannot repeat. I saw the engineers look at the floor, the drivers look at the floor. The next time when you want to drive each other off the road, you think about all the faces here, and then you will think twice.’ And I told them that if it happened again, I would not hesitate to take them out of the car. I said, ‘Don’t challenge me on this — you don’t want to find out what I am capable of.”

This season, the 7-time world champion would look forward to seeking vengeance for last lap loss at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year by putting forth his best performance and challenge current defending world champion Max Verstappen for the 2022 World Drivers’ Championship Title.

Also Read: ‘I’ve suffered mentally,’ Toto Wolff laid bare the immense stress suffered as Mercedes’ Team Principal triggering him into consulting a ‘psychiatrist’