Toto Wolff reveals talk that stopped Lewis Hamilton ‘divorce’ from Mercedes

Hamilton was unhappy at the end of a 2016 season in which he and teammate Nico Rosberg had several fallings out

Toto Wolff (right) has revealed how he convinced Lewis Hamilton to stay at Mercedes (PA Archive)

Toto Wolff has revealed how he convinced Lewis Hamilton to stay at Mercedes F1 at the end of the 2016 Formula 1 season.

While the season had been a successful one for the German team, taking both Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship victory, Hamilton had clashed with teammate Nico Rosberg on several occasions.

Rosberg eventually claimed his first world title ahead of Hamilton, who defied team orders during the final race of the season in a bid to steal it for himself.

While his German teammate’s shock retirement just days later made a Hamilton departure from the team less likely, there was still a need to calm tension within Mercedes.

Comparing the relationship to that of a marriage, team principal Wolff has revealed how a discussion in his kitchen helped him and Hamilton work through their issues.

“We met at the Christmas party in my home in Oxfordshire that December, reluctantly,” Wolff revealed to The Times.

“I said we need to decide whether we want to work together or not. ‘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. We were in my kitchen.

“I said to him, and [Wolff’s wife] Susie didn’t much like this analogy, that even though Susie and I might disagree about something, it would never come into my mind to divorce.

“‘And it’s the same with you Lewis,’ I said. ‘I don’t want a divorce. You’re the best driver. I want you in our car and we want to provide you with the best car.’”

“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.

“A purely business-related relationship had become a personal relationship. He’s a friend.

“Doesn’t mean we don’t argue anymore, but now Lewis’s success is the team’s success, and the team’s success is Lewis’s success.”

Hamilton followed the discussion by winning the next four world titles, taking his personal tally to a record-equalling seven.

He missed out on a fifth Drivers’ Championship in a row by finishing second to Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi in December.

The 37-year-old will combine with a new teammate in compatriot George Russell during the 2022 F1 season, which begins in Bahrain on Sunday 20 March.