Toto Wolff has revealed that he sought to sack both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg following their collision at the Red Bull Ring in 2016.

Friends since their karting days, the pair developed a bitter rivalry as teammates at Mercedes, and in 2016 it came to a head.

Essentially the 'new boy' at Mercedes, Hamilton had joined the German team in 2013, and with the rules overhaul of 2014 claimed the title and again the following year.

Over the winter of 2015, Rosberg took a new approach, changing his diet, avoiding social media, even employing a sports psychologist in a bid to find the aggression required to beat his illustrious teammate.

Their friendship clearly a thing of the past, the pair enjoyed numerous battles which often ended in tears. In Spain the pair took each other out on the opening lap, whilst a further clash in Austria saw (race leader) Rosberg incur damage, and while Hamilton went on to win he was loudly booed on the podium.

Whilst it was thrilling for fans watching on their TVs, for Wolff, who had responsibility for the team's 2,500 employees, it was the last straw.

"You're representing the Mercedes brand, and you just have to accept that it's not all about you," the Austrian told The Athletic. "Fact; they are competitors. We accept the competition. We accept them racing against each other as long as they respect certain red lines. And that is very simple, don't crash into each other. And I have never had any fear of making that very clear.

"In 2016, Rosberg and Hamilton crashed, and then they crashed again," he continued. "So, I fired them...

"I called my chief executive officer, Dieter Zetsche, and said, 'Listen, you need to sign something.' 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.'

"It was their personal rivalry that took over," he explained. "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 organisation, and based on these factors, we sent them an email and said, 'At the moment, you're not part of the team.'

"On the Wednesday, we called them and said, 'Come in tomorrow', and I said, 'my problem is that I don't know whose fault it was'. Because it's nuanced. Like everything in life, it's never 100% wrong. It may be 50-50. It might be 51-49. It could be 70-30. And I can't judge.

"So, what I said to them is that if it happens again, one has to go, and I may make a mistake. I may send the wrong one away.

"People who need to repay their mortgages who work in the factories, what do they think?" he said. "That you two crash drivers into each other because you don't like each other? And it directly affects the lives of two and a half thousand people. Who do you think you are? And that's an important understanding that you need to have with your drivers."

Not sure whether Toto is looking for Drive to Survive to run a reflection episode, Netflix to make a movie, promoting an autobiography further down the line or preparing himself for future fireworks between his current drivers.