Mercedes report Lewis Hamilton ‘sabotage’ email to police and hit out at “lunatics”

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has confirmed an anonymous email accusing the team of ‘sabotaging’ Lewis Hamilton has been reported to the police.

An email was sent on June 10 - a day after the Canadian Grand Prix - from an anonymous source claiming to be a member of the Mercedes team. The sender accused Mercedes of ‘sabotaging’ Hamilton and even putting the seven-time world champion’s life in danger.

Mercedes insist the letter did not come from a team member, but rather a disgruntled Hamilton fan, who used an invented email address.

“It is not from a member of the team,” Wolff said. “When we are getting these kinds of emails, and we are getting tons of them, it is upsetting particularly when someone is talking about death and all these things.

"On this particular one I have instructed to go full force with police inquiring it, researching the IP address, researching the phone number, because online abuse in that way needs to stop. People can’t hide behind their phones, or their computers, and abuse teams or drivers in a way like this.

“I don’t know what some of the conspiracy theorists, lunatics, think out there. Lewis was part of the team for 12 years, we have a friendship, we trust each other, we want to win…and end this on a high and celebrate the relationship.

“And if you don’t believe all of that, then you can believe we want to win the constructors world championship and that is by making both cars win. To all of these mad people out there, take [see] a shrink.”

Hamilton, who will leave Mercedes to join Ferrari next year, stressed ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix that he had not seen the email, but defended teammate George Russell, who has been subjected to online hate and abuse.

“I wasn’t actually aware that George was experiencing any negativity,” Hamilton said. “George has done nothing but his best every single weekend and delivering for the team, so he can’t be faulted at all.

“Of course there are always things that can be better within a team and that comes through conversations, through communication, and that’s what we’re consistently working on.

“But we’re all in the same boat, we’re all working hard together and we all want to finish on a high. We owe that to our long-term relationship.”

What was in the email?

According to The Daily Mail, who have seen the email, it was titled 'A potential death warrant for Lewis’.

“The email said: ‘Some of us in the team are unhappy about the systematic sabotaging of Lewis, his car, his tyre strategy, his race strategy, his mental health, and the unprofessional way Toto, lover boy George and others are mistreating him.

“Toto is vindictive and is like a scorned wife no longer speaking with Lewis but is doing everything possible to get back at him. Lewis is excluded and some underhanded (sic) things are going on that people need to be aware of.

“Ask the questions and the truth will out. It is all in the data and is recorded. With the exception of Bono (Peter Bonnington, Hamilton’s race engineer) and those of us who love Lewis, others are on a dangerous course that could ultimately be life threatening to Lewis, other drivers, even the public. A cold tyre strategy is a death warrant.

"Toto, George beware and be correct. Not all of us are prepared to be a part of your unfair unprofessional destruction of Lewis for your own self-gratification.”