Shop
Hamilton is set to depart Mercedes at the end of the season after more than a decade with the operation.
His final season with the squad has thus far proved tricky, with team-mate George Russell enjoying a better run of results than the seven-time champion.
That has sparked suggestions of favouritism within Mercedes, given Russell will become team leader next season.
It’s on that theme that an email was sent to select figures within Formula 1, including this writer, making wild accusations against the team.
Sent from a ‘burner’ address on the Monday following the Canadian Grand Prix, the email, titled “A potential death warrant for Lewis”, claimed to be from a concerned member of Mercedes.
“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,” it claimed, in part.
It goes on to brand Wolff “vindictive”, that Hamilton is being excluded, and that aside from a group of supporters within the organisation, “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.”
Curiously, it appeared to use an identical email distribution list as was used for the leaked Christian Horner evidence earlier this year, though the sender’s email address was different.
Asked about the allegations raised in the email, Wolff rejected it entirely and revealed that he’s asked his team to fully investigate and pursue the source.
“It is not from a member of the team,” he declared.
“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.”
Mercedes sits fourth in the constructors’ championship behind Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, and McLaren, after finishing second last year.
The two-place drop, should Mercedes remain there, will result in a financial hit for the team as prize money is paid out based on the result of the constructors’ championship.
It is therefore not in the team’s best interest (and Wolff is a one-third owner of Mercedes) to hinder Hamilton’s chances.
“I don’t know what some of the conspiracy theorists, lunatics, think out there,” the Mercedes boss noted.
“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.”
Wolff went on to throw his support behind Hamilton, further highlighting the unprecedented success they’ve enjoyed together.
“There will always people will be there who have the laptop on the chest in the bedroom and just typing away,” he said.
“If people feel like they want to abuse and hide behind a made-up Instagram account, or anything else, that for me is… come up, say who you are, and we’ll take the criticism and discuss, but don’t hide.
“There seems to be lots of irrationality also,” he added.
“We want to be successful. We want to be successful with the most iconic driver the sport has ever had.
“The privilege that we had to work with Lewis as an incredible driver, and a great personality, that goes through the ups and downs like any other like any other sports person.
“I totally respect the reasons for him going to Ferrari. There is no grudge, there is no bad feeling.”
The Mercedes team boss then doubled down on his statements that he intends to pursue the matter in an effort to track down the author.
“The interaction we have in the team is positive and so every comment from the outside of what is going on in the team is just simply wrong. But there’s always a limit,” he said.
“If emails are being sent or telephone numbers are being used for these messages then, for me, the joking stops and we will pursue it – whether that is successful or not, but there are limits to certain things and, obviously, online abuse is not something that happens only to us to the team or to the people.
“It happens badly to Lewis and to George and we’ve seen Max [Verstappen] speaking out about it, and Kelly [Piquet], people that abuse are cowards because they hide so, whatever’s going on out there with social media with all the good things that it provides and all those people that are being given a platform, that’s just the negatives that come with it.
“I have no feelings to someone who abuses for the reasons I just said before.”
