Toto Wolff has confirmed that Mercedes has got the police involved following a bizarre email sent by an anonymous person to F1 journalists after the Canadian Grand Prix, much like the Google Drive file received during the case involving Christian Horner earlier this year.
In Montréal, Lewis Hamilton was fastest by almost 0.4s in FP3 and looked set to go for pole. However, he could not get the same grip in qualifying from the tyres, only managing 7th as George Russell took pole position. It’s now 8-1 in favour of the driver of car number 63 in Grand Prix qualifying.
On the Sunday, Russell passed Hamilton with three laps to go for 3rd and take the final podium spot. It led to a lot of abuse for Russell and Mercedes on social media channels as qualifying and race strategies got called into question.
Pit Debrief has seen the email sent and you can view it in full below:
Subject: A potential death warrant for Lewis
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 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 and those of us who love Lewis others are on a dangerous course that could ultimately be life-threatening to Lewis, other drivers, [and] 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.
Speaking in the team bosses press conference at the Spanish Grand Prix on Friday, Toto Wolff confirmed that the email did not come from a Mercedes employee, adding that they have got the authorities involved due to the nature of the email.
“It’s not from a member of the team.
“When we are getting these kinds of emails, and we’re getting tons of them, it is upsetting, particularly when there is somebody talking about death and all these things.
“On this particular one, I have instructed to go on full force. We have the police inquiring [about] it. We’re researching the IP address. We are researching the phone. All of that 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.”
Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013 and has won 82 races, six Drivers’ Championships, and eight Constructors’ Championships.
Wolff strongly called out the sabotage claims, saying these particular individuals are “mad”.
“I don’t know what some of the conspiracy theorists and lunatics think out there.
“Lewis has been part of the team for 12 years. We have a friendship. We trust each other. We want to end this on a high. We want to celebrate the relationship.
“If you don’t believe all of that, then you can believe that we want to win the Constructors’ world championship. And part of the Constructors’ world championship is making both cars win. So, to all of these mad people out there, take a shrink.”
The Austrian added that while he is happy to discuss things face-to-face, Mercedes will not tolerate anonymous emails and abuse.
“There will always be people that have the laptop on their chest in their bedroom and just typing away.
“If people feel like they want to abuse and hit out 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.
“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.”
