The Canadian GP was a thrilling affair for Mercedes with George Russell grabbing the pole position. While the Briton failed to cling on to the top position in the race, he managed to deliver the team’s first podium of the season. Unfortunately, that achievement got buried under a controversy Mercedes found itself becoming a part of the very next day.
A number of F1 journalists and high-ranking F1 and FIA officials received an anonymous email, much like the Christian Horner case earlier this year. The email in question claimed to be from a Mercedes employee.
The contents of the email talked about Lewis Hamilton facing deliberate ‘sabotage’ at the hands of the Silver Arrows. It also threw shade at Toto Wolff for being ‘vindictive’ towards Hamilton for leaving Mercedes for Ferrari.
While the Brackley-based outfit has already rubbished the contents of the said email, Wolff has come out all guns blazing now. The team boss has called for a thorough police investigation into the matter.
Formule 1-team Mercedes schakelt politie in na anonieme mail over ’saboteren’ Lewis Hamilton.
Teambaas Toto Wolff: “Tegen al die gekken die er zijn, zou ik willen zeggen: ga naar een psychiater.”https://t.co/o3J4MLy3Fk via @telegraaf
— Erik van Haren (@ErikvHaren) June 21, 2024
The Austrian manager also wants the authorities to track down such ‘cowards’ through their IP address and bring them to justice for such online abuse. De Telegraaf quoted Wolff as saying,
“That’s disturbing, especially when someone is talking about death and things like that in an email like that. That is why I said that we should investigate this fully and call in the police. Online behavior like this needs to stop. People who sit in front of their phones or computers cannot vilify teams or drivers in this way. I don’t know what kind of idiots there are.”
Wolff also advised such “crazies” to see a psychiatrist. He then reiterated how valuable Hamilton is to Mercedes, as they have shared 12 years together, and talked about the friendship he shares with the seven-time champion.
Is there a connection between the email and Lewis Hamilton’s comments?
Mercedes delivered a competitive car in Canada as upgrades worked their magic. However, only one driver managed to take full advantage of the package, and that was Russell. Hamilton, who qualified P7 and finished P4, was far from satisfied. However, he directed that anger towards himself for making too many mistakes and did not target Mercedes.
Hamilton, as per Sky F1, said, “I’m not feeling much different. It was over the weekend just a really poor performance from myself. Yesterday, some other things came into it, but mostly myself. Then today, just one of the worst races that I’ve driven. Just lots of mistakes. But of course, if I’d have qualified better, I would have been in a much better position.”
The email following that day, however, accused the team of deliberately sabotaging him. While the contents of the said email are not public, the attempt to drive a wedge between Hamilton Mercedes is clear.
