Toto Wolff says that Mercedes has asked the British police to investigate an “upsetting” email that was sent from an anonymous account, which alleged a “systematic sabotaging” of Lewis Hamilton by his own team.
The message was sent on June 10 to a mailing list of F1 media and key insiders that appeared to be similar to one used to circulate alleged messages from Christian Horner earlier this year.
Under the subject of “a potential death warrant for Lewis”, the writer claimed to be a Mercedes employee and wrote that the team has deliberately been making life difficult for Hamilton in order to help his teammate George Russell.
The implication was that Wolff and Mercedes are favouring Russell now that Hamilton is heading for Ferrari. An SMS message was also sent to some media representatives.
Asked in Barcelona on Friday about the email Wolff made it clear that it was not sent from within the Mercedes camp, and that the matter is being taken very seriously.
“It’s not from a member of the team,” he said. “When we’re getting this kind of email, and we’re getting tons of them, it is upsetting, particularly when somebody talking about death and all these things.
“So, on this particular one, I have instructed to go on full force. We have the police enquiring 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.”
Wolff dismisses ‘conspiracy theorists’
He also made it clear that it made no sense for Mercedes to handicap Hamilton in any way.
“I don’t know what some of the conspiracy theorists and lunatics think out there,” he said.
“Lewis was 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.
“And if you don’t believe all of that, 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.”
Expanding on the anonymity that social media provides, he said: “So first of all, I’m not reading any comments. I don’t have social media.
“And I think it’s important to protect oneself by doing so. I’ve commented about this many times before. There will always be people there with the laptop on the chest in the bedroom, just typing away.
“If people feel like they want to abuse and hit and hide behind them, behind a made-up Instagram account, or anything else that. For me, come up and say who you are, and we’ll take the criticism and discuss – but don’t hide.
“And there seems to be lots of irrationality also because we want to be successful. We want to be successful with the most iconic driver the sport has ever had.
“We had the privilege that we had to work with Lewis as an incredible driver, 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 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.”
Toto Wolff: This was a step too far
Wolff made it clear that, on this occasion, the sender of the email had gone too far.
“There’s always a limit,” he said. “I mean, 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 only something that happens to us or to the team or to the people. It happens badly to Lewis, and to George.
“And we’ve seen Max speaking out about it and Kelly [Piquet]. People that abuse are cowards because they hide.
“So whatever is going on out there with social media, with all the good things that it provides, and all those people that have been given a platform. That’s just the negatives that come with it. I have no feelings to someone that abuses for the reasons I just said before.”
