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anonymous mail claims hamilton sabotaged by mercedes

Outcry in F1 after anonymous email: 'Hamilton is being sabotaged'

21 June at 07:00
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  • Ludo van Denderen

For the second time this season, an anonymous email addressed to the F1 community is causing a stir. A number of people in the paddock - including a Daily Mail journalist - have received a message from an unknown sender, stating that Lewis Hamilton is being "sabotaged" by Mercedes as the former world champion switches to Ferrari after this season.

The sender claims to be an employee of the team, something Mercedes categorically denies. The German team claims that this is a Hamilton fan, someone who at least believes that the former world champion often loses to Russell because Toto Wolff feels slighted by the British veteran leaving for Ferrari.

The email included, "Some of us in the team are unhappy about the systematic sabotaging of Lewis, his car, his tyre strategy, his race strategy and his mental health. Lewis is excluded, and some underhanded (sic) things are going on that people need to be aware of."

'People inside Mercedes on a dangerous course'

The sender then continued, "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."

Hamilton has since revealed that he is unaware of the email. In any case, Mercedes is taking the matter extremely seriously. The team has already tried using the IP address to find the sender, but that attempt has proved fruitless as yet.

The Daily Mail journalist also received an anonymous WhatsApp message last week with similar allegations as in the email. A response from the journalist then received no reply from the sender.