F1 News

Police called by Wolff over Hamilton sabotage email

Wolff fumes in response to sabotage email: 'We have the police inquiring'

21 June at 14:52
Last update 21 June at 15:10
  • Sophia Crothall

Toto Wolff has spoken out against the claims made by an email which has been sent to the Mercedes boss and others in the paddock. He confirms Mercedes are taking the matter to the police. In the email, it claims that Lewis Hamilton's car is being sabotaged. The email is reported to be from a former member of the team. 

The email in question suggested that Hamilton is beging sabotaged. The email included, according to the Daily Mail"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."

Speaking in Spain on the nature of this email, Wolff stated: "It's not from a member of the team," he said. "It was when we were getting this kind of emails and we're getting tons of them. It is upsetting, particularly when there is someone is talking about death and all these things. So we're on this particular one. We have the police inquiring about it. We are 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. I don't know what some of the conspiracy theorists and lunatics think out there."

How is Mercedes' relationship with Hamilton?

Hamilton will be leaving at the end of the season and moving to Ferrari. Although Wolff has been frequently questioned over Hamilton's performance following the announcement, the team boss is adimant nothing has changed. For Wolff, there is still the ambition that the team can win the championship. "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, that you can believe that we want to win the Constructor World Championship and part of the Constructor World Championship is making both cars win. So to all of these mad people out there, take a shrink," he concluded.