Toto Wolff responds to accusations of sabotaging Lewis Hamilton’s car
At a press conference on Friday, Toto Wolff roundly criticized an e-mail received by the paddock accusing the German team of "sabotage" against Lewis Hamilton. The team called in the police.
During Friday’s press conference, Toto Wolff responded to questions regarding an email sent to paddock members and journalists. The message, claiming to come from a team member, accuses Mercedes and Wolff of systematically “sabotaging” the car, the strategy, and the mental health of Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes has strongly refuted these accusations and stated that the police are investigating the origin of the email. Wolff also threatened to pursue legal action against the anonymous individual.
« This is not from a team member. When we receive this kind of emails, and we receive tons of them, it’s disturbing, especially when someone is talking about death and all these things », he declared in a press conference. He also mentioned that the police were involved and that searches were underway to find the IP address and the phone number linked to the email. « Online abuses of this kind must stop. People cannot hide behind their phones or computers and abuse teams or drivers in this way. »
Interrogated about the team’s and Lewis Hamilton’s reaction to this situation, Wolff specified that he does not read comments on social media to protect himself. There will always be people typing on their keyboards in their room. If people want to abuse and hide behind a fake Instagram account or something else… Come and say who you are, and we will take the criticism and discuss it, but do not hide. He added that Mercedes wanted to be successful with Lewis Hamilton, the most iconic driver in this sport. The privilege we had of working with Lewis as an incredible driver, a great personality, who goes through ups and downs like any other athlete.
Online abuse and its limits
Wolff insisted that online abuse must be taken seriously. « There is always a limit. If emails are sent or phone numbers are used for these messages, for me, the joke stops. And we will pursue this, whether it is successful or not. »
Frédéric Vasseur also expressed his outrage at the sabotage accusations. « How can you imagine that a company with 1,500 people working day and night to make improvements could kill one of our cars or damage one of our cars? It is completely irrational. We are fighting for the championship every weekend. How can you imagine that we would say ‘OK, for Lewis, we don’t want to score points with him anymore’? For me, it is completely irrational and beyond the reach of the people managing my company. »
