The background to the Lewis Hamilton sabotage email situation
One of the most surprising things to happen in the 2024 Formula 1 season, apart from the sudden unexpected drop in performance of the RB20, was the sensational accusations that Mercedes may actually be deliberately sabotaging their star driver, seven times world champion, Lewis Hamilton in favour of his own team mate, George Russell.
What was even more shocking was the fact that the accusations allegedly were leaked by a member of the Mecedes F1 team.
The basis of the Lewis Hamilton sabotage email:
A day after the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix an email was anonymously sent to a previously public distribution list, stating many allegations of sabotage.
The email distribution list was previously used earlier in the year during the Christian Horner misconduct scandal, which he was later cleared of all wrongdoing.
The email was sent to all the major players in F1 including Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, F1 boss Stefano Domenicali and FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem.
The timing of the email was very important. During the Canadian Grand Prix, Hamilton was overtaken on the final lap by his team mate, which at the time was surprising as Mercedes in known for its team orders and race agreements with drivers in the final stages of a race.
The email suggested that the team were actively promoting Russell and at the same time experimenting with Hamilton’s race setup and strategy in order to favour his team mate Russel.
This whole situation was heightened by the fact that Hamilton had announced before the season that he was leaving Mercedes to move to bitter rivals Ferrari, something that not only shocked the whole paddock, but more importantly surprised and blindsided his own team, who had no idea of the move, thinking they already had Hamilton contracted for the 2025 season.
How did Mercedes react to the Lewis Hamilton sabotage email?
Once rumours started to circulate around the F1 paddock, initially the Mercedes F1 team made no comment, but very quickly the email had been received by the F1 press rooms and rumours started to grow of the potential truth in the sabotage claims.
With this increased speculation, Mercedes quickly denied the calms and even went further by reporting the alleged email to the police and F1 management.
Mercedes also launched an internal investigation to try and find if the email originated from within their own team.
What did the Police say about the Lewis Hamilton sabotage email?
On June 25th a spokesperson for the police force stated: “Northamptonshire Police received a report on June 12 regarding an email that had been circulated within the Mercedes AMG F1 Team. No criminal offences were found to have been committed however advice was given regarding any further emails the team may receive.”
Mercedes also confirmed that after an extensive internal investigation, no evidence was found that this email had came from within their own team, and in fact, it was a complete hoax.
What happened after the police dismissed the Lewis Hamilton sabotage email?
Whilst the accusations were denied and the police had investigated, it did not help the rumours when Hamilton’s form and results suddenly improved.
Lewis went on to win both the British Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix, his first wins in Formula 1 for over two years.
But then shortly after another set of poor results happened, leading back to more suspicions to be raised, with questions being asked on why Lewis was presented with some very strange strategy calls which effected only him, whilst George Russell appeared to receive the perfect team strategy calls each and every race.
Is the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes broken forever?
Lewis Hamilton has enjoyed massive success whilst at Mercedes and is generally regarded as one of the greatest drivers to every have existed, his relationship has allows been seen to be a solid as it could ever be. Its clear the sudden move to Ferrari has destabilised this relationship.
When any driver announces they are leaving for another team, at some point in the season they will be left out of planning and updates that are in the works, to ensure any knowledge gains are not passed over to opposing teams in the future. Its also clear that:
- Hamilton will certainly be outside of the circle of trust.
- Hamilton will not be involved in briefings about car development.
- Hamilton will not always get the first option on upgrades.
None of the above facts have any relation to sabotage claims, they are just agreed standard practice once a driver is leaving a team.
In conclusion, would Mercedes actually ever sabotage Lewis Hamilton?
The simple question is what would Mercedes achieve by sabotaging one of there own drivers, especially when they are seeking to improve an uncompetitive inconsistent car.
This simply may be a case of coincidence and others not understanding the sport, with the fact that Lewis is no longer the preferred number one driver, due to his decision to leave the team in 2025 for Ferrari.
