Shortly after the Canadian Grand Prix I received an email which claimed Lewis Hamilton was the victim of “sabotage” by his Mercedes team.
Actually, to be strictly accurate, it claimed this was a case of “saboatge”. Apparently Hamilton had also complained about his engine settings at “pervious” races and using my “browswer” would reveal how Mercedes were “sabotageing” him. Being an email, it wasn’t written in crayon, but it might as well have been.Surely no one would take this kind of wild speculation and evidence-free rantings seriously? And yet a glance at the morning’s headlines shows some have.
The gist of the claims, as anyone else who’s made the mistake of reading too much F1 social media will know, is a clutch of Hamilton obsessives are on a mission to prove Mercedes are knobbling him.
The smoking gun is apparently a Mercedes social media post which referred to George Russell scoring their first podium finish of the season in Canada. Yes, they committed the heinous crime of forgetting a sprint race, in China, where Hamilton finished second.
But to the conspiracy theorist, nothing can be a mistake. To a mind that is hardwired to justify believing Mercedes have it in for Hamilton, it’s another piece of evidence to be seized upon.
If this all seems drearily familiar, it’s because it is. Four races into 2016, Nico Rosberg was undefeated, while Hamilton in the other Mercedes had suffered technical failures in two consecutive qualifying sessions. Those among Hamilton’s fans who couldn’t accept such misfortune might be coincidental launched such a flurry of invective against Mercedes online.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
The team responded with a lengthy public explanation, defending their commitment to treating both drivers fairly. “We have the best guys and girls in the world, doing an awesome job, week in and week out – and they do it for the team,” it read. “Not for one driver or the other – but for each other. There is no ‘A’ or ‘B’ team here.”
Particularly when some of Hamilton’s comments have arguably provoked the agitation among his fan base. After Monaco he remarked “I don’t anticipate being ahead of George in qualifying” after Russell was the first to benefit from the team’s updated front wing.
According to Mercedes, this was because the wing wasn’t available in sufficient quantities for both drivers. Moreover, their head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin stated Hamilton volunteered to let Russell have the new front wing first.
Hamilton should know by now the extremes some in his fanbase go to. Nicholas Latifi and former F1 race director Michael Masi claimed to have received death threats over their roles in the farcical conclusion to the 2021 season in which Hamilton lost the world championship on the final lap.
He is by no means the only celebrity to have such fanatical adherents. Nor, sadly, has he been spared the abuse of others. Therefore it is encouraging to see he has begun to tell his fans to stop the attacks on Russell.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Indeed, he was arguably too harsh on himself in describing it as one of his worst performances. He may have underestimated the effect Zhou Guanyu’s slow Sauber had on his race at a critical moment.
But some details are too inconvenient for conspiracy theorists – even when they’re pointed out by the very object of their devotion.
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Formula 1
- 10 startling statistics from Perez’s worst season at Red Bull yet
- FIA tweaks rules after McLaren ‘mini DRS’ row and defines new ‘heat hazard’ regulations
- Former F1 team principal Eddie Jordan reveals cancer diagnosis
- FIA reveals new images showing changes to plan for 2026 F1 cars
- Ranked: The Formula 1 cars of 2024, from slowest to fastest
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
21st June 2024, 8:45
Fun fact: between 2017 and 2021 Bottas in his Mercedes tenure had 5 car-related DNFs, including 3 engine failures. In the same period his team mate Lewis Hamilton had 1 DNF and 0 engine failures. But that was simply luck of the champion, right?
An Sionnach
21st June 2024, 8:48
The legion of doom. This kind of fan reminds me that the word is short for fanatic!
notagrumpyfan
21st June 2024, 10:20
or ‘fanciful’ ;)
AlanD
21st June 2024, 12:48
I’d have gone for fantasist
Holy Lewis
21st June 2024, 10:37
TeamLH is Lewis his real legacy to this sport
Red Andy (@red-andy)
21st June 2024, 8:50
Of course, in 2016, Hamilton fuelled the flames himself by suggesting in an interview that someone within the team had sabotaged his car ahead of the Malaysian GP, where he retired from the lead.
As the article notes, it is good to see Hamilton publicly rebuking the “green ink” brigade in relation to his teammate. It is regrettable that he and Mercedes did not do the same when it was Masi and Latifi on the receiving end.
SteveP
21st June 2024, 9:04
True, Latifi deserved no criticism at all.
As to the
…well, two out of three should have been flagged by the spell checker, assuming wonder boy was bright enough to understand what the checker was flagging up. Yeah, probably not.
Scottdog
21st June 2024, 9:13
They actually did speak against the abuse they received……
They just didn’t change their opinion on what had happened as they had evidence to prove it.
Which the FIA even admitted to after getting them to drop the case….
So why lie? What’s the point dude? What do you have to gain other than some ignorant likes on your comments?
You would think if this was an issue for you, then so would Red Bull claiming that everyone is cheating without evidence, whenever they are challenged. Now you have fans claiming teams are cheating, just like in 2021, without a single ounce of evidence… If you want to talk about toxicity…..
An Sionnach
21st June 2024, 9:17
Perhaps read your reply back and reflect on what you have written.
Osnola
21st June 2024, 10:09
Thats what i thought as well.
notagrumpyfan
21st June 2024, 10:24
And it’s not just the ‘dude’ bit that’s a bit off.
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
21st June 2024, 13:47
Source for this? Because I remember Hamilton simply being gutted at the time because of the impact it had on its season and Mercedes subsequently going into lots of detail of how the problem was traced to a manufacturing fault on one of the big end bearings in his brand-new engine.
Of course, as Keith says, if you’re a conspiracy theorist, you’d write that off as Mercedes covering for their on-payroll in-house saboteur…
N
21st June 2024, 17:39
His source is Hamilton saying ‘someone doesn’t want me to win’ – of course to people like Red Andy this must mean someone in the team sabotaged his car, to other normal people, it’s just a common expression we’ve all used when things go against us.
Red Andy (@red-andy)
21st June 2024, 18:25
From memory, he said something like: “I have questions for Mercedes. We have eight cars and mine is the only one that’s had failures. Someone there doesn’t want me to win.” The implication of his words was obvious.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st June 2024, 19:23
Yes, I remember reading this too!
N
21st June 2024, 19:43
The quote was “Something or someone doesn’t want me to win this year.”
Hamilton is a religious person, its clear what he meant in that sentence
grat
21st June 2024, 21:55
Hamilton has occasionally said things that were not meant to be taken seriously, that he had to backpedal furiously on. I think it was 2011 when he said, jokingly (if you saw the interview) that perhaps the stewards hated him because he’s black– And then had to sprint down to the steward’s office to explain that it was meant as a joke, and in no way did he think they were racist.
The problem is that everything he says is put under not just a microscope, but viewed through the totally non-objective lens of whatever biases the viewer might hold.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
22nd June 2024, 10:54
He did respond to the abuse Latifi received:
Hamilton sent Latifi messages of support after social media abuse over Abu Dhabi GP
Moshambles (@moshambles)
21st June 2024, 8:59
Slow news day
HJ
21st June 2024, 9:01
I expect full transparancy from Toto ;-p
Alberto
21st June 2024, 9:49
Some drivers like Hamilton, Max, Leclerc etc have much bigger following than F1. Of course their fandom has also attracted some bad eggs that worship them too. For hardcore F1 fans it is normal to see that the leaving driver doesn’t get to be the priority anymore nothing more than that. Albeit it would be good to see both Mercs up there this weekend to spice up the weekend.
Alberto
21st June 2024, 9:49
In social media*
Sean Kettlewood
21st June 2024, 11:46
You’ve nailed it, the larger the fan base the larger the amount of lunatics. Even if that’s 0.1 % that’s a lot of crazy for the more popular drivers.
GatheK
21st June 2024, 9:56
Just wait for next year. The superfans of Hamilton and Leclerc will reach a whole new level of toxicity.
Nick T.
21st June 2024, 11:08
We’ll learn that Enzo Ferrari was secretly a grand wizard and David Duke was a love child fathered with Eva Braun and sent to America to be hidden away from sight.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
21st June 2024, 10:03
I mean if his fans are speculating he’s being treated unfairly he’s not helped matters by thinly insinuating it regarding the wing and making shrugging and winking comments that he ‘doesn’t expect to beat George all year’. Seems weird he willingly kicked that hornets nest and now is backtracking. Also, if he *truly* felt he was being given sub-standard machinery or being sabotaged, he was there in 2007 when Alonso felt the same of McLaren and the FIA brought in an independent to observe. There’s clearly a mechanism here if that’s the truth and he knows it. So why even bring it up to the media other than to stir the pot?
Osnola
21st June 2024, 10:12
His mind games are famous. Some are ignoring the proof.
Claiming he drove his worst race when outclassed by his younger and less experienced teammate in a race winning car in example.
SjaakFoo (@sjaakfoo)
21st June 2024, 17:22
He knows exactly when to mobilize “TeamLH” to his narrative. You can’t tell me it’s just a coincidence and he’s “just being honest” or whatever. There’s a pattern of behaviour here that forgoes any benefit of the doubt you might give him. It’s one of the main reasons why I could never be a Hamilton fan again.
grat
21st June 2024, 21:50
Speaking of baseless conspiracy theories……
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
21st June 2024, 10:24
Lewis Hamilton has easily the worst fanbase in F1. Whenever things aren’t going perfectly well for Lewis, they throw his team under the bus and spam deranged comments under all of their posts, and also act like his teammate is the worst person ever. You cannot have a logical conversation with these people.
SteveP
21st June 2024, 15:27
Mild-mannered and well-behaved around here, and pretty calm out on other F1 forums, relative to the sometimes rabid anti-Hamilton ranters.
As to anti-social media, well, there you really are stepping into nests of lower life forms. From what I’ve seen reported, I’m amazed sane people ever visit
grat
21st June 2024, 21:47
Some of us remember the “Hamilton Family” incident, and how much hate Hamilton got for being faster than Alonso.
Then there was a Mr. C. Horner who did everything but say Hamilton had attempted to murder his driver. Or the abuse the Mercedes fans suffered at the Austrian Grand Prix in 2020.
It’s not one-sided at all.
Nick T.
21st June 2024, 11:06
Coming out swinging and I salute you for it. There are far too many banana nut cakes out there turning F1 fandom into a microcosm of US politics these days: insanely polarized and filled with conspiracy theories.
An Sionnach
21st June 2024, 11:40
Funny!
Perhaps Sir Arthur Conan Doyle may have had something to add to this discussion:
“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Although perhaps in this case it’s more like:
“When you have ignored all which is possible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Nick T.
21st June 2024, 11:42
Don’t believe me! Soros paid me to write that post.
Illusive (@illusive)
21st June 2024, 11:16
Its gonna get worse in Ferrari when Charles beats him. BTW Lewis knows what he is doing when he made those comments and he’ll keep doing it.
AlanD
21st June 2024, 12:57
Thiese sabotage theories have always been an issue, but social media makes it so much worse. One of the loudest I remember was when Button was beating Barrichello at Brawn. It was, accoding to these armachair warriors, obviously because the team wanted the Englishman to win and were sabotaging the second car. It happens to most good drivers. I guess it says something about people’s perception of Perez that no-one thinks Red Bull is deliberately turning down his engine to make Max look good.
MichaelN
21st June 2024, 15:28
There’s a great parody on YouTube based on the infamous complaint by Barrichello that “the team, they made me lose the race”.
Some drivers feed their fans these little bits. They know what they’re doing.
Mog
21st June 2024, 20:36
Instead, people think Red Bull hired Perez to make Max look good. Same idea, different iteration.
SteveP
21st June 2024, 15:43
I always wanted to know what was happening in the McLaren pit at China 2007; when I heard (from a McLaren engineer no less) that Alonzo’s ‘associates’ were distributing brown envelopes filled with banknotes to engineers who could “assist” Alonso, I began to wonder how P’d off Alonzo would have been to watch a rookie in the same car spec as him take the WDC. (Ham +10, ALO -2, RAI -2 = HAM WDC by +11)
Just one of those maybes that turn up in life.
Retired (@jeff1s)
21st June 2024, 16:03
Shortly after the Canadian Grand Prix I received an email which claimed something wrong and I decided to write a full article about a mail I received.
Next up, I write a novel about how I won a trip to India via scam mail.
Appalling
grat
21st June 2024, 21:49
Thanks Keith, for posting some of the direct quotes to demonstrate just how childish this email was. Most people have posted the meaning, but not the content.
My guess is someone was seriously drunk.
Do you know if they used the same secret list of addresses that the Horner emails went to, or was this publicly known emails?