Ferrari boss hits out at ‘completely irrational’ Lewis Hamilton sabotage theory

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.

Fred Vasseur has spoken out against a “completely irrational” theory posted in an email sent to members of the media, purporting to be from a Mercedes staff member, which claimed the team were giving preferential treatment to George Russell over Lewis Hamilton.

The contents of the anonymous email, sent to the media under the guise of being from a Mercedes staff member, alleged the team was conducting “systemic sabotage” against Hamilton, with team principal Toto Wolff confirming in Barcelona that it did not come from a team member and he has subsequently got the police involved to find the person responsible.

Fred Vasseur: Idea of Lewis Hamilton sabotage ‘completely irrational’

Additional reporting by Sam Cooper

Hamilton is currently in his final season at Mercedes before heading across to the Vasseur-led Ferrari team in 2025, with the move having been announced on the eve of the 2024 campaign.

The contents of the email suggested that Mercedes were now offering Russell preferential treatment over the seven-time World Champion as a result of his upcoming departure, which the team have strongly denied both before and after this came to light – technical director James Allison calling that suggestion “not true and not fair”.

Wolff confirmed the police are now involved in looking to find the person who sent the email to dozens of members of the media and senior Formula 1 officials, telling media including PlanetF1.com in Barcelona: “When we are getting these kinds of emails, and we’re getting tonnes of them, it is upsetting, particularly when there is somebody talking about death and all these things.

“So, on this particular one, I have instructed to go full force – we have the police inquiring, we are researching the IP address, we are researching the phone, all of that.

“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.”

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And for Vasseur, sat next to Wolff during the team representatives’ press conference in Spain, while his own relationship with Hamilton is a long-standing one, he explained he cannot see the logic behind what went on either.

“Just on this one, and I’m putting my relationship with Toto aside, how you could imagine that a company with 1,500 people working night and day, pushing like hell to bring upgrades, and for you it’s not enough, but bringing upgrades each races, we could kill one of our cars or damage one of our cars?” Vasseur questioned.

“This is completely irrational and nobody in the paddock could do something like this.

“We are fighting for the championship. Each weekend we are trying to score one point more than the other one.

“How you could imagine that we say ‘OK, that Lewis, we don’t want to score points anymore with him’.

“For me it’s completely irrational and completely out of the scope of the person who are doing my business.”

Read next: Furious Toto Wolff urges ‘mad people’ to ‘see a shrink’ as police investigate worrying Lewis Hamilton email