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.
Hand on heart, facing the quantity-over-quality sludge of ‘content’ F1 serves up in the form of sprint races, I couldn’t tell you who finished third behind Hamilton without looking it up. The Hamilton die-hards can fulminate with rage as much as they like, I’m sure whoever writes Mercedes social media posts (assuming it isn’t delegated to an AI) simply forgot about the sprint race because the wretched things are so forgettable.
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.
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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…
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