Lewis Hamilton 'is being sabotaged by Mercedes because of his decision to join Ferrari', claims anonymous email sent to F1 community

An anonymous email sent to the Formula One community has claimed Lewis Hamilton is being 'sabotaged' at Mercedes.

The team insist the correspondence was not penned by an employee – as the writer implies – but by a Hamilton fan who believes their man is losing out to George Russell because boss Toto Wolff feels slighted by the seven-time world champion's decision to join Ferrari next season.

Hamilton claimed on Wednesday that he was unaware of the letter but so seriously have Mercedes taken the matter that they investigated the IP address from which the email was sent – though they were not able to track down its source.

It was sent on June 10 – a day after the Canadian Grand Prix, in which Hamilton finished fourth, a place behind Russell – to all the sport's high-rollers and journalists who were copied into the leak of Red Bull boss Christian Horner's exchanges with a female employee in March. That leak electrified F1.

The fact the recipients were the same would seem to indicate the sender is connected to Formula One circles, though those emails addresses can be accessed elsewhere.

In a twist, I – possibly along with others – received a separately WhatsApp message directly to my phone expressing similar sentiments to those contained in the email. It, too, was anonymous, and the sender did not respond when I replied asking him/her for more information.

However, a source close to the scene told me on condition of anonymity that he believed the email's contents were broadly accurate – and that there is a feeling (emphatically denied by the team) that Hamilton is being held back. He has been outqualified by Russell 8-1 this season, and trails the younger Briton by 14 points.

The email said: 'Some of us in the team are unhappy about the systematic sabotaging of Lewis, his car, his tyre strategy, his race strategy and his mental health.

'Lewis is excluded and some underhanded (sic) things are going on that people need to be aware of.

'Ask the questions and the truth will out. It is all in the data and is recorded. With the exception of Bono (Peter Bonnington, Hamilton's race engineer) and those of us who love Lewis, others are on a dangerous course that could ultimately be life threatening to Lewis, other drivers, even the public. A cold tyre strategy is a death warrant.'

Hamilton, speaking ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix in a notably tetchy press conference with Russell, said: 'They know we have been a strong team and worked hard together. It is easy to get emotional. I only commented on the last race about my performance. We need support, not negativity. 

'Of course, things can always be done better within the team and that comes through conversations and communication. That is something we are consistently working on. We all want to finish on a high and I feel we owe that to our long-term relationship.'

Russell said: 'I don't look on Instagram or Twitter.

'You see funny things on social media and it keeps you up to date but on the flip side, everybody, and not just me, in the limelight receives negativity. It is not something I have seen, I have heard about it, and it is never nice to hear it, but that is the world we live in and unfortunately any person in the public eye is facing it.'

Mercedes were asked for a comment on Thursday night.