Hamilton distances himself from ’sabotage’ claims

Lewis Hamilton insists he does not support any feelings of "negativity" about his looming departure from the Mercedes team.

An anonymous email, sent to all of the major stakeholders and media players working in Formula 1, claims the seven time world champion is being "sabotaged" by the Toto Wolff-led team ahead of his 2025 switch to Ferrari.

The email is purported to have been written by a Mercedes team member.

But some believe Hamilton, 39, has nurtured the sentiment of unfairness about his situation, and his struggle to keep up with teammate George Russell, with some of his recent post-qualifying and race comments.

"It’s easy to get emotional," he said in Barcelona, insisting he has not seen the email in question. "I only commented on the last race for example just about my performance. We need support, not negativity."

However, many of Hamilton’s own fans have expressed on social media that they also believe the British driver is being treated poorly.

"They know that if you look down the years we have been a strong team and worked hard together," Hamilton insists.

Some of his fans have also been hitting out at Russell himself.

"I was not actually aware George was experiencing negativity," Hamilton says. "He has done nothing but his best every single weekend and delivered for the team so he cannot be faulted at all.

"Of course there can always be things that are done better within the team, and that comes through conversations and communication which is something we are consistently working on," he added.

"But we all want to finish on a high and I feel like we owe that to our long-term relationship."

For his part, Russell says he has basically isolated himself from any negativity directed his way on social media.

"I have a team that looks after my social media," he said. "I don’t look on Instagram or Twitter to be honest.

"So it’s not really something I have seen. I have heard about it, and it is never nice to hear, but that is the world we live in at the moment and unfortunately any person in the public eye is facing it."