Hamilton urges his fans to trust Mercedes

2016 Russian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton has joined his team Mercedes in urging their fans to reject conspiracy theories about his car’s recent performance.

On Tuesday Mercedes wrote an open letter to the team’s supporters addressing claims by some that Hamilton’s power unit problems in the last two races were a consequence of the team supporting Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton told his followers on Facebook: “I want you to know how grateful I am for all of your support.”

“I’d like to ask that you please trust in my team, as I do. This is my family. These guys have been the greatest, hardest working people for me, and that is why I am now 3x world champion.”

“Please don’t put any more thought into my team doing anything unjust towards me, and understand that it would be in no ones best interest for that to be the case.”

“We’ve had the best three years together, and whilst it’s not going to plan right now, all will unfold in its own time.”

“I trust these guys 1,000% and my mechanics are incredible, the best in the business. I respect them so please do the same. They are the guys that are going to make winning this championship possible.”

Hamilton experienced power unit problems during qualifying in China and Russia and was also delayed by a loss of water pressure at the Sochi race. The team later confirmed he lost all pressure during the last race and said it was a “miracle” he had finished at all.

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    Keith Collantine
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    37 comments on “Hamilton urges his fans to trust Mercedes”

    1. Andy (@andybantam)
      6th May 2016, 16:40

      This from the horse’s mouth…

      I bet even this won’t satisfy the conspiracy mob.

      1. Jimmy Price
        6th May 2016, 17:31

        Honestly, I don’t care if merc sabotages a driver or not but lewis’ sky interview after qualifying was quite ridiculous. If you take the horses mouth for its word then that interview says a lot more than a PR lawyer scrubbed statement like this.

        1. Fudge Ahmed (@)
          6th May 2016, 19:53

          Because of an offhand comment about why the mechanics were switched around? Other drivers have said far far worse but no because it’s Lewis, even when he’s being as magnanimous as this it’s not enough.

          1. Exactly.

        2. @Jimmy Price Exactly. LH saying the crews were ‘swapped for no apparent reason,’ was quite a mouthful. And some have accused Merc of being guilty simply by publishing their letter ‘of defense’. Does this make LH guilty as well?

        3. Andy (@andybantam)
          7th May 2016, 14:59

          I’m not sure what your point is because you said you “don’t care if Merc sabotages its drivers” before referring to an interview I didn’t reference. But, fair enough…

          1. Jimmy Price
            8th May 2016, 19:40

            The fAct you didn’t reference the sky interview is the problem. This is the source of validity to conspiracy theorist.

            Even a skeptical person would agree Lewis put his foot in his mouth.

        4. Oh come on, this is a baby-league conspiracy! Lewis’s Sky interview was obviously faked with some quick cut-n-paste using the mega-supercomputers in Rupert Murdoch’s secret Pacific hideout. This was done to [complicated explanation that is spoken too fast to understand properly, but seems to involve stroking white cats a lot] which will end up with him ruling the world. Muhahaha! [No, I expect you to die! More white cats, etc.]

    2. Lewis is the first F1 driver to reach 1000% trust with his mechanics. Rosberg only managed 100% I presume

      1. @toothless I think Rosberg also has 1000% trust in Hamiltons mechanics…

      2. I always thought there’s an unwritten understanding among the drivers that 101% is the maximum. This way, Hamilton is making others look bad, because it now seems as if they “only” trust their team 101%. Not to mention those poor souls who only trust their teams 100%. Poor Kvyat must be the one of those “only” 100% guys.

    3. James Coulee
      6th May 2016, 17:19

      The thing is… If Rosberg is now leading the world championship because the gave Hamilton the B team, those 2 world championships Hamilton won were also just because Rosberg was given the B team 2 years on a row.

      Hamilton fans can’t ever conspire without ruining Hamilton’s achievements.

      1. I hardly doubt there is an actual B-list of engineers in a team. These are all very experienced men.

        1. Andy (@andybantam)
          7th May 2016, 15:05

          +1

    4. RP (@slotopen)
      6th May 2016, 17:24

      Merc racing exist for advertising, yes? I think Hamilton is a great fit for them, both for driving and media exposure.

      The champion being sidelined by mechanical problems hurts them both.

      Worse, it plays to the Mercedes road car stereotype: luxurious, maybe fast, but not especially reliable.

      I don’t think this is good advertising, and they will fix it as quickly as possible.

    5. Conspiracy. They made him say this.

      1. Yes, look at the pic. How he is so sad looking and facing downward. He is even wearing shades to cover his eyes so that we don’t see tears trying to come out of it.

        Damn you Mercedes for only giving him a car fast enough to start from the pits and end on the podium.

        1. +1 They also don’t have any pictures of Roscoe looking extra forlorn at the plight of his downtrodden owner :(

          Mercedes have only giving him the most dominant car in F1 history. Why can’t they give more?!

    6. petebaldwin (@)
      6th May 2016, 18:11

      Next they’ll be telling us unicorns aren’t real or that there isn’t a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow!!

      Come on Lewis! We know what is really going on!!!

    7. Good luck with that, Lewis. He’d have more luck trying to persuade them that Elvis is alive and well and living with Marilyn Monroe on a secret island in the Caribbean.

      1. I’m told the odds of Leicester City Football Club winning the Barclay’s Premier League were 5000 to 1, which meant it was more unlikely to happen than Elvis (or is it his twin brother?) being found alive. William Hill (the betting agency) currently have Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg on the same odds to win the World Drivers Championship, and the Sauber and Manor drivers are at 10,000 to 1.

    8. This saga is comedy gold.

    9. AntoineDeParis (@antoine-de-paris)
      6th May 2016, 19:32

      C’mon Luigi forget about letters, all we need is some telemetry screenshots bro ;)

    10. Ridiculous how people try to find bad things in everything the guy says.

    11. This episode will be like when Rosberg was booed by Hamilton fans based on similar conspiracy theories. The team and mechanics will put a smile on, but they will know they too have been booed, and like Rosberg it will be a shock to the system and likely have consequences (confidence, performance, energy).

    12. Did this kind of thing happen in the days when men were men and not pampered overgrown 5-year olds? It baffles me how so many feel it necessary to explain themselves nowadays. Can’t do anything that displeases even one person without going into defensive self-preservation mode. It’s what it is and you make up your mind about it based on that. I’m wondering if this was started by whimpering politicians.

    13. It wouldn’t have to do anything with the mechanics! Someone on a laptop more likely able to fiddle with algorithms and settings.
      I don’t think anything is up, but itv is beyond weird that Mercedes is even commenting on these comments they are getting from where? Twitter?

      1. RP (@slotopen)
        7th May 2016, 5:47

        I actually think this is not that ridiculous. The cars are very complex, and it is likely the software includes components that Merc does not have 100% ownership of.

        The amount of data flying around, even back to England, during a race is enormous. There could be contractors in vulnerable positions.

        More importantly these teams work hard and fast. IT security might not be as tight as needed.

        Even simpler, sometimes people do wrong. We’ve all dealt with a coworker who made poor choices for no good reason.
        .
        Of course, I tend to go with the simplist explination. These cars operate on the edge of what is possible, and are complex. I’m amazed they run as well as they do.

      2. @ibrahim:

        these comments they are getting from where? Twitter?

        British Sky TV. And this is not even the first time they put wild conspiracy theories to Mercedes as a serious issue to be discussed.

    14. The Skeptic
      7th May 2016, 0:46

      That’s a good statement from Lewis. I don’t understand his critics… He:

      1) acknowledges that the TEAM is why he is 3 X WDC
      2) highlights his personal commitment to the team
      3) asks people to stop the conspiracy theories.

      What more could you ask for?

      1. 4) told the world his and Nico’s crews were ‘swapped for no apparent reason’, and it’s been damage control ever since.

        1. It was already common knowledge the crews where swapped long before Lewis stated it.

        2. 5) Nico won the last races of 2015 with the crew that Hamilton now has. The crew is irrelevant.

    15. When are you people going to wake up to the truth, the real conspiracy…

    16. Even Scully and Mulder say no conspiracy here! But I can’t get over how much Toto looks like Smoking Man.

    17. I’m not going to lie, I don’t like Hamilton. I don’t like how he words things. I think he stokes the fire more than anyone else. Why does he say, put it from your mind as opposed to just saying it’s not true.

      In none of what he said above, has he actually said the conspiracy is wrong. This is the same line he took during the weekend that started it.

    18. Who do you guys think is gonna prevail in the forthcoming Spanish grand prix? Is an upset (Vettel/Bottom/Verstappen win) on the horizon?

    Comments are closed.