Toto Wolff has shot down the “crazy, made-up conspiracies” circulating online about Mercedes’ treatment of Lewis Hamilton during the F1 2024 season.

Hamilton announced back in February that he will join Ferrari on a multi-year contract from F1 2025, bringing an end to his long and successful association with Mercedes.

Toto Wolff takes aim at ‘lunatics’ after Lewis Hamilton conspiracy theories

Additional reporting Thomas Maher

The British driver has claimed six of his joint-record seven World Championships with Mercedes, as well as becoming the first man in history to surpass 100 grand prix wins and pole positions, since arriving at the team in 2013.

Mercedes also have the distinction of providing the engines for each of Hamilton’s 355 starts to date, stretching back to his debut season with McLaren in 2007.

Hamilton will make his last F1 appearance for Mercedes at this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the final race of the season.

With Hamilton’s move to Ferrari announced almost a year in advance, it has left the seven-time World Champion in the unusual situation of spending the entire F1 2024 campaign with Mercedes in the knowledge that he will leave the team at the end of the year.

Despite winning twice at Silverstone and Spa, Hamilton has endured one of the most challenging years of his career with George Russell dominating his illustrious team-mate in qualifying conditions.

Hamilton’s season slumped to a new low at last weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, where the 39-year-old conceded that he is “just slow” after qualifying half a second behind Russell.

The veteran went on to have a torrid race in Lusail, picking up separate penalties for a false start and speeding in the pit lane en route to a distant 12th.

Hamilton’s poor performances have fuelled wild suggestions online that he has been given inferior equipment by Mercedes in F1 2024.

In June, an anonymous email from someone claiming to work for the Mercedes team was sent to members of the F1 media, alleging that Hamilton has been the victim of “systematic sabotage” by the Brackley-based team.

Wolff confirmed at the Spanish Grand Prix later that month that the individual responsible was not an employee of Mercedes, with the police launching an investigation over the matter.

Wolff told 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.”

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com after the Qatar GP on Sunday, Wolff once again took aim at “idiots” spreading misinformation online.

He said: “I’ve never read comments. I just hear that this nonsense appears.

“You can talk at length about the toxic environment of social media, but I’ve always said it: you hide yourself behind a screen, you open up an account and then you put these comments. I wonder who would even have the time to comment.

“We love our fans, they contribute to what we are. And the other ones who believe that they need to create some crazy, made-up conspiracies, it doesn’t even bother me. They’re just idiots.

“They have no understanding. Probably never put a foot near a racing car, maybe not even a normal car.

“You need to show me some of that stuff, just for me to have a laugh.

“My message to the ones that feel free to give us their comments: nobody’s reading what you write.

“Ten years ago, I was really upset about what somebody wrote and I was walking on the street with Susie [Wolff, wife]. And there was this rather not-decent person that was coming towards us and she said: ‘Would you consider this person’s opinion?’

“And I said: ‘No, why would I? That could be the person that has just wrote the comment.’

“So you’re hiding behind your screen somewhere over the mountains and you feel you want to make a comment. Wonderful.

“You’re writing it for yourself anyway and for the few other lunatics that want to engage with you.”

Wolff went on to suggest that Hamilton’s driving style has exacerbated his struggles with the W15 car, which is unable to handle his late-braking technique.

He explained: “I think one of his strengths is always how he’s able to break late and attack the corner – and that car can’t take it.

“And then, when there’s like today where the grip comes in, that phenomenon is even more articulated and makes it even worse for him.

“And makes it worse for George also. And then if the car slides more and lacks grip, it comes alive.

“That’s a pattern feature of this car, so that contributes to him probably suffering more than George.”

Asked if Hamilton’s woes are related to F1’s move to ground-effect cars at the beginning of the 2022 season, Wolff pointed out that “massive oscillations” in performance have been seen across the field over the last three years.

He explained: “You can see that with this generations of car, no team has really found – apart from Red Bull, maybe the last two years, but particularly this year – the solution, that they have stable performance over most of the tracks through all of the ambient conditions.

“There are these massive oscillations that you can see. How can it be that a Red Bull is nowhere on one day and then on the next day just very dominant?

“It’s the same for us: we were two seconds quicker in Las Vegas at some time in the race, George cruised in the front and everybody else fell back.

“And then here you see the opposite. I think it’s just that it’s so sensitive to operate in that window that when you when you try to force it, it becomes even more unstable as a platform.

“I don’t think it’s only Lewis’s problem. We can see that in other cars with other drivers as well that have oscillating performances.

“Does [Hamilton’s driving style] add [to his woes]? Maybe.

“But this is so subtle, also driving styles, but it’s clearly when you’re very strong on the brake you need a car that’s strong on turning in and you just hit the throttle and you need lots of traction.

“When the car is not giving you any of that, it’s very difficult to drive around.”