Hamilton himself had to apologize to his Mercedes team over his tirade on the team radio where he told them you “f****** screwed me” after a race win slipped from his grasp and he finished fourth.
Mercedes fans hurled abuse at the rival Red Bull team and specifically its head of operations Hannah Schmitz after the race, accusing her of a conspiracy to put one of her drivers on the podium’s top spot.
Hamilton’s official support group, Team LH, issued a statement after the race calling for a stop to the online abuse towards Schmitz.
“We 100% understand that everyone’s emotions are high right now,” the statement read.
“No one expected the race to unfold that way when we were so close to a win. But it’s important to us that we continue to spread love and empathy towards the hardworking teams in the paddock—whether from our team or others—but especially the women.
“The language of hateful comments directed at Red Bull head of strategy Hannah Schmitz is intolerable and should not be condoned. This sport is cut-throat, and you have to be ready for absolutely anything, and that’s what she did today.
“There are a lot of positives to take from Lewis’ race today, and that’s exactly what we are focusing on doing. Thank you for your unwavering support for LH! We win and we lose together.”
That message was retweeted by Hamilton himself, but did not stay up long.
Team LH deleted it after receiving thousands of comments saying it had made Schmitz even more of a target.
“We understand the statement issued ended up doing more harm than good, and incited comments that are exactly everything that TeamLH stands against—for that, we sincerely apologize,” it wrote on Twitter.
Hamilton also deleted his retweet of the original statement.
“Please be mindful of what you put out. That tweet was a dog whistle for bad actors to grab and run with to further harass Lewis’ fans. Do better next time,” commented one fan to the Team LH apology.
Another wrote: “I hope that before apologizing here you went and apologized to the person who deserves it most. I hope next time you’ll think before you act and as such not just release statements before resolving things in PRIVATE.”
One of the few women in a senior position on a Formula 1 team, Schmitz has reportedly deleted her Twitter account since becoming the target of trolls.
But she has kept her Instagram and posted a photo of Red Bull driver Max Verstappen on the winner’s podium after the race.
“Thank you Zandvoort for an amazing weekend! It was certainly a hectic day in the office but I loved every minute, an honour to be part of @redbullracing. Such an incredible atmosphere of support at this track—that’s why we go racing 🧡! Big shout out to the team back in MK making it possible,” she wrote.
The drama started when Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri and Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda triggered a safety car to come onto the track after he felt something was wrong with his vehicle.
The safety car intervention gave Verstappen, who had been trailing Hamilton at that stage, a chance to change to his tires. Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, George Russell, also dropped to soft tires and ended up finishing second.
Hamilton’s team decided against soft tires and he fumed to his race engineer Peter Bonnington after the race in an expletive fill rant.
“I can’t believe you guys fking s****d me. Can’t tell you how p*** I am,” he told him.
The 37-year-old later told the team: “To all the mechanics, fantastic job today. They were the best pit stops we’ve had all year, so thank you for your continued efforts.
“Let’s keep pushing, we still got points today.”
He later apologized to his team and told media he had “lost it for a second.”
The racing champion admitted the team had done really well up until the safety car incident and he was feeling very emotional.
“But then of course there’s the Safety Car, [it] really didn’t help, and I was just on the edge of breaking point with emotions, and my apologies to the team because I don’t remember what I said,” Hamilton told Sky 1.
“I just lost it for a second, but I think they know it’s just so much passion and I want to look at it as a glass half full.
“We came here struggling from the last race, we were fighting against the Red Bulls today. We were quicker than most at many points.”
Hamilton added: “Without the safety car, I think we would have been challenging for the win at the end on the one stop, which I don’t think the others could do.
“So many great, great things to take from when the car was finally working. If this can be the same in the future races, we will be continuing to breathe down their necks and we will get that win.”
