Mercedes boss hits out at "lunatic" conspiracy theorists

Hamilton's championship hopes have been hindered by reliability problems, as teammate Nico Rosberg has gone untroubled to take four wins in a row this year.

Wolff branded conspiracy theorists as "lunatics" and said that he could not take them seriously.

"First of all of course we don't do it deliberately," said Wolff. "The team has been abused in some of the social media, and conspiracy theories are out there.

"My response is I don't even want to acknowledge this bunch of lunatics who think that we would harm a driver, who is our driver, who has been a double world champion for us.

"He hasn't let us down and we wouldn't let him down. This is a mechanical sport, and these things happen.

"As a matter of fact we had a problem on Nico's car, which gave us some grey hair during the race, a problem on the MGU-K drive. It looked at a certain stage that he wouldn't finish the race.

"So we are pushing the limits on the chassis and engine side a lot in order to have a competitive car, and this is why we are winning races. But also if you push the limits at a certain stage you find them," Wolff added.

Not taking it seriously

Asked how he would respond to conspiracy theorists, he said: "I think that it's very difficult to take people serious out there who are lying in their bed with their laptop on their chest and are sending those abusive messages out.

"We're not taking that seriously. You wonder what goes through people's minds. Lewis has won two championships with that team in the past, and we're always trying to give him the best possible go in any race.

"What would the response be? You just question what's going on in some people's heads."

Wolff says he doesn't want negative comments to have an impact on Hamilton's crew.

"The reason why I am being vocal about it is because I want to protect those guys. They are being hit by comments that are just inexcusable and unfair, abusive without any reason.

"If some of the guys read those comments you might take it personally. This is why I want to be very clear. We appreciate every rational and every true comment, and we take criticism very seriously. We have a core group of fans who are really behind us.

"Sometimes if we just screw up it's about admitting that wasn't the best we could have done, and in the last couple of races we've done some mistakes, and letting Lewis down with the engine is certainly one of them.

"We know that and feel that more than anybody else. I think for some of the guys they take it pretty hard."