Backbiting is the habit of speaking badly of others. This is the elementary definition of the phenomenon that you will find in any dictionary of the Italian language. The slander takes hold and spreads like wildfire even in F1, a sport in which the use of gossip is exceeding the minimum tolerance level.
Modern slander does not take place in whispered word of mouth which grows from station to station to become a multi-headed monster. No, it takes the form of things that are not very material but which can hurt when they affect one or more subjects. This is the time of anonymous emails, sent in bursts, copied and pasted to be delivered to those who can easily disclose them (journalists) and to those who should take action (Formula One plenipotentiaries).
After having spent a winter reading conjectures on the alleged - and never proven - conflict of interest of the Wolff spouses and going into increasingly morbid details about the Horner-Gate, now it is time for a team's boycott-sabotage towards its top driver, the most representative driver of the entire Formula One: Lewis Hamilton.
![Lewis Hamilton](https://www.formulacritica.it/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Hamilton-jpg.webp)
F1: Mercedes and Hamilton victims of social drift
How things went is known and there is no need to go over the details of a story that casts further shadows on a Formula One martyred by convenient narratives designed to create easy consensus and not to inform.
Even if the cases are archived, the suspicions remain that in an increasingly widespread conspiracy theory (among deniers of 9/11 and the moon landing, flat-Earthers, reptilians, Raelians, shachimists, theorists of 5G and control systems inoculated via vaccine, there is the world of fools willing to believe any bullshit) risk becoming objective truths when the only objective thing is idiocy that moves them.
In recent times Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton have appeared buttoned-up, severe in their communication, marked by the need to reject accusations that have no reason to exist but which risk undermining, through wear and tear, the credibility of a team and of the entire racing system. Formula One which is not free from dark moments. See, for example, what Flavio Briatore was able to command, who nevertheless returned to the saddle while also playing in a world that forgets certain dark moments too quickly
But you can't do petty determinism. If murky practices have been conducted in the past, it does not necessarily mean that it is the norm or a line of continuity. Among other things, what would be the point of boycotting a pilot? Hide secrets from him? Make him pay for the farewell foreseen by a termination clause accepted by the parties?
The well poisoners have probably hit the target because today Mercedes is observed with askance and suspicion. The crude threats coming from social channels, which often seem to be fetid sewers that amass the worst human outcasts who hide behind false identities, have vomited tons of dung onto the parties in a modern gang war in which no one has been saved.
The hope is that we will soon forget about this filthy affair. Such not because of what happened (because nothing happened) but because of how it has been used by the fools of our times who are just waiting for a trigger to make all their profound discomfort erupt. We hope to never have to return to this matter again. Happy Spanish Grand Prix.
Crediti foto: Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team