Days after Mercedes open letter to its fans, Lewis Hamilton has also gone public and called on the haters to stop.

Those of you lucky enough to watch the excellent documentary on Jim Clark on BBC4 last night, entitled The Quiet Champion, will have barely recognised the F1 of the 1960s compared to today.

Gentleman Jim, who post-season would head back to the family farm in Berwickshire, only ever raced in F1 for one team, Team Lotus, and whilst there were bad times as well as good he never publicly criticised his team or team boss Colin Chapman.

When we lost the Scottish legend in 1968, a moment that caused Dan Gurney to break down as he recalled the day, thousands of fans headed to Clark's home town from around the world to pay their respects.

Fast forward to 2016 and as Lewis Hamilton encounters a difficult start to his season, leaving him heading into the fifth round of the championship 43 points adrift of his teammate, the British driver and his team have been forced to call on a mindless minority of 'fans' who have accused the German team of deliberately sabotaging his efforts.

Days after Mercedes went to the extraordinary length of issuing an open letter to its fans, in an attempt to stop the hate, Hamilton, taking time out from a schedule that since last weekend has seen him attend the Met Gala in New York then on to Athens (not the one in Georgia), Miami and finally Barbados, sent a similar message to his fans via Facebook.

"I want you to know how grateful I am for all of your support," he writes. "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 one’s best interest for that to be the case.

"We've had the best 3 years together, and whilst it's not going to plan right now, all will unfold in its own time. I trust these guys 1000% 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.

"Thank you once again.

In response to Hamilton's post, one 'fan', writes: "I'm sorry mate but it's to hard to believe, you both essentially have same car, yet Nico has had no faults that have affected his races. Something fishy is going on that even you may not be aware of."

Whilst another adds: "It's difficult to stay positive with your team as they seem to be holding you back with problem after problem this season, they are acting as if they don't want you to win anything!"

All a bit sad really.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Spindoctor, 09/05/2016 17:08

"For several thousand quid, I'll send you the CCTV footage of Nico with the crowbar in the garage..... :-)"

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2. Posted by karel, 09/05/2016 12:17

"I remember previous years the car of Nico Rosberg had more failures, no one to hear then"

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3. Posted by scf1fan, 07/05/2016 21:04

"Perhaps for the only time, I'll agree with LH without any reservation!! (There is still a long way to go in the season and he still has a damn good chance to win the championship. Winding up second to NR, if that's the way it happens, is nothing to be ashamed of either.)"

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Hamilton calls on fans to trust Mercedes

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