Mercedes hunts for Wikipedia vandal

Muamer Hodzic October 11, 2007

Autosport is reporting that a Mercedes employee in Spain has vandalized the Lewis Hamilton wikipedia page in what seems to be a bad joke that may have severe consequences. The persons was traced back to the Mercedes Benz of Spain via the IP address that is left behind if someone unregistered changes something on wikipedia.

Among these modifications, the user modified a quote from Michael Schumacher, who said in 2001 that if Hamilton “keeps this up I’m sure he will reach F1.” The user altered the quote to read: “I know that he is quite ugly, but if he keeps this up I’m sure he will reach F1.”

In another instance, the user added the following description to a section relating to Hamilton’s drive in the Japanese Grand Prix:
“He caused a crash between Mark Webber and Sebastien Vettel, as a result of his bizarre, dangerous and illegal manoeuvres while he was following the safety-car. Despite the videos and the widespread opinion, he was obviously not penalizated [sic].”

Mercedes confirmed that they are investigating this matter, but it will be difficult to find the person who did it, as web usage information is stored only for 2 days in the Daimler servers.