• Quartet dismissed from Brackley HQ and three disciplined

• ‘We condemn this behaviour in the strongest terms’

Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes team have sacked four of their staff members and disciplined three more for racist bullying. The team launched an inquiry into racism at their Northamptonshire headquarters in July and concluded that the four men had breached their equality policy. They were dismissed on 2 August and their final appeal was held last week.

The Sun newspaper reported on Saturday that the abuse at the Brackley site included a member of staff allegedly being referred to as a “Muslim terrorist fuck”. During Ramadan the sacked workers, believed to be from the IT department, were reported as putting up a poll on which they signed and dated guesses of when their co-worker would break his fast.