Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff meets Grenfell survivors

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff will meet survivors of the fire in Grenfell Tower after apologizing on behalf of his team on Friday for any emergency caused by a sponsorship deal with a company in connection with the disaster of 2017 became.

The deal with Kingspan, an Irish company that makes high-performance insulation and cladding products, including some used in the West London skyscraper, was announced this week.

The company’s trademark can be found on the car that seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is driving at the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix this weekend.

Grenfell United, representing survivors of the fire that killed 72 people, had written to Wolff to end the “really shocking” partnership.

In a written response, Wolff apologized for “the additional damage this announcement has caused”.

He said Mercedes had “in-depth” understanding with the company prior to the deal to understand what role their products played in the disaster and had assurances that they had no role in the design or construction of the fairing system to play.

Flammable cladding has been found to be central to the rapid spread of flames.

“I know that this does not change the terrible tragedy you have suffered or the deep and persistent pain you feel in your community,” wrote the Austrian.

“I would like to thank Grenfell United for offering to meet me in person so I can learn and understand better. I look forward to getting together as soon as possible.”

UK Housing Secretary Michael Gove also urged Mercedes to reconsider the partnership, telling Twitter that he was “deeply disappointed” that Mercedes accepted Kingspan’s sponsorship during an ongoing investigation.

“I’m going to write to Mercedes to ask them to reconsider. The Grenfell community deserves better,” he said.

Gove’s opposition colleague Lisa Nandy welcomed his “quick criticism” but urged him to adopt the same stance and return party political donations from developers responsible for buildings with similar cladding.

Kingspan said in a statement it played no part in the design of the Grenfell Tower cladding system, where its K15 product made up about 5% of the insulation.

It added that this “was used as a replacement product in a non-building code system without the knowledge of Kingspan.

“The new partnership with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 team reflects the ambitious sustainability goals of both organizations.”