MERCEDES FORMULA ONE chief Toto Wolff today apologised for “additional hurt” to families of the victims of a deadly London tower blaze after the world champions signed a sponsorship deal with a firm linked to the disaster.
British Housing Minister Michael Gove and survivors of the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people, criticised the team for the deal with the Kingspan company whose branding will be visible on their cars. The Irish company produces insulation and cladding products.
Survivors group Grenfell United said, in a posting on Twitter, that the partnership was “truly shocking”.
In an open letter to relatives, Wolff stopped short of saying Mercedes would review the deal but apologised for any upset caused by the link-up.
“The tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire was beyond imaginable to me, and it should never have happened,” he wrote. “On behalf of our team, I would sincerely like to apologise to you for the additional hurt that this announcement has caused. It was never our intention to do so.”
Gove said on Twitter he was “deeply disappointed” that Mercedes were taking sponsorship from Kingspan while an inquiry was on-going.
He said: “I will be writing to Mercedes to ask them to reconsider. The Grenfell community deserves better.”
Wolff insisted that Mercedes had carried out a full audit of Kingspan before penning the deal and has also offered to meet families of the bereaved.
“The work of the public inquiry to establish the full causes of the tragedy is crucially important,” he added. “Prior to concluding our partnership, we engaged with Kingspan in depth to understand what role their products played in what happened at Grenfell.
“Kingspan have stated that they played no role in the design or construction of the cladding system on Grenfell Tower, and that a small percentage of their product was used as a substitute without their knowledge in part of the system which was not compliant with building regulations and was unsafe.”
