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Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff has offered to meet a group of survivors and bereaved families from the Grenfell tragedy after apologising for the “hurt” caused by a new team partnership.
The world champion team has struck a deal with Kingspan, an insulation and building envelope solutions group, described as a “global sustainability partnership”.
Kingspan is implicated in the Grenfell tower fire that occurred in London in 2017 and killed 72 people, injured others and cost many people their homes.
Its insulation products were found to be used in the building’s cladding and have been accused of contributing to the aggressive spread of the fire, a formal inquiry into which is ongoing.
Grenfell United is an association representing survivors and bereaved families from the fire.
It published an open letter to Wolff, describing the new Mercedes partnership as “truly shocking” because Kingspan played a “central role” in the tragedy.
They also highlighted various revelations about the conduct of Kingspan personnel in the aftermath and questioned if Wolff was happy to partner a “wholly unethical” company.
Grenfell United formally requested Wolff “immediately sever your relationship” with Kingspan and accused the deal of putting “profit before human life”.
In response, Mercedes has published a letter to Grenfell United on Wolff’s behalf.
He describes the tragedy as “beyond imaginable” and says “it should never have happened” and said: “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.”
Though Wolff did not address whether Mercedes will end its Kingspan partnership he has indicated he is willing to meet Grenfell United representatives for further discussions.
He says Mercedes “engaged with Kingspan in depth to understand what role their products played in what happened at Grenfell” before finalising the deal.
“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,” Wolff says in the letter.
“I know that this does not change in any way the awful tragedy you suffered, or the deep and ongoing pain felt in your community, and I would like to thank Grenfell United for the offer to meet in person for me to learn and understand better.
“I look forward to coming together as soon as we can.”
Kingspan has previously stated that it “supports the vitally important work of the Inquiry to determine what went wrong and why” but claims the evidence shows the insulation “made no material difference to the nature and speed of the spread of the fire”.
The company claims to have “identified and apologised for process and conduct shortcomings in its UK insulation business”, including “significant process enhancements, an enhanced code of conduct, as well as traceability and supply chain integrity measures”.
Grenfell United published another letter a couple of hours after Wolff’s, in which it did not reference Wolff’s offer to meet.
It expressed appreciation that the intention was not to harm the affected community but said: “We hope you understand that your miscalculation in partnering with Kingspan displays a public endorsement of a company described as ‘little better than crooks and killers’, who are directly responsible for the death of our loved ones.”
Picking up on Wolff’s comments about discussing the involvement in the Grenfell tragedy with Kingspan prior to completing the deal, Grenfell United said it was “in essence asking them to mark their own homework, a system which led to Grenfell in the first place”.
The letter hit out at “Kingspan’s corruption”, claiming it is “no secret” as the inquiry has “cast a light over their rotten organisation”.
It claimed the inquiry found Kingspan “set the precedent for manipulating tests” and “pushing deadly products onto the market”, adding: “Kingspan opened up a door for other companies to game the system in the same way they did.
“Whilst 72 of our loved ones were killed, 18 of which were children, Kingspan and others have walked away so far unscathed.
“We urge you to stand with us in our fight for justice, to be the frontrunners in setting the standard in F1 and the industry, that money does NOT come before human life.
“We hope this can be resolved as soon as possible.”
The UK government has also got involved in the issue, with secretary of state for levelling up, housing & communities Michael Gove writing a letter to the Mercedes team, urging the team to reconsider its partnership with Kingspan.
