Mercedes team member robbed at gunpoint

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A Mercedes team member was robbed at gunpoint in Mexico City ahead of this weekend's Mexican Grand Prix.

The unnamed member of the current world championship winning team was travelling from the city's airport to the Mercedes team hotel in a chauffeur-driven car when the incident occurred on Wednesday.

"Wallets and watches were taken but there were no physical injuries," a Mercedes team spokesperson said.

The team member - who was not wearing Mercedes-branded kit at the time of the incident - has chosen to remain in Mexico for the rest of the race weekend. The Sun report a Mercedes spokesman as saying the team member was "shaken up" by the robbery, while adding the Mexico City Police Department are already set to deploy 4,960 officers around outside the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez this weekend to protect spectators.

The incident is not the first of F1 figures being targeted, with Jenson Button threatened at gunpoint ahead of the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix, while three Sauber engineers were also victim of an armed robbery the same day.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.