Following the Grand Prix of Qatar, Kimi Antonelli came under heavy criticism. The young Italian held Lando Norris at bay for a long time during the race, but was overtaken by the Brit after a minor mistake. The rookie was subjected to a lot of online hate and even threats after the race, but received support from Max Verstappen, who advised him on how to handle the situation.
Antonelli and Norris battled for fourth place in the closing stages of the race in Qatar. Coming out of turn 10, the Italian lost control of his W16, allowing Norris to pass him. Subsequently, accusations were made against Antonelli, including from Verstappen’s engineer Gianpiero Lambias and Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, suggesting that he had let this happen too easily. Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff quickly refuted this, as did Antonelli himself. Nevertheless, it led to hate messages and even threats on social media after the race.
“After the race, I received a lot of messages from friends showing me what was going on,” Antonelli recounts in Abu Dhabi. “When I finally saw it myself, it was hard to process. I’ve since put it behind me.” Verstappen had advice, it turned out. “The core of his message was clear: ‘Don’t worry about these kinds of people, they’re brainless. Focus on your work.’ It was really nice that he supported me in that way.”
Drivers Condemn Hate
Other drivers also spoke out about the threats and hate messages. Teammate George Russell called it completely unacceptable: “It all happened due to mistakes made by the people at Red Bull. That can happen, mistakes are part of it. However, those thousands of people behind their keyboards have no excuse. They need to take a good look in the mirror and think about why they find this behavior acceptable.” Isack Hadjar added: “It’s unfair, especially when you give everything during a race and then make a mistake. Then these kinds of things appear online. People behind their keyboards are just idiots. They know nothing about racing and have never raced themselves, that’s the only reason they say such things.”
Charles Leclerc emphasized the lack of consequences for those who express the hate. He finds it a shame that people who post such messages do not get punished. “We do our best and have been racing since we were children. The hate was therefore completely unnecessary. I haven’t spoken to Kimi, but the best thing you can do is ignore such things. That’s hard, but with experience, you get used to it. Although that really shouldn’t be the case.”
