A Formula 1 driver has blacked out his social media accounts after receiving over a thousand hateful messages – including death threats – after an error at the Qatar Grand Prix
Kimi Antonelli has taken the drastic step of blacking out his social media accounts after receiving death threats and over 1,100 disturbing messages in the wake of the Qatar Grand Prix.
The 19-year-old Mercedes driver was subjected to vile online abuse following a late error in Sunday’s race that caused him to go off track, enabling Lando Norris to overtake him. This incident allowed Norris to gain an extra two points which could be crucial in the championship race.
Currently, Norris is 12 points ahead of Max Verstappen, who won the Qatar race, meaning the Brit only needs to finish third in the Abu Dhabi finale this weekend to clinch the world champion title, irrespective of how Verstappen fares.
Shortly after the race concluded, it was observed that Antonelli had changed his Instagram profile picture to a plain black image. This sparked speculation that the young racer might be suffering from online harassment, a suspicion sadly confirmed by Mirror Sport.
It’s estimated that more than 1,100 cruel comments have been flagged on Kimi’s personal social media profiles, with around 330 additional instances found on the Mercedes team’s pages. A number of these repugnant remarks are understood to include threats of death or harm towards the teenager.
The team is preparing to submit all the offensive remarks it has collected to the FIA, which operates its own United Against Online Abuse initiative.
It comes after comments from two senior Red Bull figures suggesting that Antonelli may have made things straightforward for Norris, who competes for McLaren, a team using Mercedes power units.
Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, voiced his bewilderment to the Dutch driver over the radio shortly after the incident, saying: “I am not sure what happened to Antonelli there. It looked like he just pulled over and let Lando through.”
Helmut Marko, a veteran team advisor, went further by claiming post-race that it was “so obvious” that the young driver had permitted Norris to overtake without putting up a fight. Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff quickly rejected these suggestions and slammed Marko severely, disclosing that he had already discussed the matter with Lambiase to set the record straight.
The Austrian explained: “This is total, utter nonsense that blows my mind. We are fighting for second in the constructors’ championship, which is important for us. Kimi is fighting for a potential third in the race.
“I mean, how brainless can you be to even say something like this? And it annoys me. Because I’m annoyed with the race itself, how it went. I’m annoyed with the mistake at the end.
“I’m annoyed with other mistakes. And then hearing such nonsense blows my mind. I spoke to GP [Lambiase]. Obviously, they were emotional in that moment.
“I said to him, ‘He [Antonelli] just went off. He had a bit of a moment in the previous corner and then less entry speed into the left-hander. It can happen’. So with GP everything is clear. We cleared the air. He said that he didn’t see the situation.
“But why would we do this? Why would we even think about interfering in a driver championship? You really need to check yourself and whether you are seeing ghosts.”
Red Bull released a statement on Monday morning expressing they “regretted” comments that triggered online abuse aimed at Antonelli. It read: “Comments made before the end of and immediately after the Qatar GP suggesting that Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli had deliberately allowed Lando Norris to overtake him are clearly incorrect.
“Replay footage shows Antonelli momentarily losing control of his car, thus allowing Norris to pass him. We sincerely regret that this has led to Kimi receiving online abuse.”