Andrea Kimi Antonelli shares thoughts after social media abuse following the Qatar GP, as he notes of what happened and others F1 drivers chime in.
It was not the post-race that Mercedes’ Antonelli would have wanted after Qatar. He got a firsthand taste of how toxic fans or fanbase can be in F1. After a mistake on the final lap which allowed Lando Norris through, it resulted in barrage of social media abuse against the Italian.
Max Verstappen’s race engineer – unaware – noted that Antonelli gave way to Norris on radio, while Helmut Marko called out the blatant move. Both of them apologised after understanding the situation, where Gianpiero Lambiase also met with Toto Wolff to apologise.
He did so with Antonelli as well, but only this week. Reports suggested that the Italian removed his profile picture on Instagram, but it was unclear when he did so. Mercedes likely took the matter with the FIA, who put out a statement along with one from Red Bull to put down the abuses.
A week on from the event, Antonelli described his feelings when asked about it in Abu Dhabi. He admitted to feeling bad seeing the comments made. Even though he isn’t as much social media during race weekends, but he stated that his friends highlighted some which upset him.
Antonelli categorically cleared that he would never wave past someone like that. “Yeah, I mean, it was not easy to get all those kinds of comments after the race, especially for something that I would never do, such as waving past a competitor,” he said to media. “And I was fighting for P3. At the end of the day, I was pushing hard and I was trying to get into the arrest of signs.
“And especially after so many laps in third gear and pushing so hard, the mistake arrived because obviously every lap I was pushing a bit more and more to get closer and I arrived to the point where the tyre gave up and at the moment I did a mistake and Lando passed me. And then after the race to receive those kinds of comments definitely hurt, but yeah, definitely then, obviously it was nice to see the Red Bull statement. Also, GP came to talk to me as well and we clarified with Max.
“And that was nice. But apart from that, after that they got a lot of support, which was nice. And definitely also it helped to kind of forget what happened and focus on this weekend,” summed up Antonelli, who revealed message from Verstappen, but didn’t wish to specify what it was, since it carried bad words. “No, it was, he saw what happened,” he continued. “So he wasn’t bothered by anything.
“And no, he even, like, showed support. So, really, really nice from him. And, yeah, I just said, I couldn’t, I cannot really say what he said because it contained some bad words, the message. But, yeah, he just said, ‘don’t worry about these kind of people because they’re brainless’. So just, yeah, just focus on the job. But, yeah, he showed a lot of support.
“No, it [the meet with GP] happened this week. Yeah, so not after the race,” summed up Antonelli. When asked if he will carry on checking his social media, the Italian wasn’t sure. He said he already sees less of it anyways but whether he sees it or not, such kind of hate message is ever good. “I mean, obviously the interaction with people is important,” he said.
“But during race week, during the weekend, I try to look the least amount of possible as possible, because obviously I don’t want to get any distractions, just want to really focus on the job. But after the race, I got so many messages from friends showing me what was going on, and because initially I wasn’t aware of it. And then obviously I went looking at it and it was difficult to see. But, yeah, now I forgot about it.”
Here’s what some F1 drivers said in support –
George Russell: “Yeah, I think it’s pretty unacceptable what happened and what was written and the abuse online. Obviously, it all started with a mistake from the Red Bull guys, and of course, they apologised, and that’s okay. People make a mistake, especially when you don’t have the full facts. But I think those thousands of people behind their keyboards have no excuse and really need to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and think why that is acceptable – not just for F1, but just society altogether. I just struggle to comprehend it, really. So that’s all I can say.”
Charles Leclerc: “Yeah, I don’t have much more to add apart from that. It’s unacceptable. And obviously, those people face no consequence for their words and for their disrespect towards drivers. So yeah, it’s not up to us to think about the consequences that they should endure, but it’s a big shame because, as they said, we’re all here trying to do our absolute best. We’ve done racing since we were kids, dreaming of being in that position, and today we’re doing absolutely everything in order to be at the limit. And sometimes mistakes happen. In that particular case, also, the hate was for absolutely nothing. So yeah, I mean, I didn’t speak with Kimi.
“The only thing that you can do in those kinds of moments is to ignore everything that is happening, but that’s obviously very hard – especially when you are… I remember my first or second year in F1, you kind of look sometimes on social media at what’s being said around you, or at least that was the case for me, and that makes it even more difficult. So yeah, then I think with experience you kind of get used to it, but we shouldn’t really have to get used to this kind of behaviour, and I hope that one day it will be tackled properly.”
Isack Hadjar: “I haven’t spoken to Kimi, but it’s just unfair, especially when you’re giving your absolute maximum during your race to bring it home – I think it was fourth. You make a mistake, and then there are all these things said about you online. I think it’s just very unfair because you give your absolute maximum, and then it seems like you did this mistake on purpose, which I think is very not nice. And yeah, people behind their keyboards, like George said, are just idiots. They all know nothing about racing – never drove ever in their life – so that’s the only reason why they comment.”
Oliver Bearman: “Well, I didn’t face that level of criticism but it comes as part of being at a team like Haas than Mercedes. There’s also a benefit of starting your career in a team like Haas, you are bit less in the limelight, you have the possibility to make mistakes and be less criticised for those. But I think, generally it is the case people behind the scenes are horrible and the skull of the earth really, I don’t think they should be doing that kind of stuff to someone, like I understand people who have been in the sport for a very long time, get used to it, people who are rookies, it maybe their first experience, having that kind of criticism.
“That criticism is absolutely a joke, it shouldn’t be tolerated. I know the FIA are doing everything they can to stop that but the problem is these sad people giving those types of criticism, it is a joke. We are putting our lives on the line to entertain people and to give the people who are passionate for the sport, a good time and you have people like that who are just hurting people. That’s just not racing, that’s also them their personal life. I just thing people are terrible, really people in the world are terrible.”
Franco Colapinto: “We all have [faced social media abuse]. I’ve had so much, and it’s not something I really care or look at, and I think that’s the easiest way to take it. It’s just people that are behind the keyboard and writing things, and you cannot do anything about it. And it’s something that has been lately in sports and in any other people that have interaction with the fans. And of course, it’s something that is wrong, but it’s also something that is very tricky to control and to stop. So I think the easiest way to manage that is just not looking at it, not focusing on that, not just putting any emphasis or strength on what you see in social media. I think most of drivers had it at some point this year, and unfortunately, something that started to become quite normal.
“On the other hand, I think that we also need to be much more careful with what we say after races or during races. And yeah, looking at the post-race interview to understand where the hate was coming from to Kimi and that’s also something that should be avoided first. You know before, before the hate comes, someone is creating from behind. That’s what we have to work on, trying to avoid those moments, we are getting penalties by saying bad words in the in the media. But people that say something that is completely wrong or creative is not getting anything. And maybe that’s also something to look at. It is not super fair. No, I haven’t [had the chance to speak with Kimi].
“I don’t know, I was just thinking of the fines that they give for the words in the TV pen or the media, and then thinking that there are people with worse or not thinking what they say, or with not the full information or full picture, they say things that create hate that is much worse than saying sh*t or whatever, some bad word, really something much bigger and they are not getting for it. I don’t know it doesn’t feel super fair the whole thing, maybe it should be [penalised], maybe it shouldn’t, I am not the one decide. It is probably something to look at.”
Here’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Toto Wolff after the Qatar GP
