F2 releases statement after online abuse against McLaren junior Alex Dunne, for what happened in the races in Monaco and Spain.
After the incidents that handed Rodin Motorsport’s Dunne heavy penalties, the Irishman has come under attack on social media as well by various fans. He was involved in a Lap 1 incident in feature F2 race which enraged Victor Martins.
He was handed penalties for the sprint race in Barcelona, but he had another freak incident with Martins in the pitlane which resulted in two three place grid penalties in the sprint and feature races. By then, he was subjected to heavy trolling on social media.
Here’s F2 with their statement –
“On behalf of our Teams and Drivers, F1, F2, F3 and the FIA, through their United Against Online Abuse campaign, firmly condemn abuse and harassment of any form. We’ll continue to collectively act upon and report abuse to social media platforms. Whether you are a fan or a part of the motorsport world, we are all driven by passion. At the heart of it all, there are humans. We urge everyone to remain respectful towards the athletes and their teams.”
Here’s what Dunne said in Spain –
“I got a lot of stuff after Monaco. Normally, I’m not someone who reads things and gets annoyed about it. But I think an hour after the race, I just deleted all of social media from my phone because I think I’ve never received such bad messages in my life. I think a lot of the stuff I got was really, really bad and quite upsetting, to be honest. But no, I think… sorry.”
Here’s what McLaren team boss Andrea Stella said –
“The situation he had in Monaco is one of those situations where you can learn a lot. If you think about multiple world champions, they went through situations which were very important in order to fine-tune the way they go racing. We had actually a good conversation with Alex to reaffirm the complete support to his talent, to his speed, to the championship that he’s fighting for. And we always see a very mature person. It was an immediate response to the situation he had in Monaco. The pressure that came from these social media comments, for me that’s something that makes me very proud of him. I think he was genuine.
“I think we need to realise that we live in a difficult world in which people can attack other people with no foundation, sometimes no competence. So we are completely behind Alex, not only on track, but also off track from this point of view. I just felt a little bit for him, but I also felt very proud of him in showing his reaction, being genuine, natural. But we need to think all, and I think for me even a call to our sense of responsibility overall, even you guys that have the pen. I think we need to make sure that in anything we do, we try to avoid a situation that can be too controversial. I’m not referring to the situation with Alex. I don’t know what was written in the media. I know what was written in the comments. Just a sense of responsibility is the main call I would like to make.”
