Mercedes Formula 1 driver Kimi Antonelli has taken action on his social media accounts after receiving death threats and more than 1,100 hateful messages after the Qatar Grand Prix. The 19-year-old was targeted by disgusting trolls because of a late incident in Sunday’s race which saw the Italian teenager run wide due to a mistake, which allowed Lando Norris to overtake.
Norris scored two extra points as a result and that could be crucial in the title race. He 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 become world champion regardless of the Dutchman’s result.
Not long after the conclusion of the race, it became clear that Antonelli had changed his Instagram page to remove his usual profile photo, replacing it with an all-black image. That sparked speculation that the teenager might be receiving online abuse and Express Sport understands that, sadly, that is indeed the case.
It is understood that more than 1,100 severe comments have been flagged on Kimi’s personal social media accounts, with around 330 more examples spotted on the Mercedes team’s pages. Several of the offensive comments are understood to have contained threats of death or harm to the 19-year-old.
The team is set to present all the offensive comments it has spotted and collected to the FIA, which has its own United Against Online Abuse programme. It comes after two senior Red Bull chiefs had suggested that Antonelli might have made it easy for Norris, who drives for the McLaren team which uses engines supplied by Mercedes.
Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase told the Dutchman over the radio seconds after the incident: “I am not sure what happened to Antonelli there. It looked like he just pulled over and let Lando through.” And long-serving team adviser Helmut Marko went as far after the race to claim it was “so obvious” that the youngster had let Norris through without a fight.
Lando Norris’ late overtake on Kimi Antonelli (Image: Getty)
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was quick to dismiss any suggestion and was highly critical of Marko, revealing that he had already spoken with Lambiase to clear up what had happened. The Austrian said: “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 in which the team said it “regretted” the comments made which led to the abuse of 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.”
