Kimi Antonelli has revealed that he spoke with Max Verstappen and his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, after the Qatar Grand Prix. The latter’s comments contributed to a narrative that the Mercedes driver had deliberately let McLaren’s Lando Norris through during the closing laps of last weekend’s race.
The teenage rookie was defending fourth place from Norris, who had much fresher tyres, and suffered a snap on the penultimate lap of the race, forcing him off track and letting the McLaren racer through.
Comments from Lambiase and Helmut Marko initiated a narrative suggesting that Antonelli had intentionally allowed the Brit through, due to the power unit relationship that exists between McLaren and Mercedes. Some of Verstappen’s fans took to social media to abuse the 19-year-old, who turned his Instagram profile picture black in response.
“It was not easy to get all those kind of comments, after the race, especially for something that I would never do, such as waving past a competitor,” the Mercedes driver said ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
“I was fighting for P3. At the end of the day, I was pushing hard, and I was trying to get into the DRS of Sainz. After so many laps in dirty air, I’m pushing so hard, the mistake arrived, because I 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. At that moment I did a mistake, and Lando passed me and, you know, then after the race to receive those kind of comments, definitely it hurt.”
Antonelli had the chance to speak to his close friend Verstappen, who has been on hand to give the teenager advice throughout his rookie season. The Italian also spoke to Lambiase, who was spotted in conversation with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff in the Qatar GP paddock, clearing the air.
“It was nice to see the Red Bull statement, also GP (Lambiase) came to talk to me as well, and we clarified, I also clarified with Max, and that was nice,” Antonelli explained. “But apart from that, after that I got a lot of support, which was nice and definitely also it helped to kind of forget what happened and focus on onto this weekend.”
The Mercedes star, who has enjoyed a strong run of form heading into round 24 of the season, also received support from former Prema Racing team-mate Oliver Bearman, who pulled no punches in his assessment of the situation.
“But I think generally, it’s always the case that people behind the screen are horrible and the scum of the earth, really,” the Brit said. “I don’t think they should be doing that type of stuff to someone. I understand that people who’ve been in F1 for a very long time get used to it, and people who are rookies, it may be their first experience having that type of criticism, but that criticism is an absolute joke.”
