After the Qatar Grand Prix, Mercedes F1 driver Kimi Antonelli has taken down his social media profiles due to receiving death threats and more than 1,100 offensive messages. The 19-year-old faced backlash from trolls for a mistake in the race that allowed Lando Norris to pass him, giving Norris an advantage in the championship standings.
With Norris gaining extra points from the incident, he now holds a 12-point lead over Max Verstappen, the winner of the Qatar race. This means that Norris only needs to secure third place in the upcoming Abu Dhabi finale to become the world champion, regardless of Verstappen’s performance.
Following the race, Antonelli changed his Instagram profile picture to all black, sparking speculation about online abuse directed at him. Reports suggest that over 1,100 negative comments were found on Antonelli’s personal accounts, with an additional 330 on the Mercedes team’s pages, some of which included threats towards the young driver.
The Mercedes team plans to report the offensive comments to the FIA as part of the United Against Online Abuse initiative. This action comes after comments from Red Bull officials insinuating that Antonelli intentionally allowed Norris to pass, given Norris races for McLaren, a team with Mercedes engines.
During the race, Verstappen’s race engineer expressed confusion over Antonelli’s actions, suggesting he made it easy for Norris to overtake. However, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff dismissed these claims, labeling them as baseless and emphasizing that there was no intention to interfere with the championship standings.
Red Bull later issued a statement expressing regret over the remarks that led to online abuse towards Antonelli, clarifying that replay footage showed Antonelli losing control of his car, allowing Norris to pass him unintentionally.
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