The Mercedes driver after the Qatar Grand Prix: “Lando and Verstappen sent me messages. I won’t change the way I race and I would never do anything like that. All three deserve to win the World Championship, but Max has done extraordinary things.”
Kimi Antonelli has spoken out again after the social media controversy that erupted at the end of the Qatar Grand Prix. That fourth place, lost on the very last lap to Lando Norris, sparked a storm of hatred. After the race, thousands of offensive comments and even death threats appeared on his social media profiles. The accusation is that he favored Norris’ overtaking, handing him valuable points in the world championship. From there, the Italian driver decided to hide his image from his Instagram profile in protest. The Mercedes team did not remain indifferent and even sent a complete dossier to the FIA, which expressed its firm condemnation of the haters and total solidarity with Antonelli.
“I’m fine now. The first night I was really upset, especially because I didn’t understand the reason. When you’re accused of things that aren’t true, it’s awful. I was fighting for the podium and I would never do such a thing. And if I had wanted to let Lando pass on purpose, I would have done so much earlier.” Kimi then spoke about the apologies from Red Bull and some of his colleagues: “I received an apology from Giampiero Lambiase (Verstappen’s track engineer, ed.). He came to me, and we cleared things up. It was a nice gesture. And then Red Bull issued a statement, which I appreciated. Max and Lando also wrote to me, which made me very happy.”
doing without social media — Kimi then touched on the delicate subject of social media, explaining the meaning behind his darkened profile picture: “The FIA is working on it, something needs to be done because this time it happened to me and tomorrow it will happen to someone else. Respect must never be lacking, even towards a driver you don’t support. The darkened profile picture was a way of sending a message. Since that evening, I haven’t looked at social media until today. It was also a way to disconnect. You can definitely live without it. Social media certainly has its merits, but also its flaws. In some respects, it wouldn’t be bad if we could do without it.”
on the world championship— Finally, the Mercedes driver spoke about the world championship and the three-way battle for the world title, involving Norris, Piastri, and Verstappen: “Norris is the favorite, but Max can do it. It’s difficult, but if Red Bull can get everything right, and especially if they can put pressure on Norris and Piastri, maybe they can win it. However, we expect McLaren to be very strong. All three deserve it, but Max has made an incredible difference in the second half of the season.”
