The Mercedes driver after the Qatar GP: “Lando and Verstappen sent me messages. I won’t change the way I race, and I’d never do anything like that. All three of them deserve the World Championship, but Max has done extraordinary things”
Kimi Antonelli has spoken out again following the social media controversy that erupted after the Qatar Grand Prix. That fourth-place finish, 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 flooded his social media profiles. The accusation is that he facilitated Norris’s pass, handing him precious points in the championship standings. That led the Italian driver to hide his profile picture on Instagram in protest. The Mercedes team did not remain indifferent and even sent a comprehensive report to the FIA, which issued a strong condemnation of the haters and expressed full solidarity with Antonelli.
“I’m fine now. The first night I was really upset, especially because I didn’t understand why. When you’re accused of things that aren’t true, it’s awful. I was fighting for the podium and I would never do something like that. And if I’d wanted to let Lando pass on purpose, I would have done it 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 sensitive topic of social media, also explaining the meaning behind his blacked-out 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 toward a driver you don’t support. The blacked-out profile picture was a way to send a message. Since that evening, I haven’t looked at social media until today. And 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 sorted out, and especially if they can put pressure on Norris and Piastri, maybe they can win it. But we expect McLaren to be very strong. All three deserve it, but Max has made an incredible difference in this second half of the season.”
