Kimi Antonelli reveals Max Verstappen contact after ‘brainless’ social media abuse

Kimi Antonelli revealed he received contact from both Max Verstappen and Red Bull head of engineering, Gianpiero Lambiase, after he received “brainless” social media abuse in the aftermath of the Qatar Grand Prix.

Antonelli made a mistake in the closing stages to enable Lando Norris to pass him for fourth place, meaning the McLaren driver took two extra points into the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Kimi Antonelli: Max Verstappen message ‘contained some bad words’ after social media abuse

Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko had claimed Antonelli’s error was deliberate in the immediate aftermath of the race, but Red Bull subsequently released a statement to clarify these claims in the media were “clearly incorrect”, expressing its “sincere regret” that this potentially contributed to abuse sent to the teenager.

In the days following the race, Antonelli confirmed he had spoken both to Verstappen and his long-serving race engineer to clarify their take on the incident, and that he appreciated them both reaching out.

On the abuse itself, Antonelli told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media in Abu Dhabi: “It was not easy to get all those kinds of comments after the race, especially for something that I would never do, such as waving past a competitor.

“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 and pushing so hard, the mistake arrived, because every lap I was pushing a bit more and more to get closer, I arrived to the point where the tyre gave up.

“And at the moment, I did a mistake and Lando went past me.

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“Then after the race, to receive those kind of comments definitely hurt.

“But, definitely then, obviously, 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, but apart from that I got a lot of support, which was nice, and definitely also it helped to kind of forget what happened and focus onto this weekend.”

Asked further about Verstappen’s messages, Antonelli joked the language he used was not for public consumption, but added the Red Bull driver felt those to abuse him on social media were brainless.

“[Verstappen] saw what happened,” Antonelli said of the Dutchman’s response to his on-track error.

“He wasn’t bothered by anything. He even showed support, so really nice from him.

“I could not really say what he said, because the message contained some bad words, but he just said: ‘Don’t worry about these kind of people, because they’re brainless. So, just focus on the job.'”

Additional reporting by Mat Coch and Thomas Maher

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