Red Bull said they sincerely regret comments made during and after the Qatar Grand Prix that contributed to Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli receiving death threats on social media.
Antonelli changed his Instagram profile picture to black on Monday morning after what Mercedes described as a wave of hurtful messages, including several death threats. The abuse followed remarks made by Max Verstappen’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, who suggested over team radio that it looked like Antonelli had pulled over to let Lando Norris through following a mistake at Turn 10 on the penultimate lap.
Norris took fourth place as a result, scoring two extra points that extend his lead over Verstappen to twelve ahead of this weekend’s three way title decider in Abu Dhabi.
Red Bull later issued a statement clarifying that the accusation was unfounded, noting that replay footage showed Antonelli momentarily losing control of his Mercedes, which allowed Norris to pass. The team said they sincerely regretted the situation escalating into online abuse, although the statement did not include a direct apology for the original insinuation.
Mercedes said Lambiase apologised to team principal Toto Wolff after the race once he had seen video of the incident. Team representative Bradley Lord, who was part of the discussion, told BBC Sport that Lambiase apologised as soon as he realised he had not been aware of the full circumstances.
According to Mercedes, the volume of abuse aimed at Antonelli represented a 1,100 per cent increase on what the team usually sees on a race weekend. Antonelli did not see the messages because his channels are moderated. Wolff condemned the initial accusation as brainless and said he was frustrated to hear claims that Antonelli had acted deliberately.
Wolff said the air was cleared with Lambiase and that the engineer had been emotional in the moment given Red Bull’s championship situation.
Antonelli, who finished fifth, said he had been pushing hard to catch Carlos Sainz for third when he ran wide. He described battling dirty air and overheating tyres before a sudden loss of rear grip caused him to slide off track. He said it was a shame to lose the position, which cost him two points, and that he would review what led to the mistake.
