Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli has faced a wave of online abuse following the Qatar Grand Prix, after a late mistake cost him fourth place to Lando Norris. The error on the penultimate lap allowed Norris to extend his lead over Max Verstappen to 12 points ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Antonelli has been clear that the incident was a genuine driving error, not a deliberate move.

The criticism began after Red Bull figures, including Max Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase and adviser Helmut Marko, suggested Antonelli had “let Norris through” intentionally. Because of that the young Italian soon started receiving death threats on social media.

“Comments made before the end of and immediately after the Qatar GP suggesting that Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli had deliberately allowed Lando Norris to overtake him are clearly incorrect,” Red Bull later said in a statement. “Replay footage shows Antonelli momentarily losing control of his car, thus allowing Norris to pass him. We sincerely regret that this has led to Kimi receiving online abuse.”

Antonelli himself explained what happened in the final laps. “I went in a bit quicker than the lap before,” he told Motorsport Week. “Obviously, with dirt here, the car is more unpredictable because you have less downforce and the tyres overheat more. I just lost the rear all of a sudden. I didn’t expect it. At such high speed, I went off track.”

Despite this, he emphasised that he had no reason to give Norris the position. “We were gaining quite a lot on Carlos [Sainz], and we were quite a bit stronger in the last sector,” he said. “Definitely, with two laps to go, we would have had the DRS and probably had a shot in the last lap. But in the end, that didn’t happen because I went off track.”

Mercedes reported that over 1,100 severe or suspicious messages were sent to Antonelli’s social media accounts following the race, with another 330 flagged across the team’s accounts. Some of these were threatening, while others were simply abusive. Antonelli even changed his Instagram profile picture to black amid the criticism. Mercedes is taking the issue very seriously and will present the messages to the FIA as part of its United Against Online Abuse campaign.

Team principal Toto Wolff called the online criticism “brainless” and “total utter nonsense” and confirmed he had confronted Lambiase, who apologised. Marko has also backtracked, telling F1 Insider: “The first time, Antonelli could have put up a bit more of a fight. The second time, it was a driving error and not intentional. I’m sorry that Antonelli got so much criticism online. To make it perfectly clear: He didn’t let Norris past intentionally.”