After Toto Wolff labelled Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko’s insinuation that Kimi Antonelli let Lando Norris through on purpose in the closing stages of the F1 Qatar GP as “utter nonsense”, the Milton Keynes outfit has issued an apology for the vitriol the Mercedes driver is receiving online.
It appeared that Norris was going to settle for fifth behind Antonelli after a bungled strategy call to not pit under the early Safety Car left him out of podium contention.
The Drivers’ Championship leader pitted for the hard tyres on Lap 44 and soon closed in on Antonelli. However, he was unable to clear the rookie, with overtaking being rather challenging without a considerable speed advantage at Lusail.
Antonelli suffering a moment of oversteer on Lap 56 and drifting off the track at Turn 10 finally allowed Norris to snatch away fourth place. He now heads to the season finale in Abu Dhabi with a 12-point lead over Max Verstappen instead of 10.
The Dutchman’s race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, was the first to imply that Antonelli’s mistake was of a deliberate nature, while Marko also suggested the same when speaking to media post-race.
Consequently, the Italian received a huge volume of abusive messages, including death threats, on social media. He has turned his Instagram profile picture to black in response, with Mercedes also seeking to raise the issue with the FIA.
Red Bull eventually issued a statement on Monday in response to the backlash.
“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.
“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.”
Marko believed Antonelli was aiding Norris; issues an apology later
Speaking to Motorsport.com after the race, veteran Red Bull advisor Marko insisted that it was “obvious” Antonelli intentionally let Norris past at the end of Sunday’s F1 Qatar GP. He also implied that the Italian hadn’t put up a convincing defence against Oscar Piastri earlier in the evening.
Moreover, the Austrian expressed his displeasure at the 19-year-old for taking Verstappen out at the Red Bull Ring back in June.
“It was twice where he [Kimi Antonelli] more or less waved Lando [Norris] by. It was so obvious.
“Antonelli now helps our main competitor; in Austria he was crashing [Verstappen] in the rear.”
Following the torrent of social media abuse his comments triggered, Marko has now backtracked and apologised for the hostility Antonelli faced on multiple platforms on Sunday night.
“I took another close look at the footage,” the Red Bull advisor told German publication F1-Insider on Monday.
“The first time, Antonelli could have held his ground a little better [as Oscar Piastri passed him into Turn 1]. The second time, it was a driving error and not intentional. I’m sorry that Antonelli got so much flak online. To clarify once again: he didn’t let Norris pass on purpose.”
Wolff labels Marko as brainless
When asked to respond to Marko’s grave remarks in his print media session, Toto Wolff stated that it was witless on the 82-year-old’s part to entertain such drivel. Highlighting their battle with Red Bull for second place in the Constructors’ Championship and how Antonelli was contending for a podium at the Qatar GP, the Mercedes F1 chief made it abundantly clear that the loss of additional points irritated him.
“Bless him, Helmut [Marko]. This is total, utter nonsense that blows my mind even to hear that. We’re fighting for P2 in the championship, which is important for us. Kimi’s fighting for a potential P3 [in the race].
“I mean, how brainless can you be to even say something like this? And it annoys me, because I’m annoyed with the race itself, how it went. I’m annoyed with the mistake at the end. I’m annoyed with other mistakes. And then hearing such nonsense blows my mind.”
Wolff has cleared the air with Verstappen’s race engineer
Prior to Red Bull’s long-standing advisor capturing the headlines with his explosive allegations, Lambiase had made a similar comment on the radio on the final lap of the Qatar GP.
“Not sure what happened to Antonelli, Max; looks like he just pulled over and let Norris through,” Verstappen’s race engineer said.
Toto Wolff, however, was quite understanding of Lambiase’s remarks in the heat of the moment as Verstappen finds himself in a remarkably tight three-way battle for the title with a single race to go.
Elaborating on how Antonelli had gone wide and lost a position, Wolff remarked that Lambiase’s misunderstanding stemmed from not having revisited the relevant footage. Furthermore, the 53-year-old revealed that he had cleared the air with the Italian-British engineer.
“I spoke to GP [Lambiase]. I saw him, and obviously, he was emotional in that moment, because they needed one position, I guess, to [help] win the championship. Now they need more.
“And I said to him, he [Antonelli] just went off. He had a bit of a moment in the previous corner, and then had less entry speed into that left-hander, put the gas down and had that moment, which can happen, that lost the position. So with GP, everything’s clear. Cleared the air. He said he didn’t see the situation.”
Emphasising how Mercedes have zero incentive to meddle with the outcome of the Drivers’ Championship, Wolff also disclosed that Lambiase had offered him an apology for the controversy that erupted on social media.
“Why would we do this? Why would we even think about interfering in a driver championship? I mean, you really need to check yourself whether you see ghosts. I said to GP that there’s quite a social media storm and GP said, ‘Sorry if I caused that.’’
