Ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP, Antonelli reflected on the wave of social media hate that he received after losing fourth place to Lando Norris at the end of the F1 Qatar GP.
In the final laps of the race, Antonelli went wide at Turn 10, losing a place to the McLaren. This gained a struggling Norris two extra Championship-critical points. As the F1 2025 Championship battle now heads to Abu Dhabi, some Verstappen and Piastri fans took to social media to share their anger towards Antonelli for giving Norris an advantage.
A simple mistake while chasing a podium
Antonelli explained his perspective of the incident where he let Norris pass him in the closing stages of the Qatar GP. Rather than defending from the McLaren behind, the Mercedes driver was focused on catching Carlos Sainz ahead of him. The rookie driver had hopes of gaining a third consecutive podium.
“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.”
He explained that going wide and losing time to Norris was a product of struggling with his tyres and the dirty air from running so close to the car ahead.
“Especially after so many laps in dirty air and pushing so hard, the mistake arrived because every obviously 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 passed me.”
Support from Verstappen and Red Bull F1
The idea that Antonelli purposely allowed Norris to pass him was discussed between Max Verstappen and his Race Engineer. Lambiase commented that it ‘looked like’ Antonelli had ‘just pulled over and let Norris through’. Red Bull Racing have since issued a statement in support of Antonelli and against the online abuse that he received as a consequence.
Antonelli explained that he has since spoken with Lambiase, which has given him closure on the incident overall.
“After the race to receive those kinds of comments definitely hurt. It was nice to see the Red Bull statement. Also JP [Gianpiero Lambiase] came to talk to me as well and we also clarified with Max. That was nice. After that they got a lot of support, which was nice. Also it helped to kind of forget what happened and focus onto this weekend.”
The Mercedes driver was later asked what interactions he has since had with Verstappen over this incident.
“He saw what happened so he wasn’t bothered by anything. He even showed support. Really nice from him. I cannot really say what he said because it contains some bad words, the message. He just said don’t worry about these kind of people because they’re brainless, just focus on the job. He showed a lot of support.”
Adapting to new levels of fame
Being his rookie F1 season, Antonelli is still adapting to life in the spotlight. He is trying to strike a balance enjoying life as a public figure and maintaining is focus on race weekends.
“The interaction with people is important. During the weekend, I try to look the least amount as possible, because obviously I don’t want to get any distractions, just want to really focus on the job.”
He also shared that he did not come across the hateful comments himself, but rather found out about the controversy from people in his personal life.
“After the race, I got so many messages from friends showing me what was going on because initially I wasn’t aware of it. Then obviously I went looking at it and it was difficult to see. But now I forgot about it.”
