Andrea Kimi Antonelli speaks in detail for the first time about the social media storm after Qatar – and reveals how Verstappen and Lambiase supported him afterwards.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli has spoken openly for the first time about the social media storm that hit him after the Qatar Grand Prix. The young Mercedes driver was accused on social media of deliberately making room for Lando Norris – an accusation he now clearly rejects. “It wasn’t easy to get all those comments after the race, especially for something I would never do. I would never deliberately make room for a competitor,” he says.
He describes the moment when he made the decisive mistake. “I was fighting for P3. I was pushing hard, trying to get into Sainz’s DRS. After so many laps in dirty air and constant pushing, the mistake eventually came. I was pushing a little harder every lap, and then the tires were just gone. That’s when I made a mistake and Lando passed me.“
Nevertheless, the insinuations hit him hard: ”Reading those kinds of comments after the race definitely hurt.” He felt he had been treated unfairly—especially because the mistake was purely down to his driving and understandable.
Antonelli receives support in the paddock
It was the reactions from the paddock that helped Antonelli calm down again. “It was nice to see the statement from the management,” he says of the public clarification that he had not wanted to wave anyone past. “GP [Gianpiero Lambiase, Max Verstappen’s race engineer] also came up to me and talked to me, and I cleared everything up with Max as well. That was good.“
Antonelli speaks openly about how much the encouragement built him up: ”After that, I received a lot of support, which was very nice. That helped me to forget about it all for a while and concentrate on this weekend again.”
However, he can’t completely switch off from social media – and he doesn’t want to either. “Interacting with people is important,” he says. “But during the weekend, I try to look at it as little as possible. I don’t want any distractions. After the race, I got a lot of messages from friends showing me what was going on. At first, I didn’t know anything about it.” Only then did he look it up himself – and was shocked.
Verstappen immediately stood behind him
Particularly noteworthy: Max Verstappen himself sought out Antonelli to talk to him. According to his own statement, the four-time world champion clearly defended him. Antonelli sums up the scene: “He saw what happened, so nothing bothered him. He even showed me support, which was really nice of him.”
Antonelli does not want to repeat exactly what Verstappen said to him. “I can’t repeat everything because there were a few swear words,” he says with a smile. “But basically, he said: Don’t worry about people like that, they’re brainless. Focus on the job.”
Race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase also sought out Antonelli—but not immediately after the race. “No, that was this week. Not immediately after the race.”