F1 followers have been left disillusioned after on-line hate was directed in direction of Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli following his crash with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc through the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix. The Italian driver made a powerful begin to the race, ranging from P11, however dropped a place to Yuki Tsunoda and located himself on the fringes of factors.
Nevertheless, following an aggressive technique from the German crew, the rookie discovered himself within the prime 10 after the primary security automobile. In his bid to undercut the Ferrari of Leclerc forward of him, he pitted first for the gentle tires with the latter following swimsuit a lap later.
Though he closed the hole to Leclerc after his pit stops, Kimi Antonelli made an audacious transfer into Flip 3 and took the within line on the banked nook in his bid to cross the Monegasque. However the 19-year-old was unable to tug off the overtake and crashed into the facet of Charles Leclerc’s automobile.
The maneuver earned the Mercedes driver a 10-second penalty, which precipitated him to complete P16 on the finish of the race, and the stewards additionally gave him two penalty factors on his FIA Superlicense, taking his tally to 4 factors.
Kimi Antonelli additionally confronted the ire of the followers on-line, who have been unrelenting of their trolling directed in direction of {the teenager}. The character of the net hate precipitated some followers to name out the reactions, with one fan saying:
“It’s unhappy that Kimi has needed to flip off feedback on his social media because of the demise threats and hate he’s at the moment receiving from Charles followers. Unacceptable.”
“Sending demise threats to a youngster can be a new low,” mentioned a fan.
“Low? Sure. New? Sadly no,” identified one other.
Listed below are some extra reactions:
“That is so f***ing nasty,” wrote one other.
“It is a good cause why I don’t like a very good chunk of F1 followers. Followers like this give a nasty identify to the game and to the remainder of us!!”
“The child simply had his nineteenth birthday, is chronically on-line, and followers are sending him demise threats over a f****ng race. ugh.”
After the race, Kimi Antonelli went to the Ferrari hospitality to apologize to Charles Leclerc for the incident.
Ferrari crew boss displays on Kimi Antonelli’s apology
Ferrari crew principal Frederic Vasseur said that he had accepted Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli’s apology after the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix.
As per ESPN, the Frenchman gave his sincere opinion on the younger F1 driver’s gesture and mentioned:
“He got here to apologize to Charles. Charles was not there, however he got here to me. And truthfully, I respect this. It is not really easy to overhaul in Zandvoort. It implies that you need to take a threat. He took a threat. He made a mistake.”
Kimi Antonelli is now degree on factors with Williams F1 driver Alex Albon within the driver’s standings, as each drivers have 64 factors to their identify, with the previous occupying the P7 slot.
Edited by Devang Chauhan
