Charles Leclerc has shared some advice for Kimi Antonelli after the Mercedes driver suffered a torrent of social media abuse at the end of the F1 2025 season.
Antonelli was hit with a barrage of vile abuse following a late-race mistake in Qatar that handed a valuable position to Lando Norris, an incident that some, baselessly, felt had been intentional to favour the McLaren driver in the Drivers’ Championship.
Charles Leclerc: ‘Unacceptable’ abuse towards Kimi Antonelli
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The vitriol with which Antonelli was hit was spurred on by post-race comments from then-Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, with the Austrian stating his opinion that the Italian had made his mistake on purpose to help out Norris; the logic for this, presumably, being Mercedes’ status as engine supplier to the McLaren team.
With the incident making Norris’ task against Red Bull’s Max Verstappen a little easier ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Verstappen’s race engineer GianPiero Lambiase had insinuated similar over team radio, which fanned the flames further, but the Italian apologised to Mercedes for his remarks following the chequered flag and after the emotion of the moment had passed.
Marko’s comments came well after this point, with Red Bull opting to release a statement to express its regret over the “clearly incorrect” comments; Marko’s tenuous position within Red Bull is understood to have weakened further as a consequence of his words.
For Antonelli, the Italian went silent on social media by blanking out his profile picture and failing to post his usual post-race debrief status, while Mercedes communicated with the FIA regarding the extent of the abuse posted on Antonelli’s and the team’s social media channels, abuse which included death threats made against the 19-year-old.
With the FIA ramping up its United Against Online Abuse initiative as incidents of uproarious fan toxicity have become more common in recent years, other drivers have hit out against the negativity most have experienced at some point in their careers so far.
“It’s unacceptable,” Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc said in Abu Dhabi.
“And obviously, those people face no consequence for their words and for their disrespect towards drivers. So yeah, it’s not up to us to think about the consequences that they should endure, but it’s a big shame because, as they said, we’re all here trying to do our absolute best.
“We’ve done racing since we were kids, dreaming of being in that position, and today we’re doing absolutely everything in order to be at the limit. And sometimes mistakes happen.
“In that particular case, also, the hate was for absolutely nothing. So yeah, I mean, I didn’t speak with Kimi.
“The only thing that you can do in those kinds of moments is to ignore everything that is happening, but that’s obviously very hard – especially when you are… I remember my first or second year in F1, you kind of look sometimes on social media at what’s being said around you, or at least that was the case for me, and that makes it even more difficult.
“So yeah, then I think with experience you kind of get used to it, but we shouldn’t really have to get used to this kind of behaviour, and I hope that one day it will be tackled properly.”
Antonelli’s teammate George Russell said there is “no excuse” for fans at home to act in such a manner.
“I think it’s pretty unacceptable what happened and what was written and the abuse online,” he said.
“Obviously, it all started with a mistake from the Red Bull guys, and of course, they apologised, and that’s okay.
“People make a mistake, especially when you don’t have the full facts. But I think those thousands of people behind their keyboards have no excuse and really need to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror and think why that is acceptable – not just for F1, but just society altogether. I just struggle to comprehend it, really. So that’s all I can say.”
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Online toxicity came from ‘scum of the earth’ commenters
Haas’ Oliver Bearman was particularly vocal in his assessment of the situation Antonelli faced, saying, “Generally, it’s always the case that people behind the screen are horrible and they’re scum of the earth, really. I don’t think they should be doing that type of stuff to someone.”
While yet to experience anything along the same lines as his fellow rookie, Bearman said part of that is down to the relative fortune of being in the midfield.
“I didn’t face that level of criticism, but that comes as part of being in a team like Haas rather than Mercedes,” he said.
“So, there’s also a benefit of starting your career in a team like Haas. You’re a bit less in the limelight.
“You have the possibility to make mistakes and be less criticised for those.
“I understand that people who’ve been in F1 for a very long time can get used to it, and people who are rookies, it may be their first experience having that type of criticism, but that criticism is an absolute joke. It shouldn’t be tolerated, and I know the FIA are doing everything they can to stop that, but the problem is these sad people giving those types of criticisms. It’s a joke.
“We’re putting our lives on the line to entertain people and to give the people who are passionate for the sport a good time, and you have people like that who are just hurting people, and that’s not just racing, that’s also their personal life, and I just think people are terrible.”
As for Isack Hadjar, the French driver who steps up into an expected front-running team at Red Bull in F1 2026, the youngster was similarly forthcoming.
“People behind their keyboards are just idiots,” he said.
“They all know nothing about racing – never drove ever in their life – so that’s the only reason why they comment.”
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