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Dutch F1 journalist Erik van Haren reported that Kimi Antonelli received death threats after Red Bull alleged that the teenager had intentionally waved Lando Norris through to a fourth-place result in Qatar. The Italian driver made a mistake on the penultimate lap of the race, which resulted in the championship leader moving up to P4 and gaining two extra points from the race weekend.
Arriving in Doha, Norris had a realistic chance of claiming his maiden drivers' world championship. However, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen had the edge on him during the race weekend, and a strategy fumble by McLaren resulted in the Briton having to make his way up the order to minimize the points loss.
But he had a tough fight on his hands, lined up with Antonelli, who aimed to defend P4 and potentially help Mercedes secure the runner-up spot in the constructors' standings. However, he made a mistake on the penultimate lap, which Norris capitalized upon.
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This instance led some to believe that he had allowed the McLaren driver to pass through without putting up a fight, at a time when each point matters in the drivers' world championship. One such person was Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, aka GP, who said in the heat of the moment over the radio:
"Not sure what happened to Antonelli, Max. Looks like he just pulled over and let Norris through."
This resulted in fans bashing him online, which reportedly led Antonelli to change his profile picture to a black image on social media:
Subsequently, Haren wrote on X that Kimi Antonelli received death threats for the incident.
"Kimi Antonelli has temporarily set his profile picture to black on social media channels. The young Italian received a lot of nasty messages and even (death) threats after the race in Qatar. Mercedes will share the messages with the FIA."
Kimi Antonelli scored a fifth-place finish behind Lando Norris at the line.
Toto Wolff clears the air around Red Bull's initial accusations surrounding Kimi Antonelli
Max Verstappen's race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, at that time had made a polarizing statement over the radio when Lando Norris had moved past Kimi Antonelli. This spooled up the rumors within the paddock.
But Mercedes' supremo Toto Wolff was quick to clear the air and said in a post-race interview (via The Guardian):
"This is total, utter nonsense that blows my mind. We are fighting for second in the constructors’ championship, which is important for us. Kimi is fighting for a potential third 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."
"I spoke to GP. Obviously they were emotional in that moment. I said to him, ‘[Antonelli] just went off. He had a bit of a moment in the previous corner and then less entry speed into the left-hander. It can happen’. So with GP, everything is clear."
Meanwhile, Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, and Oscar Piastri all reach Abu Dhabi with a shot at the 2025 drivers' title.
