Sky F1 star rallies around Mercedes driver after Kimi Antonelli death threats

Sky Sports F1 star David Croft has shown up to support Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli after the Italian teenager received death threats online.

The 19-year-old made a costly mistake in the closing stages of last weekend's Qatar GP, running wide at Turn 10 on the penultimate lap.

As a result, he lost fourth place to Lando Norris and crossed the line in P5, leading Max Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase (GP) to say over team radio that it looked like Antonelli had, 'just pulled over and let Norris through'.

Red Bull have since apologised for these comments after Antonelli became the victim of online abuse, with the F1 team issuing a statement this week that labelled GP's assessment of the situation in Qatar as, 'clearly incorrect'.

The statement from Red Bull also said: "Replay footage shows Antonelli momentarily losing control of his car, thus allowing Norris to pass him. We sincerely regret that this has led to Kimi receiving online abuse."

But regardless of Antonelli's intentions, no driver should ever receive such horrific hate online, and this is something that F1 commentator 'Crofty' has touched upon ahead of the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Croft: Online abuse of F1 drivers has 'got to stop'

Antonelli changed his Instagram profile picture to a plain black circle on Monday morning after receiving a barrage of abuse on social media, which Mercedes confirmed had included death threats.

In the latest episode of the Sky F1 Show podcast, Croft was disgusted by the abuse that Antonelli had received online, saying: “For all GP and Helmut Marko and Red Bull’s words, it still doesn’t excuse anybody to abuse online or in person, somebody who made an error.

“Kimi Antonelli is an incredibly talented and genuine, wonderful young man, and you do not take to social media to abuse him or to abuse anybody!"

The Sky F1 commentator continued, passionately defending Antonelli and lambasting anyone who chooses to use social media to hurl unnecessary abuse at drivers.

“The fault for me lies in the people who want to use social media as a tool to abuse. It’s got to stop, I don’t know how many times people have to say this but it has got to stop," he continued.

"Otherwise, people are just going to shy away from social media and not communicate and that would be a really, really sad day.

"I feel desperately sorry for Kimi Antonelli because he does not deserve this. He made a mistake, get over it people! Don’t use it for an abuse channel, it’s ridiculous.”

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