'Screw you' - Toto Wolff issues Antonelli statement

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has said that he has 'no respect for anyone' involved in the horrible social media abuse received by his driver Kimi Antonelli.

Italian rookie Antonelli - just 19 years of age - was the subject of abuse following the Qatar Grand Prix, when a late mistake allowed McLaren driver Lando Norris to claim fourth position.

Max Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase and Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko suggested that the young Mercedes driver had moved aside to allow Norris past him in the closing stages of the race, ultimately damaging Verstappen's championship hopes.

That was clearly not true, with the onboard video from Antonelli's Mercedes showing that he suffered a huge amount of oversteer and almost completely lost control of his Mercedes.

Lambiase, Marko and Red Bull have since apologised, after their comments partly led to the amount of social media abuse received last week by Antonelli, who blacked out his profile picture on Instagram in response.

Now, Wolff has issued some strong words for the keyboard warriors that wrote nasty things about Antonelli, while also thanking Red Bull for their apologies.

"First of all I’m thankful because Oliver who runs Red Bull, and GP (Gianpiero Lambiase) and Laurent (Mekies) have reached out and have apologised which I think just shows the class of our competitors," Wolff told Sky Sports F1 at the Abu Dhabi GP.

"To the ones who sit behind their keyboard, they’re just sick, I’m sad for them, many years ago you having your laptop on your chest, God knows what you have done just before you have written that little note, so I have no respect for anyone and go and screw you."

Antonelli's rookie season

While the mistake from Antonelli meant that he only finished fifth rather than fourth in Qatar, his rookie season has been a brilliant effort.

The Mercedes star could yet finish ahead of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship, currently sat in seventh ahead of the final race of the season.

He secured a maiden F1 podium in his rookie season, and recently backed that up with two more in Brazil and Las Vegas.

And those final two podiums came following a lull midway through the season in which the Italian really struggled to score points, but he has bounced back from that period, in which he only scored points in two of nine events between May-August.

Antonelli has been confirmed to be racing alongside George Russell once more in 2026, when he will hope to challenge for race victories in his sophomore season.

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