Ferrari star slams F1 fans for 'absolute f****** nonsense'

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F1 News & Gossip

Ferrari star slams F1 fans for 'absolute f****** nonsense'

Has F1 become too divided?

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Wednesday 13 May 2026 11:57

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Former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley has claimed there is a lack of critical thinking from some F1 fans online.

It is unsurprising that social media platforms, hotbeds for division and dogmatic opinion, has bred vitriolic interactions within the F1 fanbase.

While you could pluck any example from your X feed, the most recent extremity from F1 fans was made evident during the 2025 title fight, during which Oscar Piastri fans accused McLaren of favouring Lando Norris - a conspiracy theory rubbished by many, but nonetheless, gained significant enough traction to force the team to publicly deny these accusations.

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The increasing severity of the F1 fanbase was a main topic of discussion on the High Performance Racing podcast, hosted by Jake Humphrey who was joined by former Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer and Felipe Massa's former race engineer at Ferrari Rob Smedley.

Should F1 fans look at the sport with more nuance?

During a recent episode, Humphrey raised examples of strong opinions from sects of fans, claiming that 15 years ago fans of the sport held softer opinions regarding teams and the drivers.

When he asked Smedley about how strong people's opinions have become and whether that positive or negative, the former race engineer branded this facet of contemporary culture as 'ridiculous'.

Smedley then referenced comments he had seen on an F1 website and continued: "The amount of vitriol even between the commenters is fantastic. And I'm like you know this sport is nothing without the fans, but these people are fans. And of course they're entitled to their opinion, but they're basing all of their opinions on some pedigree of fact and some real critical thinking.

"And it's like, mate that's just absolute f****** nonsense that you've just written there. Right. And then it goes and you'll see the same people who will have a polar opposite opinion or will find some nuance to back their opinion up."

Smedley was then asked if that was how it felt back when he worked in F1, to which he replied: "No, not really. Social media is significantly more prevalent than it was when Felipe [Massa] was driving, right? But I just think that there's not enough critical thinking."

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