“Subjected to This Extreme Abuse”: Max Verstappen & Co. Garners Support From F1 Bigwig Amid “Unacceptable” Fan Behavior

Respect goes a long way in life, especially when competing in a demanding sport like F1. From the drivers to the stewards who work effortlessly, everyone works very hard at their job. However, people have started to take F1 officials lightly in recent years and are become strong critics of every mistake. Moreover, the cases of online abuse have also increased drastically in recent times.

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem gave a strong stance against online hate received by the F1 team. Silvia Bellot was one of the most recent F1 stewards targeted by online trolls after the US GP. The Spaniard is a well-respected authority in the sport who made her debut in 2011.  

Bellot was one of the stewards involved in the post-race penalty given to Fernando Alonso. The FIA overturned the penalty later. However, she was targeted with angry death threats and online abuse. 

Ben Sulayem condemned the threats on Bellot and said, “It is totally unacceptable that our volunteers, officials and employees are subjected to this extreme abuse. It has no place in our sport. It has a devastating effect on our mental health and that of our loved ones.”

He further said, “I will always stand up for my staff and volunteers. And let me be clear – without these people there would be no racing. We have to ask ourselves, who would want to pursue becoming a top official in this environment? The reality is obvious – if this continues it will destroy our sport.”

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It’s not just the stewards or the officials, fans have also targeted F1 drivers – most notably Nicholas Latifi and Max Verstappen last year.

F1 star Max Verstappen slams ‘keyboard warriors’

Max Verstappen won his second successive title in Suzuka with 4 races still left on the calendar. The Red Bull driver has been utterly dominant all season and won his record 14th win of the year in Mexico – most in a single season.

Recently, he also called out the increase of online trolls in F1 and termed them ‘keyboard warriors’.

Verstappen said, “At some point, it’s enough, I don’t accept it. You can’t live in the past, you just have to move on. Social media is a very toxic place,”

He further said, “It’s not great that they are allowed to write these kinds of things so I hope we can come up with a kind of algorithm that stops people from being keyboard warriors.”

Verstappen was on the receiving end of online hate after the Dutchman beat Lewis Hamilton in a controversial manner.

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The Dutch Lion answered back the trolls from last year in the best possible manner, by winning his second successive title. Moreover, he will be hoping to continue his dominant form next year as well. Do you think the online trolls amongst the F1 community have increased?