06/09/2022
NEWS STORY
AlphaTauri has reacted following "hateful" abuse of Yuki Tsunoda and Red Bull strategist, Hannah Schmitz following Sunday's Grand Prix.
The abuse followed Tsunoda's retirement from the race, which brought about the deployment of the VSC.
As previously reported, the Japanese driver had stopped on track shortly after making his second scheduled stop of the race, fearing that a wheel was loose.
As he reported the situation to his team he began undoing his seatbelts in order that he could extract himself from the car.
However, his team told him that its data showed no such issue and that he should head back to the pits, which he did.
On arrival back at the pits the crew changed his tyres and also tightened his seatbelts before sending him out again.
However, moments later it ordered him to stop and park after finally finding an issue in its data.
Obeying the order, Tsunoda pulled to the side of the track and subsequently the VSC was deployed.
The deployment of the VSC allowed Max Verstappen, who was at that point battling Lewis Hamilton for the lead of the race, a 'free' pit stop, a move which the Sky Sports presenters at the time treated with obvious scepticism.
Meanwhile, social media went into meltdown, as 'fans' claimed that Red Bull strategist, Hannah Schmitz had conspired with AlphaTauri in a bid to aid Verstappen.
On Monday evening, as the abuse continued, AlphaTauri issued a statement:
"It is incredibly disheartening to read some of the language and comments directed at our team and towards Red Bull Racing’s head of strategy, Hannah Schmitz," said the team.
"Such hateful behaviour cannot be tolerated, and to entertain accusations of foul play is unacceptable, untrue and completely disrespectful towards both Hannah and us.
"We have always competed independently, fairly and with the highest levels of respect and sportsmanship.
"Yuki had a failure that the team didn’t immediately detect which caused him to stop on track.
"To suggest anything different is insulting and categorically incorrect."
While Tsunoda was subsequently given a reprimand, this related to when he initially drove back to the pits with his seatbelts unfastened.
Over the weekend, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and FIA president, Mohammed ben Sulayem both enthused at the changing demographic of the sport's fan base, especially in terms of younger fans.
While this might be good for the sport, especially in terms of flogging them caps and T-Shirts, particularly the limited edition stuff, it cannot be coincidence that the rise in abuse and conspiracy theories coincides with the arrival of this new fan base.
Hardly a race weekend appears to go by these days when F1 and the teams don't send out a message that something or other will not be tolerated any longer, be it abuse on social media or abuse of other fans at the events.
F1, the FIA, the media and certain team bosses should think long and hard about whether it sometimes sends out the wrong message and is actually encouraging the abuse, which, is must be said, is a recent phenomenon.