Lando Norris says people posting death threats on social media in reaction to his collision with Franco Colapinto last week went “way too far.”
The reigning world champion explained why he apologised to Colapinto, and again in public, for the critical remarks he made after the Alpine driver took the pair of them out of last week’s race. Norris called for Colapinto to be banned and said he did not deserve to be in Formula 1.“I don’t normally think I get caught up in the heat of the moment, but this was certainly one of the cases where I think I did,” said Norris. “For me, the most important thing was to speak to Franco about it.
“He’s the only guy that I want to direct something to and care about in this situation and that’s what I did. So I spoke to him already Sunday night, as soon as I could.
“And of course, I then put the post out later in the week to apologise, to let everyone know that I did it, because there was also the rest of the world that I felt like I owed the apology to.
“As drivers, we all get along. Franco is a good friend of mine. I get on with Franco very well. He always means well. He’s a very good guy.”
Alpine also criticised the reaction to the collision on social media. The team and others have spoken out several times on the issue of social media abuse over the past year, often in response to incidents involving Colapinto.
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Norris said the series needs fans who are enthusiastic but never abusive.
“The thing is, you see this in every sport. And I certainly support big fan bases and having great fans and all of that. I think it’s great and it’s normal that you support [some] people and don’t support [other] people. I think you get that in every sport.
“But there’s obviously a certain level of how far you take that. And especially on social media, people are happy to hide behind keyboards and that type of thing, but I think abuse always takes things too far, death threats are certainly one thing that takes things way too far.
“We want passionate fans, we want people who love our sport, we want to cheer for drivers and things like that. You don’t need to cheer for everyone, I certainly don’t think I’m gonna get all the fans, you’re not going to win over all of the fans, things like that. But there’s just a level of respect and humility I think people should have. We all make mistakes.
“One of those things was me making a mistake last weekend, but there’s a level of things and as a community we need to understand how we can make it better, not just in Formula 1 and on social media, but in every sport because sadly it’s the thing that happens around the world everywhere.”
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