After last year’s Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona this column wished Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff a good night’s sleep – mostly because of his memorable press conference appearance where he took aim at the “lunatics” directing “online abuse” at his team based on improbable conspiracy theories.
Twelve months on, unfortunately, the core issue remains unchanged – only this time Lance Stroll is the object of online derangement.
Hardly a week goes by without another disturbing story from the digital world – be it frenzied Franco Colapinto fans hurling racist abuse at Yuki Tsunoda, or the never-ending online battles between supporters of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. And after the events of race day in Barcelona, that latter one has had yet another payload of fuel delivered...
But even before the Barcelona race, another frequent target was already under fire: Stroll. And this time, the criticism couldn’t have been more misplaced – the Canadian had to withdraw from the Spanish Grand Prix due to injury.
The online reaction? “Rich kid”, “softie”, “unprofessional”, “hopefully retiring soon”, “no one will notice”, “finally”, and – most bizarrely – “why don’t you go play tennis!” That last one wins the special award, since Stroll’s absence was due to a lingering hand injury.
