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Max Verstappen urged his doubters and haters to 'eff off' ahead of this weekend's US Grand Prix in Austin. The Red Bull ace came under heavy fire on social media after he defended his team-mate Chris Lulham. A racing error in last week’s GT World Challenge Europe race at Portimao resulted in Lulham finding himself on the end of a huge wave of online abuse. The pair, along with British driver Ben Barnicoat, were battling for the victory when a drive-through penalty was handed to Lulham. The team ended up finishing ninth.
After realising the flak his colleague was receiving, Verstappen issued a statement on his social media channels, hitting out at 'personal attacks' which were being sent to Lulham. Shortly after addressing the online abuse of his colleague, Verstappen also confronted a different issue, which will likely see him soon take a grid penalty.
He has already used five of the six permitted power unit ancillary components, meaning a penalty is expected to come his way soon. However, he is not too concerned by this prospect.
When asked about the potential grid penalty coming his way for the first time this season, he said: "That we have to take a penalty at one point, yeah, potentially. But there's no known date to that at the moment. So we just see what happens."
On the subject of social media trolls online, he took a different tone. “No, but that starts already with the social media companies themselves, where you can make as many troll accounts as well, with no real names or addresses attached to them," he replied when asked if he feels the sport needs to do more to combat these individuals.
“Yeah, people can say whatever they like online. I mean, for me personally, I don’t care, like, if it’s targeted at me, I mean, they can all eff off. But when it’s to one of my drivers who is young and is not used to this kind of pressure and attention, when they start writing these kinds of things, it’s quite extreme, and that’s why I felt the need to put that statement out.
“Even though, of course, I’ve talked to him about it, and I try to make sure that he doesn’t really read about it too much, and I know his character. I think he’s quite relaxed, but it’s still not nice and definitely not deserved because he’s, first of all, just a great guy.
“He’s, of course, learning. We’re all learning. We all make mistakes. That’s also not a problem for me, right? He did such a great job all weekend, and then a tiny little misjudgment.
"Of course, yeah, it gave us a penalty, but there is no need to throw any kind of hate towards him. I think that’s why it was just very important to make that statement.”
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