Online attack on Red Bull s Hannah Schmitz exposes F1 s toothless DriveItOut campaign
Online attack on Red Bull s Hannah Schmitz exposes F1 s toothless #DriveItOut campaign × Follow Us Create Notifications New User posted their first comment this is comment text Link Approve Reject & ban Delete Log in Manage your profile Editing Story Queue Video Queue Editing Stats Writer Home SEO Redirection Admin Wiki Edits Taxonomy Home Edit Site Menu Mapping Dashboard Tag Pages Community Social Feed Queue Feed Center Notification Center Affiliate Home Manage Pages Bottom Tagline Dash Timeless Stories Logout Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix Feature
#DriveItOut. Together.374034965We are united in our desire to drive abuse of all kinds out of the sport we love, and we're calling on the entire F1 family to join us#DriveItOut. Together. https://t.co/j0x6vsoars Just before the recent summer break, the sport had introduced another campaign against online abuse. The #DriveItOut campaign was supposed to be the first step in eliminating animosity and propagating respect within the sport. Even now, if we go to F1's official Twitter handle, we will see that the campaign's launch tweet is pinned at the top for everyone to see. As Hamilton had said, however, it's all just talk! While AlphaTauri has come out with a statement of its own, and respected F1 pundits like Karun Chandhok have made it a point to speak out about the abuse received by the personnel, there's not been a peep from the sporting body. Karun Chandhok@karunchandhokAwful to hear that @redbullracing's Hannah Schmitz has been subjected to online abuse.
She's a brilliant engineer who deserves the support of the paddock and F1 fans at the moment - not anger from idiots who have more time than sense to understand how things actually work. twitter.com/AlphaTauriF1/s…Scuderia AlphaTauri@AlphaTauriF11909118https://t.co/mHNGUA9Pz3Awful to hear that @redbullracing's Hannah Schmitz has been subjected to online abuse. She's a brilliant engineer who deserves the support of the paddock and F1 fans at the moment - not anger from idiots who have more time than sense to understand how things actually work. twitter.com/AlphaTauriF1/s… There's been complete radio silence from the FIA, almost as if nothing has happened! In a way, this reveals a lot about the way these campaigns have been run. The sport has been more about marketing itself as an environment where abuse is not tolerated. Other than marketing, when it comes to taking concrete steps instead of making catchy videos, it all falls apart.
Online attack on Red Bull s Hannah Schmitz exposes F1 s toothless #DriveItOut campaign
By Charanjot Singh Modified 07 Sep 2022 Follow Us Comment Share Hannah Schmitz was the target of online abuse by the fans The aftermath of the 2022 F1 Dutch GP brought out the ugly face of the sport and even Red Bull's Hannah Schmitz could not escape it. The principal strategy engineer for the Austrian team was one of the targets of online abuse by Lewis Hamilton fans all over social media. She wasn't the only one though as Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull, AlphaTauri, and even Hamilton's teammate George Russell were targeted. This also highlighted the utter uselessness of F1's #DriveItOut campaign. Now, before we get to it, let's first walk you through the background of why there was a sudden eruption of abuse and what happened in the aftermath.The Background
The 2022 F1 Dutch GP was one of the best opportunities for Mercedes to win its first race of the season. The car was quick, it had fantastic tire wear, and it had both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell running 3 seconds apart in P2 and P3 with Max Verstappen yet to make his second stop. In all probability, whenever Verstappen would make his pitstop, he would come out behind both the Mercedes drivers and would have to overtake them to win the race. Now, earlier in the race, Verstappen had shown the benefit of being on fresher tires as he breezed past Russell without much of a fight. Having said that, there were still overtakes that needed to be made and Hamilton had an outside chance of a surprise win. ESPN F1@ESPNF1Lewis is FUMING with Mercedes 534753461Lewis is FUMING with Mercedes https://t.co/ot9zqNEmFn Without going into too much detail, Yuki Tsunoda's rather innocuous reliability issue brought out the Virtual Safety Car, gave Verstappen a free pitstop, and ended Hamilton's chances of a surprise win. Things got even worse as a late-stage safety car saw Hamilton left to fend for himself at the front on old medium tires with the chasing pack on fresh soft tires. With Russell requesting a change of tires during the safety car, Hamilton was left completely exposed to Verstappen's attack. The race ended with the Briton shouting on his radio and finishing outside of the podium places.The Aftermath
It was this unfortunate turn of events that infuriated a section of Lewis Hamilton fans. So much so that George Russell was targeted for pitting during the safety car period and leaving Hamilton exposed. Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, and Red Bull were accused of 'fixing' the race, which was 'apparently' masterminded by none other than Red Bull's principal strategy engineer, Hannah Schmitz. The amount of abuse doled out was almost ugly to watch. Things were so bad that AlphaTauri had to come out with a statement about how baseless these accusations were. Scuderia AlphaTauri@AlphaTauriF1910467912https://t.co/mHNGUA9Pz3The toothlessness of F1 s #DriveItOut campaign
Although the issue has somewhat died down now, it has done so after exposing something that was alluded to by none other than Lewis Hamilton. The Briton has called out the sport for becoming far too much about 'spreading the message' rather than taking action. Formula 1@F1We are united in our desire to drive abuse of all kinds out of the sport we love, and we're calling on the entire F1 family to join us#DriveItOut. Together.374034965We are united in our desire to drive abuse of all kinds out of the sport we love, and we're calling on the entire F1 family to join us#DriveItOut. Together. https://t.co/j0x6vsoars Just before the recent summer break, the sport had introduced another campaign against online abuse. The #DriveItOut campaign was supposed to be the first step in eliminating animosity and propagating respect within the sport. Even now, if we go to F1's official Twitter handle, we will see that the campaign's launch tweet is pinned at the top for everyone to see. As Hamilton had said, however, it's all just talk! While AlphaTauri has come out with a statement of its own, and respected F1 pundits like Karun Chandhok have made it a point to speak out about the abuse received by the personnel, there's not been a peep from the sporting body. Karun Chandhok@karunchandhokAwful to hear that @redbullracing's Hannah Schmitz has been subjected to online abuse.
She's a brilliant engineer who deserves the support of the paddock and F1 fans at the moment - not anger from idiots who have more time than sense to understand how things actually work. twitter.com/AlphaTauriF1/s…Scuderia AlphaTauri@AlphaTauriF11909118https://t.co/mHNGUA9Pz3Awful to hear that @redbullracing's Hannah Schmitz has been subjected to online abuse. She's a brilliant engineer who deserves the support of the paddock and F1 fans at the moment - not anger from idiots who have more time than sense to understand how things actually work. twitter.com/AlphaTauriF1/s… There's been complete radio silence from the FIA, almost as if nothing has happened! In a way, this reveals a lot about the way these campaigns have been run. The sport has been more about marketing itself as an environment where abuse is not tolerated. Other than marketing, when it comes to taking concrete steps instead of making catchy videos, it all falls apart.