Yuki Tsunoda did not hold back on Thursday when he was asked if he could understand why fans might have made a conspiracy theory after his retirement from the Dutch Grand Prix.
The AlphaTauri driver felt a wheel was loose and stopped on the track Sunday. The team said all was well and to return to the pits. Tsunoda then went back out only to be told to stop a few corners later. A virtual safety car was brought out, and Max Verstappen made his pitstop. This essentially curbed Mercedes’s one-stop strategy.
AlphaTauri is the junior team of Red Bull, and conspiracy theories started to spread online.
“First I don’t want to know. I don’t care,” Tsunoda said. “I want to ask how your brain is created, what you brain looks like, scan the MRI and see what’s wrong. It’s funny how they create a story. Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri are completely different team. We are in Italy, they are in the UK. We compete in completely different field.”
It was later determined that his car had a terminal differential issue. But in addition to the conspiracy theory, abuse was directed towards Red Bull principal strategy engineer Hannah Schmitz. AlphaTauri controls its races independently and has its own strategy.
The team released a statement earlier this week saying, in part, “Such hateful behavior 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, fair and with the highest leaves of respect and sportsmanship.”
Verstappen found the theories “ridiculous,” adding, “These things shouldn’t even happen. First of all, to think about these kinds of things is already ridiculous. Why would you even think that is possible in this sport? Also, that individuals get hated on is beyond me, how you can do that.”
He went on to say social media companies need to intervene and do more to stop abuse.
“That’s the problem when you leave everything open on social media: everyone can say whatever they want. I think there needs to be a lot more addressing on hate, and it seems like these companies, they put a bit of focus on it but not enough,” the Red Bull driver said, per ESPN. “You can create other accounts and keep on going. If they block your IP address, you can go somewhere else. People are smart enough to get around it. Definitely, they need to come up with a solution for that. Of course social media is growing and I think it’s a great tool to have, but some parts of it are quite negative.”
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