McLaren has strongly condemned a wave of online abuse directed at its Formula 1 development driver Alex Dunne, who said he deleted social media from his phone as a result.
The 18-year-old Irishman was involved in a multi-car pile-up during the Formula 2 Monaco Feature Race, prompting a flurry of online criticism in the aftermath.
After losing the lead to Williams junior Victor Martins at the start, Dunne misjudged his move into Turn 1, colliding with the Frenchman and sending both into the wall.
He received a 10-place grid penalty for the Spanish Sprint Race, followed by an additional three-place drop for both races after clashing with Martins again in practice.
Despite the setbacks, the Rodin Motorsport driver recovered brilliantly to finish second from 19th on the grid.
After the race, Dunne revealed he had deleted social media apps from his phone due to ‘quite upsetting’ messages that had clearly affected his mental wellbeing.
In response, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella offered a strong show of support for the team’s development driver and used the moment to highlight the broader responsibility within the motorsport community.
“I think it was genuine,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“I think we need to realise that we live in a difficult world in which people can attack people really with no foundation, sometimes no competence, so we’re completely behind Alex, not only on track but also off-track from this point of view.
“I just felt a little bit for him, but I also felt very proud of him in showing his reaction, being genuine, natural – but for me [I want to make] a call to our sense of responsibility overall.
“Even you guys that have the pen, we need to make sure in anything we do, that we try to avoid situations that can be too controversial – not referring to the situation with Alex, not referring to what was written in the media, I know what was written in the comments.
“But just a sense of responsibility is the main call I would like to make.”
McLaren and FIA unite against online abuse
The abuse not only drew strong responses from McLaren but a united anti-abuse statement as well from the FIA, F1, F2, and F3 across its platforms.
The statement read: “On behalf of our Teams and Drivers, F1, F1, F3 and the FIA, through their United Against Online Abuse campaign, firmly condemn abuse and harassment of any form.
“We’ll continue to collectively act upon and report abuse to social media platforms.
“Whether you are a fan or a part of the motorsport world, we are all driven by passion. At the heart of it all, there are humans.
“We urge everyone to remain respectful towards the athletes and their teams.”
Adding more of his personal perspective, Stella praised Dunne’s talent and resilience in the face of adversity: “Alex is doing very well, he’s a very fast driver, very talented, and the situation he had in Monaco was one of those situations where you can learn a lot.
“If we think, multiple World Champions they went through situations that were very important to fine-tune the way they go racing.
“We had good conversations with Alex to reaffirm our complete support to his talent, to the championship he’s fighting for – we always see a very mature person.
“The way he raced today, the way he managed to overtake cars in a very clean way in the first lap, stay calm and see how the situation would have evolved, and capitalise when the opportunity came, was an immediate response to the situation he had in Monaco, and the pressure that came from these social media comments, for me that’s something that makes me very proud of him.”
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