What would F1 be if not for its fans? For that matter of fact, what would any sport be if not for its fans? F1 would certainly not be half as exciting if not for the passionate fans that stand tall with their favorite drivers. However, sometimes the fandom can very easily turn into toxicity and become a nuisance for other personalities involved. A renowned F1 expert has recently fallen prey to it. The guilty party is the fan army of Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes and Hamilton continued their bad run from last year when the new season began. For the first two races, the W14 struggled to cope with the speed of rivals resulting in underwhelming results each time. It was in Melbourne when the Briton really shone bright, bagging the team’s first podium finish of the season. Unfortunately, they couldn’t carry the momentum in the qualifying in Azerbaijan.

Sky Sports expert and former F1 driver hits back at toxic Lewis Hamilton fans

The W14 lacked pace against the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari. McLaren drivers were not having the best outing themselves. The final minutes of the second session of qualifying became tense between the two teams as Oscar Piastri and George Russell were struggling to find a place in Q3. Running behind Hamilton, Oscar got the slipstream and with it the much-needed extra pace. Russell couldn’t get any assistance and resultantly bowed out prematurely.

During the live broadcast, F1 expert Karun Chandhok pondered over whether Piastri would have qualified for Q3 had it not been for Lewis. Hamilton fans took the comment to be an attempt to drive a wedge between the two Mercedes drivers and that is when hateful comments started pouring in.

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Chandhok took to Twitter to share a screenshot of such comments and wrote, “Weird theme to trolling tonight…. #Blocked”.

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F1 fans going overboard and not respecting boundaries is not a new thing. Max Verstappen has fallen prey to it in the past and slammed those who are chronically on social media.

When Max Verstappen slammed social media trolls for having nothing else to do

Verstappen is one of those very few F1 drivers who stay away from social media as much as possible. His girlfriend, Kelly Piquet, however, wasn’t. That seemed to have changed over time as he narrated in an interview from last year.

Speaking with Dutch newspaper De Limburger, Max told, “I don’t feel the need to share or show my private life to the outside world, even Kelly [Piquet, his girlfriend] does it much less than before. When Formula 1 ends, I don’t see myself posting things.”

“Some people have nothing else to do all day, while I’m busy with other things.”

Watch This Story: IN PICTURES: Lewis Hamilton’s Time Off With Friends Amid Social Media Break

Do you think social media platforms must take the issue of online bullying more seriously than they are?