New F1 fans don't understand motorsport culture

Many of the newer fans entering the world of top-level single seater racing don’t understand “how motorsport works,” according to Formula 2 driver Richard Verschoor.

Verschoor has found himself at the centre of the FIA's latest crackdown on online hate, as abuse continues to surge across Formula 1’s feeder series.

Following recent campaigns targeting F1 drivers like Jack Doohan and Yuki Tsunoda, F2 drivers have now also become victims.

After a first-lap crash in Monaco, Alex Dunne received such intense backlash that he deleted all social media apps and became visibly emotional while addressing the topic at a press conference in Barcelona.

Then, in Barcelona, Verschoor himself received death threats in the wake of a clash with Arvid Lindblad.

"Verschoor, you better run, because I will chase you with a knife," he told Ziggo Sport, reading one of the messages aloud.

"That's obviously not desirable," he added with a forced laugh. More seriously, he said the behavior reflects a troubling change in fan culture.

"If you support a driver now, that means that you hate the opponent and I don't think that's right," said Verschoor, who has a long-standing friendship with Max Verstappen.

"In my opinion, that is not how motorsport works. It is actually a great thing that we do not have a home and away aspect in our sport. Everyone sitting in the stands has Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari gear on.

"So a better atmosphere should be possible."

F1, F2 and F3 responded to the growing wave of harassment with a joint statement condemning the abuse.

"We firmly condemn abuse and harassment of any form," the statement read. "We’ll continue to collectively act upon and report abuse to social media platforms. At the heart of it all, there are humans."

However, Verschoor said drivers feel limited in their ability to respond.

"We are actually stopped when we want to say something, even though we are not the ones doing something wrong," he said.

"We are not allowed to address these things, because that could lead to even more hate."

He also stressed that many fans do not realise how deeply such abuse affects young drivers.

"I happened to be sitting next to the guy who is now number 1 in Formula 2, Alex Dunne, in the press conference, where they asked a number of critical questions.

"He burst into tears, because he was reminded of everything that was sent to him after he caused that crash in Monaco."

While Verschoor said he can handle it better than most, he highlighted how vulnerable some of the youngest drivers are. "That guy (Dunne) is only 19. Some of these guys are super young. So it's bizarre the kind of messages they get. It goes pretty far."