Emotional Irish F2 star ‘deleted social media off my phone' after ‘really bad and upsetting' abuse after Monaco GP crash

The Irish Sun

2 days ago

RISING Irish racing star Alex Dunne revealed he "deleted social media off my phone" in the wake of "upsetting" abuse after a crash at the Monaco GP.
The Offaly starlet has taken Formula 2 by storm in 2025, and currently leads the championship outright.
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Alex Dunne received social media abuse after a crash at Monaco
Credit: Bradley Collyer/PA Wire
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He was involved in an 11-car pile-up at Monaco
Credit: Getty Images - Getty
However, the McLaren driver was met with abuse after an
The incident occurred after Dunne collided with Victor Martins and was subsequently hit by Richard Verschoor.
Dunne, Martins and Verschoor were all out of the race - as well as Gabriele Mini, Ritomo Miyata, Pepe Marti, Amaury Cordeel and Max Esterson.
The incident caused a lengthy delay as the area was tidied up - although thankfully no drivers were significantly hurt.
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Dunne bounced back to come second in the sprint race in Barcelona to take the outright lead in the Championship.
But speaking afterwards, the teenager became visibly emotional as he revealed the social media abuse he received in the wake of the crash.
Asked about the reaction,
"Normally I'm not someone who reads things and gets annoyed by them.
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'But, I think an hour after the race, I deleted social media off my phone because I've ever received such bad messages in my life.
'A lot of the stuff I got was really, really bad and quite upsetting to be honest."
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The 19-year-old - who signed with McLaren last May - made a dream start to the 2025 F2 season with a victory in Bahrain.
And even amidst the toxic reaction to the Monaco incident, he responded in style on the track.
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Last weekend in Barcelona, he went from starting 19th on the grid to finishing second in the sprint race to take the outright lead in the Championship.
Team principal Andrea Stella praised Dunne's impact on the team while backing him in the face of the aforementioned abuse.
Stella said: '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.
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"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.
'I think it was genuine.
"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.
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"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.'