Lewis Hamilton feels F1 drivers 'should probably get off' social media as it is 'getting more and more toxic'

Lewis Hamilton feels F1 drivers should probably stay away from social media as it is getting more and more toxic these days.

The Mercedes driver was questioned about his views on social media during the 2022 F1 Mexican GP post-race press conference. Hamilton opined that the situation was becoming increasingly toxic, necessitating drivers probably staying away from social media. He said:

"Yeah, I think social media is getting more and more toxic as the years go on. I think we should probably get off it, ultimately. So many people… mental health is such a prominent thing right now. I know so many people reading their comments and the stuff that people say and it is hurtful. Fortunately, I don't read that stuff but the media platforms definitely need to do more to protect people, particularly young kids and women. But at the moment, they're not doing that so I think it will just continue."

Max Verstappen too echoed similar sentiments to Lewis Hamilton. He, however, reasoned the growing toxicity is contributed to by the sport's growth and increasing popularity. He said:

"I think it's just the sport is more popular so there are more people watching, so more people are writing. I think it's just that. It's not great that they are allowed to write these kinds of things so I hope we can come up with a kind of algorithm that stops people from being keyboard warriors, because these kind of people… they will never come up to you and say these things in front of your face, because they're sitting in front of their desk or whatever at home, being upset, being frustrated, and they can write whatever they like because the platform allows you to. Yeah, that can be really damaging and hurtful to some people and it's not how it should be."

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Lewis Hamilton scored his second consecutive P2 in Mexico

Lewis Hamilton scored his second consecutive P2 finish in Mexico after having challenged for the win earlier in Austin. The Briton, however, lamented Mercedes' wrong strategy that didn't give him a chance to mount a proper offense against Max Verstappen. He said:

"It was a good race for me today, although we didn't choose the right tire strategy in hindsight. Nonetheless, to be this close to Red Bull makes me very proud of my team and I'm very grateful to them for the hard work they've put in to keep on moving us forward. The race pace generally was quite good, but we were offset on tires for most of the race."

Lewis Hamilton further said:

"Maybe we should have started on the soft, but obviously we went for the medium, then took the hard to make the one stop work; it looked pretty good on the first stint, but then the Red Bull was just too quick for us - and had the better tire strategy today as well."

Hamilton is yet to secure a race win so far this season, with Mexico arguably being his best opportunity to win a race. The driver will now be putting his best foot forward for the next two races.