Canapino’s Argentine fans generate hatred on the Brit’s social media.
On lap 26 of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, Ilott got out of the pits ahead of race leader, and teammate Agustin Canapino. Canapino didn’t want to lap his teammate and became vulnerable to Helio Castroneves, that was trying to unlap himself.
The Brazilian squeezed Canapino into the wall at turn 6. The Argentinian had to retire due to front-left suspension damage.Ilott’s race was derailed on lap 10, when the Brit touched the inside wall at turn 2, causing him a puncture. He could come back to the pits to change his tyre but lost a lap to race leader Kyle Kirkwood.When Pato O’Ward and Scott Dixon made contact at turn 8, causing a yellow flag, the Juncos team saw the perfect opportunity to get Ilott back on the lead lap and improve his chances. So, the No. 77 crew didn’t pit him, enabling him to unlap himself. On the last pace car lap, they decided to pit him to refuel for the following stint.
Ilott came back to the race just ahead of his Juncos Hollinger teammate Agustin Canapino, who due to another bold strategy was leading the race following the second restart.
The Argentinian rookie didn’t want to lap Ilott “to avoid an accident between teammates”, which made him vulnerable to a fast-charging Helio Castroneves, who was trying to unlap himself.
Then, at turn 6, Castroneves had a lunge around the no. 78 outside and didn’t leave him room. Canapino touched the inside wall and was not able to continue in the race.
Both Juncos’ teammates were not informed of the race positioning of the other via radio, to which the team admitted that caused the avoidable confusion.
That accident displeased Argentinian fans, Canapino was the first Argentinian ever to lead an IndyCar Series Grand Prix. Their reaction on social media was far from acceptable.
Martin Ponte, the IndyCar commentator for the Argentinian broadcast, said during the race: “From today, Ilott has 44 million [approximate Argentinian population] enemies, simple. From today, Ilott got an entire country against him.”
Then, Ponte posts a Tweet reaffirming his words that the British driver has the whole of Argentina against him.
From then, a lot of Argentinian fans were encouraged to write absurd things against Ilott, between curses, threats and even threads.One of the messages towards him, and liked by Martin Ponte, said: “Ilott is persona non grata in Argentina from today. In 2024, he has his entry prohibited”.
A fact that needs to be recalled is that, until nowadays, some radical nationalist Argentinians still don’t appreciate the United Kingdom for the Falklands War, and still claim that the “Islas Maldivas”, Argentinian name for the Falklands, are their possession.The Falklands War is still vivid in Argentina’s mind and folklore. Just at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, the Argentinian crowd proudly sang a chant that said: “¡Y los pibes de Maldivas que jamás olvidaré!” which translates to “And the Falklands boys that I’ll never forget.”
So, a British driver arguably getting in the way of a compatriot may trigger even more hate.
After a huge number of tweets towards Ilott, Ponte tweeted an apology: “Clearly the people who know me know that I’ll never promote hate against anyone. If it was interpreted like that, I apologize.”
Then, Ilott confronted him:
Ilott still said on social media: “Genuinely impressed by the amount of death threats and abuse I’ve received.“It’s unacceptable on any level and those who encourage it should have a real think about the consequences of their actions. But I would like to thank everyone who has supported me, it means a lot.”Canapino also used social media to calm his fans, explaining the situation on and off track:
“That’s racing. I don’t think Callum did anything on purpose, we simply had bad luck that it went that way.
“We are building a great team together, he’s helped me a lot. So, I need to thank Callum for everything he collaborates with me.”
Ricardo Juncos, Juncos Hollinger president, declared:
“If there is someone that is helping Agustin Canapino more than anyone is Callum Ilott.
“What happend on track was bad luck, there was no bad intentions from anyone. I know that there are a lot of bad comments on the internet, it’s unfair the way that they’re treating Callum, even some journalists.“It’s not Callum Ilott’s fault, and as team owner I wanna make things clear, if there is someone that helps the team, in general, is Callum Ilott. I’ve chosen him as I driver a year and a half ago, he represents us, he represents Argentina. He is pushing hard to enable a race to happen in Argentina and he always praises Canapino. “Let’s have patience, these things can happen, let’s go ahead to the next one!”
