Belgian commentator insults Stroll and is suspended
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Lionel Froissart, commentator for the Belgian French-language network RTBF Sport, has been suspended by his employer. During the Grand Prix weekend in Austria, he called Lance Stroll 'an autist' and RTBF Sport was, to put it mildly, not happy about it.
Froissart was doing a live broadcast for Belgian television when he labelled Stroll an autist. His colleague Gaetan Vigneron immediately reacted with indignation, saying, "it's too strong. You are exaggerating." Froissart really stuck to his position. "This is the truth," the commentator said.
Commentator suspended
According to MotorsportWeek.com TV station RTBF came out with a statement shortly after, saying that the medium condemns Froissart's words. "Associating autism with a driver’s way of communicating was misplaced and completely inconsistent with RTBF values."
The channel will conduct an internal investigation into the incident and has suspended Froissart until the investigation is complete. Stroll has not commented on the incident.