At a time when Formula 1 and motor sports, in general, are generating more and more interest among many people, YouTubers are riding this trend. This is why, on October 8, 2022 last year, the videographer Squeezie organized a major event: bringing together several YouTubers to take part in a race behind the wheel of a Formula 4 on the Bugatti circuit in Le Mans with the GP Explorer. This event brought together tens of thousands of spectators around the circuit and attracted more than a million viewers on Twitch, the platform on which the event was broadcast.
After such success, Squeezie repeated the experience by organizing a GP Explorer 2. This new race was held on September 9, and many videographers were present again, as well as two well-known rappers in France, particularly from Marseille: Soso Maness and SCH.
️GP Explorer 2: after her accident during a car race between content creators, surfer and Youtuber Manon Lanza was the victim of a wave of hatred and sexism on social networks ⤵️ @MGovorine#AFPVertical#AFPpic.twitter.com/jNEy6LwTv4
— Agence France-Presse (@afpfr) September 14, 2023
Also see: “Crazy to suggest that”, “it’s a shame”…: this completely crazy announcement from Squeezie divides Internet users
A race marked by a collision
The race started at the end of the afternoon, after qualifying practices similar to those in Formula 1, and Youtuber Depielo managed to gain the advantage over his opponents. However, the event was especially marked by the clash that occurred between Manon Lanza and Maxime Biaggi at the start of the race. An accident which sparked a wave of hatred against the young woman and which she wanted to speak about during a interview given to theAFP this Thursday, September 14, 2023.
“The kind of messages I got were ‘woman driving dead at the turn, you dirty whore go back to your kitchen’, she explained about the sexist remarks she was confronted with, before defending herself: “Everything happened so quickly, I was driving at 160/170 km/h, and in a fraction of a second, I found myself on the wheel of Maxime Biaggi, another YouTuber. I went over his wheel , then I was thrown into the air, I fell back onto the asphalt before ending up ejected into the sandbox. The shock was quite violent, It took my breath away instantly.”
Manon Lanza harassed after GP Explorer 2
The shock was so violent that Manon Lanza had to be “taken to the emergency room” : “I had a scan, they put me on a drip, and during that time, there was a lot of stuff happening on social media.” Indeed, the hateful messages against her continued to rain down during her hospitalization, to the point that the Youtuber became “Top Trend on Twitter, ahead of the earthquake in Morocco which caused more than 2,000 victims”. “I am stunned, in fact, and sad for this world, thinking that there are so many young people who are poorly educated on this subject, and who, at the first opportunity, allow themselves to make such unhealthy comments…”she later laments.
In front of this situation, Squeezie spoke up to defend Manon, three days after the incident. The videographer recalled that “Things didn’t go as they should have”. Indeed, whether it was a man or a woman, the accident would still have taken place, although some people have difficulty understanding it…
RF