Franco Colapinto defends fans after latest wave of online abuse

Franco Colapinto has urged his supporters to channel their passion positively after team-mate Pierre Gasly was subjected to a wave of online abuse following Alpine's failure to swap their drivers during the Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring.

Colapinto, however, was keen to stress that the problem is not isolated to his fans alone, underlining the broader issue facing F1 in the social media space.

Gasly revealed in the days after the race that the backlash extended beyond him to his family and girlfriend, describing the extent of the threats as "disturbing" and "completely inappropriate."

In reaction, Colapinto, whose passionate fanbase has been linked to previous incidents of online harassment, was quick to address the situation publicly.

"I think he got a lot of people messaging him," the 23-year-old said to media, including RacingNews365. "I haven't seen it because I'm not on social media a lot, but it's never nice to get it, even more when it's happening to the team that I'm racing in.

"We are team-mates and we get on very well together. We are playing and focusing on the same result, and [have] the same goal and the same target, that is to make Alpine better. We are always working as a team, and it's not nice to see it."

The incident that sparked the backlash

The row stemmed from Alpine's decision not to order Gasly aside during the closing stages of the Spanish Grand Prix, despite the Frenchman running on heavily degraded tyres on a doomed no-stop strategy and still owing a mandatory pit stop.

Colapinto, on fresher rubber after an earlier stop, caught his team-mate but found himself stuck behind the slower car with Oscar Piastri's McLaren closing rapidly.

He was furious on team radio, demanding a swap that never came. Gasly eventually pitted, dropped to P12, and also picked up a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Colapinto held on for seventh place and six valuable points, but his anger at what he felt was a collective failure by the team was clear.

"Well, I almost got overtaken by Oscar. He was two tenths behind," said Colapinto when explaining how Alpine addressed the situation afterwards.

"We spoke in the team, and we managed it together. With Pierre, with Flavio [Briatore], Steve [Nielsen], everyone in the team did a very good job in understanding what happened and how to improve it for the next time.

"I'm happy with it. I think the most important part is to learn from the things that we can improve. The next time, not have the same thing happen, and we move forward."

A recurring problem

It is far from the first time Colapinto's fanbase has been at the centre of an online abuse storm.

At Imola last year, Yuki Tsunoda was bombarded with racist abuse on social media after a routine impeding incident with him in practice. The FIA, Alpine and Colapinto himself all condemned the harassment at the time.

Jack Doohan, who Colapinto replaced six rounds into the campaign last year, also received a torrent of hatred and needed security guards at the Miami Grand Prix, the round before Alpine made the driver switch.

More recently, stewards at Zandvoort were targeted after penalising Colapinto for yellow-flag infringements, prompting the governing body to explore legal action.

"So, hopefully, they can stop it," Colapinto added. "The same happened to other drivers, Yuki [Tsunoda] last year; it was quite bad as well at one point. And I talked about it.

"The stewards, after Zandvoort, I went to see them as well. They had some abuse after the penalty they gave me. It happens a lot with fans in Formula 1; in any sport nowadays, it's something very common.

"Unfortunately, that shouldn't be common. Definitely, we should be taking more care about the things, the words that come out of the keyboards of everyone."

"The way to support us as a team is to push the team forward and stay strong together. Hopefully, it doesn't keep happening.

"But it's something tricky with fans in the sport. It's not just my fans. I've got some very passionate ones. They want me to do well. Hopefully, they can enjoy the good results."