Jack Doohan issues plea after family subjected to online harassment

Jack Doohan has issued a plea on social media for the online harassment directed at his family to stop, following the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. 

Doohan was present in the Imola paddock following his Alpine demotion back to being its reserve driver, following the promotion of Franco Colapinto. 

During the weekend in Imola, social media posts circulated appearing to show his father, motorcycle racing legend Mick Doohan, mocking Colapinto. 

It was quickly very evident that the posts were fake, and in fact people attempting to impersonate his father. Soon after, the social media account behind the fake posts revealed themselves. 

On Monday evening, Doohan released a series of stories on Instagram, calling for the harassment to end. He initially believed Colapinto's supporters were behind it, before correcting himself.

Doohan's first post featured an original social media story posted by his father, alongside a fake. It read: "As you can clearly see, the story circulating above is completely false. It was fabricated by Argentine fans attempting to portray me and my family in a negative light. 

"They edited the original content to make it appear as though my father posted it, which is entirely untrue. Please stop harassing my family. I didn't think I would have to get to this point."

The second post showed a screenshot of the fake F1 news X account which revealed it was behind the post, and read: "The original source that posted and made the story. This type of content is so damaging."

The final post was of Doohan correcting himself that the source of the fake posts was not Argentine, although criticised outlets from the nation which reported on them. It read: "Correction: The source is not Argentine. 

"However multiple Argentine outlets falsely reported the fabricated image which triggered the online abuse on my family."