F1 star opens up on 'disturbing' online abuse after Franco Colapinto incident

Gasly and Colapinto in Barcelona — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 News & Gossip

F1 star opens up on 'disturbing' online abuse after Franco Colapinto incident

There's supporting your driver, and then there's...this

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Thursday 24 September 2026 13:55

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Pierre Gasly has opened up on a torrent of abuse delivered to him by fans of his own team-mate after the Spanish Grand Prix.

On what ended up being a disastrous race strategy, the Frenchman had track position over Franco Colapinto in the closing stages, with the Argentine both faster and on fresher tyres as he tried to keep ahead of Oscar Piastri.

Colapinto repeatedly asked his team to tell Gasly to let him past, but in the event he had to wait until his team-mate was brought in for his one and only pit stop despite his growing frustration on the radio. The incident ended up not mattering to the result, with Piastri finishing behind the Argentine anyway.

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Regardless, a substantial section of Colapinto's fanbase went absolutely ballistic, with Gasly talking on Wednesday about 'threats and attacks' which also extended to his girlfriend and family.

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Gasly: Fans cross the line too often

"Personally, I find it a little bit disturbing for the sport," he said. "I'm a top athlete, so I know I'm exposed. It's always been the case, but to that extent of threats and attacks, I find it a little bit, well, even completely inappropriate, especially when it reaches out to family members, girlfriend, etc. I don't think that should be the case.

"I leave it there, but things were not that way in the past, and I think as a sport, we just need to find a way to make it a healthier place because you're exposed; you know you're going to be attacked.

"You can be liked; you can be disliked; it's completely fine. But there is a certain line that should not be crossed just because you're behind a screen and a keyboard, and these lines are crossed a bit too many times."

Colapinto: Online abuse should not be this common

Colapinto's fans have been involved in a litany of past incidents in which they've sailed way past the line of acceptability, with Yuki Tsunoda sent a torrent of racist abuse after a minor impeding incident in practice, and Jack Doohan being forced to attend the Miami Grand Prix with security shortly before Colapinto took his Alpine seat.

The FIA have even explored legal action after Dutch Grand Prix stewards were abused online after giving Colapinto a penalty last month, with accusations of being biased against non-British drivers (Surrey-born Arvid Lindblad was given an identical penalty for the same infringement at the same time as Colapinto).

Colapinto has responded, calling for any abuse to stop, but he insisted that it's 'not just my fans' crossing the line with online comments. "Hopefully," he said, "they can stop it. 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."

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F1 Alpine Pierre Gasly Franco Colapinto