20/05/2025
NEWS STORY
Alpine has issued a statement following online abuse of Yuki Tsunoda by 'fans' of Franco Colapinto over the Imola weekend.
During FP3 the Japanese driver gesticulated at the Argentine after being impeded, causing the Alpine driver's countrymen to take to social media.
"It's normal that if you have traffic, and I caught it multiple times, you get frustrated," said Tsunoda. "I think I have the right to say something. I didn't say the wrong thing, or a very bad thing. I just expressed my frustration, and that's it.
"I know they are supporting their own country's driver," he said of the online abuse he subsequently received, some of it racist, "but there's always a line crossed, that they say something, I guess.
"I'm saying this because it's not just to me, but they say things to Doohan," he added, referring to the Australian that Colapinto replaces and who had been the subject of online abuse from the moment the Argentine was signed as a reserve driver for the French team.
"It's good that they have energy, but control it," said the Red Bull driver. "I feel like they can use the energy in the right way, a better way.
""If it continues and it gets worse and worse, then at some point F1 should say something."
"I know they are extremely passionate, and they are always very harsh on people," said Colapinto in reaction to the online attacks on Tsunoda. "They have to give respect, and that's what we all want.
"There is a lot of hate on social media, so of course we always try and want, for all the drivers, to keep it respectful and keep it calm there."
However, the situation took a turn for the worse after qualifying in which, ironically, both Tsunoda and Colapinto were involved in (separate) heavy crashes.
In the aftermath of the Argentine's crash an Australian parody account took to X and posted a meme which featured a picture of the crashed Alpine along with the words "very impressive" and a number of laughing face emojis.
The meme was soon picked up and posted on a fake Instagram account which claimed to belong to Mick Doohan, at which point it was picked up on by media in both Argentina and Australia and it wasn't long before 'fans' of the Alpine driver were hitting their keyboards yet again.
While the parody account was quick to apologise for the original meme, it was too late to prevent a torrent of online abuse heading in the direction of Doohan and his family.
"As you can clearly see, the story is completely false," Jack Doohan wrote on Instagram. "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."
Making clear that the original meme was not Argentine, Doohan added that "Multiple Argentine outlets falsely reported the fabricated image which trigger (sic) online abuse on my family. This type of content is so damaging."
Formula Fakers, which created the original meme was quick to apologise.
"The Doohan family does not deserve to be attacked in the way they evidently were for our fake news post," it said in a statement. "We did not expect this post to cause any damage. We deeply, sincerely apologise to the Doohan family.
"This has been a wake-up call on the real, tangible effects of social media. Our original post had been left up in an effort for it to be attached to our clarification that our account posts fake news.
"Luckily, news outlets had taken down their posts, but, unfortunately, it had already reached the general public and the damage was done.
"Again, we are sorry. It was never, ever our intention to draw hate towards any driver, and we should have made it more transparent that we are a parody account."
Now, Alpine has reacted to the two incidents and issued its own statement.
"As an F1 team, we believe we are fortunate to be part of a global sport that evokes great passion and emotions, with an ever-growing community of fans who enthusiastically follow their favourite drivers' every move, whether it be a brave overtake on track or what style they are sporting when they arrive in the paddock," it reads.
"We encourage everyone to remember that behind the visor of these superhuman athletes there is a person. An individual with feelings, family, friends and loved ones. As a team, we cannot condone online abuse and urge all fans of this sport we love, to be kind and respectful."
While we at Pitpass enjoy a good meme, Keir Wrong Un being a good example, and can usually spot a parody account, the abuse that Yuki received at the weekend, and Doohan and his family have been receiving for much of the year, indeed crosses a line.
Sadly, it appears to indicate certain elements of that new fan demographic the sport is always boasting about these days.