Franco Colapinto has demanded more respect be shown to rival Formula 1 drivers after Yuki Tsunoda was subjected to a swarm of abusive messages including racist insults after their minor practice altercation at Imola.
Tsunoda gesticulated at Colapinto from his Red Bull after being impeded by the new Alpine driver on a flying lap in Friday practice.
That sparked an aggressive reaction from fans of Colapinto with abusive messages in Spanish flooding Tsunoda’s Instagram.
Colapinto, who revealed at the start of his first race weekend with Alpine he had switched social media back off ahead of his official F1 return, said he had not seen what had been written but defended Tsunoda and criticised the way these fans expressed themselves.
“I blocked him yesterday - he was right,” said Colapinto after qualifying, which both he and Tsunoda crashed out of heavily in separate Q1 accidents.
“I blocked quite a few people yesterday, just the first day with the car, with the team, it's always a bit of miscommunication and a bit tricky. And yeah, I blocked him.
“He probably was a bit upset. He’s right to be upset, it's fine. I don't know what the Argentinians did?”
Told about the Instagram comments, Colapinto was then asked if there was something to say to his fans given the abuse towards Tsunoda.
He said: “I know they are extremely passionate, and they are always very harsh on people. They have to give respect, and that's what we all want.
“There is a lot of hate on social media nowadays. Of course, we always try and want - for all the drivers - to keep it respectful and keep it calm there.”
As for Tsunoda, the Red Bull driver said he had heard about the response, and felt it was not a personal attack on him but reflected the wider behaviour of certain fans. He referenced his belief that those same fans were previously “going for Jack” Doohan, the driver Colapinto has eventually replaced at Alpine.
“That's a bit unnecessary,” said Tsunoda.
“I know they are supporting their own country's driver, but there's always a line that they can say something.
“And I'm saying this because not because they say to me, they say too much about Doohan, right? I don't think he was driving in a comfortable way.
“It's good that they have energy, but just control it. I feel like they can use the energy in a better way.”
It is not the first time that aggressive online behaviour has sparked a backlash towards Colapinto’s fan community, as other supporters have previously called out trolling messages of Doohan and the flooding of messages on official social media posts by Alpine.
In fact, back in pre-season testing one remark that criticised “senseless” comments and “bullying” got publicly supported by Colapinto’s manager Jamie Campbell-Walter.
“The haters who think they help Franco,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “You are doing him more harm than good.
“Insults to the team, to Jack and sometimes to other supporters of Alpine. Franco and all of us who support him are fans of the whole team, [including] Pierre [Gasly] and Jack.
“Conduct yourselves with passion but not abuse and arrogance. Franco’s time will come but not like this, you will achieve the opposite.”
Colapinto had already hinted that he wanted some parts of his fanbase to conduct themselves better on Thursday when he appeared in the FIA press conference.
“The Argentinian fans and, I think, Latin American fans, they are very passionate, very euphoric and they love supporting their athletes and people that they feel close to,” said Colapinto.
“They’ve always been there and they’ve always been very supportive. But yeah, I think we always try to keep the respect for all the drivers on the grid – that’s the main thing the fans should do and something to improve on.”
