Gasly hits out at 'disturbing' abuse over Colapinto incident

Pierre Gasly has hit out at "disturbing" social media abuse and threats received by him and his family members, including his girlfriend, after holding up Alpine Formula 1 team-mate Franco Colapinto in the Spanish Grand Prix. 

This arose from a lap late in the Madring race when he held up Colapinto, who was on his way to finishing seventh but being chased by McLaren's Oscar Piastri, on an in-lap before pitting. Although this didn't cost Colapinto a position, it did lead to him being backed up into Piastri and caused him to complain multiple times over the radio.

Gasly, who finished 12th, and those around him were then subject to attacks on a variety of social media platforms that he has described as inappropriate. 

"Personally, I find it a little bit disturbing for our sport," said Gasly when asked by The Race about how he dealt with the social media backlash.

"I'm a top athlete, so I know I'm exposed, it's always been the case, but the extent of the threats, attacks, I find completely inappropriate, especially when it reaches out to family members, [my] girlfriend etc. I don't think that should be the case.

"Things were not that way in the past and as a sport we just need to find a way to make it a healthier place because you're exposed, you know you are going to be attacked.

"You can be liked, 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 too many times."

Colapinto's response

Colapinto said he's aware of the abuse and backed Gasly's position about the need to stop it happening.

"I think he got a lot of people messaging him," said Colapinto. "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.

"So, hopefully, they can stop it. The same happened to other drivers - Yuki [Tsunoda] last year, it was quite bad as well at one point, 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 I'm having."

Colapinto also responded to a suggestion that ultimately what happened between him and Gasly in Madrid wasn't a big deal because of the difficulty of overtaking by pointing out the threat he was under from Piastri.

"Well, I almost got overtaken by Oscar! It was two tenths behind," said Colapinto.

"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 happening - and we move forward."

What actually happened

The situation arose because of the early-race VSC, which had allowed Colapinto, who started on mediums, to pit while Gasly was left out on hards.

Although Gasly complained angrily about this over the radio late in the race, the strategy was justified given it gave Gasly the opportunity to finish as high as sixth in the case of a VSC or safety car, or a red flag, and he never had an opportunity to make a pitstop and emerge from the pits still in the points. 

Colapinto spent a substantial period in his second stint stuck behind Gabriel Bortoleto, but had been released when the Audi driver pitted on lap 47. He then began to close on Gasly rapidly, with Piastri chasing him. By the start of lap 55, he was 1.5s behind Gasly.

When Gasly was told he would pit at the end of that lap, he was warned to "watch for Franco behind", but he was never given an instruction to let him past or told that there was any threat to his team-mate behind.

However, he was also expressing his frustration at the team, saying "I don't want to talk to you, radio over" just after the message about Colapinto.

Although Colapinto never launched an attack given the difficulty of overtaking at the Madring, being held up by Gasly's in-lap allowed Piastri to close a gap of 2.3s at the start of the lap to as little as two tenths. The McLaren driver never got close to making a pass, but Colapinto was justifiably angry at being held up by his team-mate. 

Gasly confirmed that there were conversations about how this had played out after the race, although neither driver offered any detail about the outcome. 

"We obviously discussed it with the team," said Gasly when asked about the fallout inside the team. "There wasn't a call for an actual swap, but it's all been discussed with the team, and it's all clear."