Toxicity and online harassment in Formula 1 gets worse from some Argentinian fans

Toxic fandoms exist everywhere, and certainly Formula 1 is not exempt of disrespectful fans who take their passion beyond borders of acceptability. Recently, Formula 1 has had to deal with online abuse regarding Alpine driver Franco Colapinto, whose Argentinian fans (a minority of them, of course) went on to insult and abuse his rivals.

One (very minor) incident between Colapinto and Yuki Tsunoda last week led to Alpine and FIA to step up and call for respect. In the case of Tsunoda, some used racist slur when the Japanese driver gesticulated angrily when Colapinto impeded him in a FP1 last Friday, even if Colapinto himself later said that Tsunoda was right to be angry after a fairly common incident. But it wasn't an isolated incident.

Fake news regarding Jack Doohan make it into the news in Argentina

Another victim of the Colapinto's extremist fans is Jack Doohan, Colapinto's teammate at Alpine, who was "demoted" due to his poor performance, allowing Colapinto, who started the season as a reserve driver, to become "interim" main driver, at least for a few races. Doohan has been receiving online harassment from some Argentinian fans since the start of the season, and recently, when the two drivers exchanged seats, it got worse, getting into the fake news territory.

Apparently, a parody account made up a story of Doohan's father allegedly making fun of Colapinto's qualifying crash. That was all false, but some Argentinian outlets took it as real, as reported by Motorsport.

FIA condemns online harassment in Formula 1 and defends Tsunoda and Doohan

"Jack Doohan and Yuki Tsunoda are great people, very talented drivers, and ambassadors for our sport who, along with their families, should be treated with respect rather than receive abuse by people who hide behind social media", added FIA on an statement.

With the increase of toxicity in Formula 1, Colapinto himself urged his supporters to show more respect. Many Argentinian fans have also sent Tsunoda support messages, apologising for the behaviour of other Argentinian fans.

"Formula 1 is a close community, and we all condemn these acts and will continue to work across the sport to collectively block and report abuse to social media platforms, but we need those platforms to be doing more to stop the spread of vile comments and abuse", FIA added.