Yuki Tsunoda issues response to social media abuse after Franco Colapinto incident

Yuki Tsunoda believes some factions of Franco Colapinto’s fanbase must learn to control their passion, after being subjected to online abuse.

Tsunoda found himself on the receiving end of a torrent of abuse, with a significant amount of it being racist in nature, following a practice incident with Franco Colapinto on Friday.

Why was Yuki Tsunoda subjected to racist abuse?

While on a push lap during practice, Tsunoda encountered Colapinto and was forced to back off in order to avoid a collision as his lap was compromised.

Tsunoda wasn’t impressed by the actions of the Argentinean driver and gesticulated in Colapinto’s direction, with some social media commentary incorrectly suggesting that he had shown Colapinto his middle finger in anger.

The incident enraged a minority of Colapinto’s extensive fanbase, who took to Tsunoda’s social media pages to flood it with cruel and nasty remarks in Spanish – quite a lot of which could only be described as racist in nature.

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It’s not the first time some fans of Colapinto have shown such levels of vitriol, with former Alpine F1 race driver Jack Doohan regularly subjected to abuse and taunting as he occupied the race seat Colapinto was linked to during the first Grand Prix weekends of the year.

Having had his social media overcome by the abuse, Tsunoda spoke out on the topic after coming back to the paddock following his scary qualifying crash, from which he emerged uninjured after being taken for precautionary checks.

“Yeah. I know,” he said in response to a question from PlanetF1.com about whether he found the situation upsetting.

“I heard about it but, to be honest, I guess it’s not just about me, if I heard correctly.

“They’re going everywhere, to be honest, and then they’re going for Jack [Doohan] – Jack didn’t do anything wrong, and they’re going for it. So that’s a bit unnecessary.

“It’s been normal that you get frustrated if you have traffic, and I got it multiple times. I think I have the right to say something, but I didn’t say something wrong thing, or a very bad thing.

“I just show the frustration, and that’s it.

“I know they are supporting their own country’s driver, but there’s always a line that they can say something, I guess.

“I’m saying this… not because of me or not what they say to me but they said too much things to Doohan, and I don’t think he was driving in a comfortable way.

“It’s good that they have energy, but just control it, and I feel like they can use the energy in the right way and in a much better way.”

As for whether he believes the situation needs firm addressing from Colapinto himself, who may be able to wield some influence over his fanbase, Tsunoda said he believes the Argentine is doing “everything he can do” in his words and actions to plead with those causing issues.

“If it still continues and it’s getting worse and worse, for sure, at some point F1 should say something,” he summed up.

Colapinto himself addressed the topic shortly afterward, saying, “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, and that’s what I would think. So, of course, we always try and want – for all the drivers – to keep it respectful and keep it calm there.”

Colapinto, on Thursday, explained that he felt the attention surrounding him was “even worse” towards the end of 2024 after he made his debut and was fighting to stay on the grid, and issued a call for Latin American fans to show respect for his competitors.

You know, 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 them,” he said.

“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.

“At the end it’s the same. I had to manage this last year. I had a bit of time to read some stuff and now I’m racing and everything is deleted again. So yeah, focus here.”

Jamie Campbell-Walter, part of Colapinto’s management team, commented on the situation during the pre-season when he reshared a post on X calling upon Colapinto’s fans to stop “bullying and being annoying” towards the Alpine team’s social media accounts.

“The haters who think they help Franco. You are doing him more harm than good,” Campbell-Walter wrote.

“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, Pierre 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.”

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