Franco Colapinto has acknowledged that Argentine F1 fans can be “bad” when it comes to social media abuse but hoped they can “improve” after a pile-on towards Lando Norris last weekend.
Argentine driver Colapinto will serve a five-place grid penalty in Malaysia this Sunday after causing a collision at last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Colapinto smashed into Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly, who subsequently hit McLaren’s Norris. All three drivers were forced to retire from the race.
Norris vented his anger afterwards, insisting any driver causing such a crash should receive a ban from Formula 1, though he did apologise for his comments on Monday. Colapinto, straight away on team radio and in the Baku media pen, also stated his regret for triggering the incident.
Yet Britain’s reigning world champion Norris received a barrage of abuse on social media, with many comments on Instagram from Argentine supporters. Even an Argentine politician implied that Norris was a hypocrite, after causing a crash with McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in Canada last year.
But speaking ahead of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, Colapinto said: "My message is always the same: that they [abusive fans online] sometimes don't realise what you can create by writing on your keyboard.
“We are humans, and it's not easy for us when we get these kind of things. I think it always goes to Argentinians, but we miss that it doesn't come only from Argentinians… it comes a lot from them; I fully agree.
“It doesn't just come from them, and they are extremely passionate and they support me a lot. And it's bad and they are bad many times, but it comes from all over the world and from many other fanbases.
"I don't know if we are not seeing it, I get loads of it and no one ever talks about it. I mean, it's fine because I don't look at social media too much. I don't go into it. But I know it affects a lot of people, and a lot of drivers, and a lot of families more than me.
"I hope that they improve. I've been asking for a long time. It's tricky for us drivers to control it. I think we are the ones to not do them more. But we are also really striving to improve the situation by ourselves.
“Because we try. For me, it's been since last year that I've been talking about it. I am doing my best, but it's tricky."
Colapinto’s Alpine team, not for the first time since the 23-year-old joined the team last year, released a statement on Sunday condemning all forms of abuse in the sport.
Norris will speak to the media in Sepang later on Thursday.
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