Gasly urged F1 to curb online abuse after Spanish GP
NXTbets Pro | Published On: September 23, 2026
Gasly abuse online
Pierre Gasly condemned the online abuse and threats aimed at him after the Spanish Grand Prix, saying the response went well beyond normal criticism of a driver’s race. He said the attacks also reached members of his family, including his girlfriend, and described the abuse as disturbing. Gasly said fans often cross a line online that should never be crossed, and he made clear that threats and personal attacks become even more unacceptable when they target family members and partners. His comments came as he pushed for Formula 1 to become a healthier place, with the message focused less on one isolated outburst and more on the standard the sport should set for behavior around its drivers. The Alpine driver did not frame the issue as part of the normal heat of competition. He treated it as a clear boundary problem, one that spills from race debates into private life and pulls people close to the drivers into the conflict. Gasly’s criticism centered on the way online reaction can turn a sporting dispute into something more damaging, and he said that is a line that should not be crossed.
Gasly Colapinto
The backlash followed a race incident in which Gasly held up his Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto during the Spanish Grand Prix. Gasly said a strategy call left him running long during a hard-tyre stint, and that decision put him in position to slow Colapinto late in the race. At the same time, Colapinto was under pressure from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, which added to the tension around the moment. Colapinto complained over the radio about the situation, a reaction that made the episode more visible once the race unfolded. Gasly said the team later discussed the incident and viewed it as clear. His explanation pointed to race management, timing and the effect of the call on both drivers rather than any larger dispute inside the team. The late-race sequence became the trigger for the online reaction, but Gasly’s account put the focus on how a strategy decision can ripple through a grand prix and affect more than one driver at once. In his telling, the issue was a racing situation that escalated because fans took it far beyond the track and turned it into personal abuse.
Colapinto abuse lessons
Franco Colapinto said he understood that the backlash was aimed at Gasly, and he agreed that the abuse should stop. He also condemned abuse in general and said he hoped it would end. Colapinto said similar incidents had affected other drivers this season, which put the Spanish Grand Prix episode into a wider pattern of online reaction around Formula 1. Gasly and Colapinto both said the situation should be treated as a lesson, with the emphasis on how quickly a race dispute can turn into something harsher once it moves online. Their comments landed before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, giving the issue fresh weight as the season continued and the teams moved on to the next race weekend. The message from both drivers was consistent. Criticism is part of the sport. Abuse is not. Gasly urged Formula 1 to make the sport a healthier place, and Colapinto backed that view by separating racing frustration from the kind of personal attacks that spread after the Spanish Grand Prix. The episode left both drivers pushing the same point from different angles, with Gasly calling out the threats and family targeting and Colapinto asking for the abuse to stop.
