Lando Norris abused online after calling for Franco Colapinto ban following Baku crash
Lando Norris was subjected to a wave of online abuse after saying Alpine driver Franco Colapinto should not be in Formula One following an incident that knocked him out of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku on Saturday. Alpine issued a public statement condemning the social media attacks directed at Norris and other members of the Formula One community.
Colapinto ran into trouble on a safety-car restart in turn one, locking up, hitting the side of his teammate Pierre Gasly and shunting Gasly into Norris, which forced all three drivers to retire; Mercedes’ George Russell won the race. Norris, who described himself as “just got taken out,” said: “There are some drivers who shouldn’t be in Formula One to be honest,” and added: “If you cause a crash on a restart like this, you should have at least a one-race ban. It is not driving that deserves to be in Formula One.” Colapinto apologised after the race and accepted he had been at fault.
Alpine’s statement addressed the volume and targets of online hostility: “As a team, we feel it’s necessary to speak out once more about the hate and abuse online following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Not only aimed at one of our own drivers, but also members of the Formula One community, including media, and to our racing counterparts who we respect, admire, and revel competing against in the pinnacle of motorsport,” it read. “As we have said in previous instances, we strongly condemn the reaction of some fans online and stand in solidarity with Formula One, the FIA and other teams in wanting to stamp it out. It has become a regular occurrence in recent races and cannot be condoned.”
Pierre Gasly had earlier criticised online abuse he received after holding up Colapinto in the late stages of the Spanish Grand Prix, saying: “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.”
Alpine executive adviser Flavio Briatore warned there would be consequences if abusive behaviour persisted, saying: “If the Argentinians want to support Franco, they support Franco clean, loyal. Not what I see on social media,” and adding: “If not, at one point Franco will stop talking with everybody because if I see every time we have a lot of anger from the fans and this and that for no reason, if the people are like that then we will stop the interviews with the Argentinian television. We will stop everything, because it doesn’t make sense what I’m reading on social media.”
Colapinto, 23, made his Formula One debut with Williams in 2024 before joining Alpine midway through the 2025 season and has repeatedly condemned online harassment. Before Colapinto replaced Jack Doohan at Alpine, Doohan said he had received serious death threats and “six or seven threatening emails that all my limbs would be cut off”, and had asked fans to stop “harassing my family”.
Other instances cited in recent races include Yuki Tsunoda being targeted after last year’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon receiving death threats after the Chinese Grand Prix this year, the FIA stewards being targeted following a penalty after the Dutch Grand Prix, and Gasly being the subject of abuse after the Madrid race two weeks ago. The FIA founded the United Against Online Abuse campaign in 2023 and secured €400,000 in funding from the EU in January this year; Colapinto said: “Hopefully, they can stop it. The same happened to other drivers – Yuki last year, it was quite bad as well at one point, I talked about it,” and added: “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 One, in any sport nowadays, it’s something very common. Unfortunately, that shouldn’t be common.”
Colapinto has been given a five-place grid penalty for the next round in Malaysia. Alpine reiterated that the online attacks “cannot be condoned.”