Franco Colapinto acknowledged that he has some “very euphoric” and “aggressive” fans, ones which he will not hesitate to ban.

That message comes after both Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Jack Doohan – the driver who Colapinto replaced at Alpine – spoke out against online hate being directed at them.

Franco Colapinto warns abusive fans will be banned

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Colapinto made his return to Formula 1 with Alpine at Imola, and during the opening practice session, received a hand of frustration from Tsunoda, who felt he had been impeded.

Tsunoda later revealed that he had been subjected to a torrent of online abuse following that incident, triggering Alpine to release a statement reminding F1 fans to be “respectful”.

Jack Doohan would later take to social media to call out “multiple Argentine outlets” for circulating a fake image which portrayed his multi-time World Champion father Mick Doohan mocking Colapinto’s Imola qualifying crash, Jack stressing it was “clearly completely false”.

Colapinto urged that as drivers, “we have to focus on what we can control”, but assured that abusive fans will be banned where he can make that happen.

Speaking to the media, including PlanetF1.com, ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, Colapinto said: “I received a lot of criticism on social media since I was in Formula 2.

“I think we are athletes, and we have to focus on what we can control. There is things out of our control that we cannot really change, how people respect the others and what those people do, and I try my best to try to ban people that, you know, that I can control regarding more that are my fans.

“So, that’s a work in progress. I know there is some, you know, overreacting, and they are very passionate, but they are also very euphoric, and some are a bit aggressive. That’s the reality.

“So, on my side, I’m trying to do my best. I know a lot of people are receiving hate. I did as well. So just things that we need to take out of our head when you’re on track and just focus on driving.”

F1 2025 head-to-head standings

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

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Colapinto would at that stage focus in on the situation which led to Tsunoda facing abuse online, stressing that Tsunoda was well within his rights to be frustrated by their incident.

“But, like the Yuki one, I mean, I would have been really upset if someone blocked me like I did to Yuki,” he said, “so honestly, he’s right, and he’s completely right to get upset.

“He was upset as I would have been if someone blocked me like that. And I understand him. I think he did the right thing.

“There is different moments in not only motorsport, I think in sports in general, that people have to behave better, and we have also to do our best as the people in the sport, to try to calm the people down, make them understand that they have to enjoy the sport as much as they can, watching on TV or watching at the track, but not inducing that lack of respect that some have.”

Colapinto is into a five-race audition at the wheel of the Alpine A525, with his promotion seeing Doohan return to the reserve driver role.

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