F1 star begs 'stop harassing my family' after fabricated social media post and vile abuse

Jack Doohan has asked online trolls to "stop harassing my family". His plea comes after a fabricated social media post caught the attention of news outlets in Argentina, prompting some fans of racer Franco Colapinto to target the Australian racer and his father.

Doohan lost his place on the grid in the build-up to the race weekend. Having failed to score a point, decided to and give Colapinto the chance to show what he can do.

But he did not get of to the best of starts at Imola. Colapinto lost control of his car and crashed in Q1 and also , before finishing 16th in Sunday's race. Not long after qualifying, a social media post began to circulate online.

The image appeared to be from the story of Doohan's father, motorcycle racing champion Mick Doohan, and featured an image of Colapinto's crashed Alpine and the sarcastic caption: "Very impressive." The image is a fake. The X account which published it admitted as much in a subsequent post, but that did not stop some Argentine news outlets picking up the story.

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And, in his own Instagram story, Doohan Jnr has spoken about the impact it has now had on him and his family. "As you can see, the story circulating above is completely false," he wrote, alongside a screengrab of the faked post.

"It was fabricated by Argentine fans attempting to portray me and my family in a negative light. They edited the original content to make it appear as though my father posted it, which is entirely untrue. Please stop harassing my family. I didn't think it would get to this point."

Doohan then posted a screengrab of the original post on X and a correction, confirming: "The source is not Argentine. However, multiple Argentine outlets falsely reported the fabricated image which triggered the online abuse of my family."

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The Aussie was not the only one to receive a torrent of abuse over the Imola race weekend. Yuki Tsunoda received a torrent of abusive messages on Instagram, many of them written in Spanish, after the TV feed showed him gesture angrily at Colapinto after the Argentine racer blocked him on track.

Colapinto has urged his supporters to stop sending abusive messages, telling them: "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... So of course we always try and want, for all the drivers, to keep it respectful and keep it calm there."

And president has since got involved, posting a statement on his own social media feed which read: "Motorsport is built on competition, passion, and commitment, and ever race drivers take to the track representing these values. The passion and excitement that we feel for our sport should unite us and never be twisted into abuse or hatred.

"I stand in full support of Yuki Tsunoda and Franco Colapinto, and I thank them for speaking out against the growing issue of online abuse in motorsport.

"No-one should be subjected to threats, hatred, or discrimination. There is no place for abuse or toxicity in our community. Through the united against online abuse campaign, we are taking decisive action - raising awareness, providing support, and driving change.

"We are committed to safeguarding the wellbeing of everyone in our sport, and together we can build a safer, more respectful environment for all."