Pierre Gasly has hit out at the "disturbing" threats he, his girlfriend and his family received after he held up Argentine teammate Franco Colapinto in the closing stages of the Spanish Grand Prix two weeks ago.
Late in the Madring contest, Gasly appeared to get in the way of his Alpine teammate before making a pit stop.
The time loss left Colapinto vulnerable to the chasing McLaren of Oscar Piastri, and he complained about Gasly several times on the radio, although he was ultimately able to hold on to seventh position.
Gasly said the abuse crossed a line.
"Personally, I find it a little bit disturbing for our sport," Gasly is reported by The Race as saying during media day for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
"I'm a top athlete, so I know I'm exposed, it's always been the case, but the extent of the threats, attacks, I find completely inappropriate, especially when it reaches out to family members, [my] girlfriend etc. I don't think that should be the case.
"Things were not that way in the past and as a sport we just need to find a way to make it a healthier place because you're exposed, you know you are going to be attacked.
"You can be liked, disliked, it's completely fine, but 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."
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Fan abuse has been a regular story when it comes to incidents involving Colapinto, who has become an Argentine sporting hero since his debut in 2024.
FIA race stewards were bombarded with abuse after Colapinto received a penalty at last month's Dutch Grand Prix, while Alpine have had to condemn death threats aimed at Esteban Ocon after the Chinese Grand Prix and at Yuki Tsunoda after last year's Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
Australian driver Jack Doohan, whom Colapinto replaced at Alpine in 2025, had to ask the Argentine's fans to "stop harassing my family" last year.
Doohan later revealed he had "six or seven threatening emails that all my limbs would be cut off" if he was still driving instead of Colapinto at that year's Miami Grand Prix, which prompted police intervention.
It has not just been one-way. Alpine publicly condemned social media abuse aimed at Colapinto in April this year, as well as dismissing the "completely unfounded" suggestion that they were sabotaging the Argentine driver in favour of Gasly.
Speaking on Wednesday, Colapinto stressed that he and Gasly have a good relationship and said he hopes to see the abuse stop in future.
"I think he got a lot of people messaging him," Colapinto said on the subject of Gasly's abuse. "I haven't seen it because I'm not on social media a lot, but it's never nice to get it, even more when it's happening to the team that I'm racing in.
"We are team-mates and we get on very well together. We are playing and focusing on the same result, and [have] the same goal and the same target -- that is to make Alpine better. We are always working as a team and it's not nice to see it.
"So, hopefully, they can stop it. The same happened to other drivers -- Yuki [Tsunoda] last year, it was quite bad as well at one point, I talked about it.
"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 1, in any sport nowadays, it's something very common.
"Unfortunately, that shouldn't be common. Definitely, we should be taking more care about the things, the words that come out of the keyboards of everyone."
He added: "Hopefully, it doesn't keep happening. But it's something tricky with fans in the sport. It's not just my fans. I've got some very passionate ones. They want me to do well. Hopefully, they can enjoy the good results I'm having."
