Formula 1: Alpine writes open letter condemning social media abuse and says accusations of Franco Colapinto 'sabotage' are unfounded

The Alpine Formula 1 team issued an open letter Thursday to address social media abuse and threats along with claims that the team has been favoring French driver Pierre Gasly over Argentinian Franco Colapinto. The team made the move weeks after a run-in between Colapinto and Haas driver Esteban Ocon during the Chinese Grand Prix. Immediately after the incident, Colapinto’s management team took to social media to tell fans to not send threats towards Ocon.

The French driver had said the incident was his fault and was penalized by F1 stewards. During the most recent race at Suzuka in the Japanese Grand Prix, Ollie Bearman crashed into the outside barriers after going off track when he caught Colapinto at a high rate of speed entering the track’s hairpin corner. The crash seemed far more a product of F1’s energy management rules than anything nefarious; a driver deploying his battery can close in quickly on a driver ahead who is harvesting battery energy.

Alpine said in its letter to say that “this isn’t about one particular fanbase” and then had this to say. Ocon is a former Alpine driver. “The team condemns the hateful messages aimed towards Franco after last weekend’s race in Japan, the same way it condemns the abuse and threats that were aimed towards Esteban Ocon following a collision between the two cars at the Chinese Grand Prix.

“The two drivers were racing hard and fighting for position and Esteban took full responsibility and apologized to Franco, actively seeking him out in the media pen and also apologizing on social media. The resulting abuse that followed was not in the spirit of the sport and was an oversight not to call it it out sooner. Abuse of any kind to all drivers is unacceptable and it was especially disappointing that it comes from a minority of fans of the team towards a driver who has given so much to the team in the past and is a Grand Prix winner for Alpine.