Alpine Calls For Calm After Franco Colapinto Caused Multi-Car Pileup In Baku

Saturday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix went from a snoozefest in the beginning to showing some signs of excitement during its latter stages. Before George Russell nearly fumbled his first career Grand Slam in Formula 1, his teammate Kimi Antonelli drove around a multi-car pileup caused by Alpine's Franco Colapinto. The French team is now condemning social media abuse against those within F1 and calling for calm. While Alpine avoided naming any particular driver's fanbase, team principal Flavio Briatore made it clear before the race that Colapinto's Argentinian fanbase was a problem.

Absolute chaos at the restart 😵#F1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/o4Q5MdHLnc

— Formula 1 (@F1) September 26, 2026

This round of abuse stems from a Lap 36 safety car restart. Colapinto locked up while diving the inside of Turn 1, shooting past the apex and colliding with his teammate Pierre Gasly. The crash also collected Lando Norris' McLaren. All three drivers were forced out of the 51-lap race after the incident. Race stewards handed a five-place grid penalty to the Argentinian driver for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia. The reigning world champion had some choice words after his retirement, telling Autosport:

"I've not seen it. I just got taken out. I think the FIA should be stricter and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff. It's careless from people. It costs a lot of money. All my parts are in the bin now. People should just get banned, because that's not driving that deserves to be in Formula 1."

Colapinto's fans back in Argentina didn't take kindly to the British driver's comments. Norris attempted to tamp down the flames by taking to Instagram himself. Norris said his comments should never have been made, that he apologized directly to Colapinto, and that they "are still good friends."

It doesn't help the situation that Norris is British. The animosity that Argentina's sports fans have towards Britain since the Falklands War is relentless. In IndyCar, fans consistently sent death threats and other abuse to British driver Callum Ilott when he was teammates with Agustín Canapino. Any driver who crossed paths with the five-time Turismo Carretera champion would immediately become the target of death threats. Alpine put out its own statement on the matter, but refused to place any blame on Colapinto's fanbase:

Team statement. pic.twitter.com/3c98AVOd7Z

— BWT Alpine Formula One Team (@AlpineF1Team) September 27, 2026

"Condemning abuse on social media is not aimed at any one fan base or the supporters of one team or driver, this is universal and should be called out and recognised to all fans of the sport. As we have said in previous instances, we strongly condemn the reaction of some fans online and stand in solidarity with Formula 1, the FIA, and other teams in wanting to stamp it out. It has become a regular occurrence in recent races and cannot be condoned.

Let me be clear: this isn't a one-off incident. Over the last three seasons, Argentinian fans have sent death threats to Esteban Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda and Jack Doohan. According to ESPN, Doohan said fans threatened via email that they would cut off all his limbs if he didn't give up his seat for Colapinto. The Australian driver had replaced Colapinto at Alpine in 2025. Even at August's Dutch Grand Prix, Argentinian fans sent threats to race stewards over a penalty given to their driver.

The only person willing to openly take a stand against Colapinto's fan is team boss Flavio Briatore. He threatened to remove the driver from all public appearances if the abuse didn't stop. After countless campaigns for online civility, it's pretty ironic that Briatore is the one person who understands behavior won't change without tangible consequences. Admittedly, I wouldn't be afraid of dying either if I successfully fought off a lifetime ban from F1 for race-fixing.