F1 world devastated for Aussie driver Jack Doohan as sickening lie goes too far
The Formula 1 world has been left devastated for Aussie driver Jack Doohan with disgusting messages causing outrage.
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It has come to this.
The Formula 1 world has been left devastated with Aussie driver Jack Doohan forced to make a public plea for the abuse of his family to stop.
The Alpine reserve driver has been caught in a disgusting storm of online abuse this year — with most of the sickening messages being widely attributed to Argentine people.
Trolls from the South American nation have launched a campaign to get rid of the 22-year-old Aussie ever since the team signed Argentinian driver Franco Colapinto as its reserve.
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Alpine dumped Doohan to its reserve driver role after the Miami Grand Prix — just six races into the 2025 season.
Colapinto was given his first opportunity to drive his Alpine car at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix over the weekend and it was a nightmare for the rising star.
Colapinto crashed his car in qualifying and then finished Monday morning’s race 16th from the 18 drivers that finished the race.
The sight of Colapinto’s Alpine crashing in qualifying — with his car needing to be taken back to this pits on the back of a tow truck — has sparked a sickening storm.
A fake Instagram post which was attributed to Doohan’s father — former MotoGP world champion — Mick Doohan was created and circulated by Formula 1 parody account ‘formulafakers’.
The post showed Colapinto’s smashed car with a caption that said, “Very impressive” and included laugh-out-loud emojis.
Some news outlets made the mistake of viewing the post as fact and news reports about Doohan Snr’s fake comment began to spread.
Multiple Argentinian news outlets reported the quote as being fact.
Social media trolls have since viciously attacked the Doohan family on social media.
Doohan on Tuesday morning took to Instagram to make a public plea for the abuse to stop.
A first post on his Instagram stories included a screenshot of the ‘fomulafakers’ post.
“As you can clearly see, the story circulating above is completely false,” Doohan wrote.
“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 I would have to get to this point.”
He shared another post on Instagram where he named ‘formulafakers’ as the source.
“The original source that posted and made the story. This type of content is so damaging,” he wrote.
In a final post, Doohan wrote: “Correction: The source is not Argentine. However multiple Argentine outlets falsely reported the fabricated image which triggered the online abuse on my family.”
Doohan’s Alpine team has also issued a public plea.
“As an F1 team, we believe we are fortunate to be part of a global sport that evokes great passion and emotions, with an ever-growing community of fans who enthusiastically follow their favourite drivers’ every move — whether it be a brave overtake on track or what style they are sporting when they arrive in the paddock,” the team said.
“We encourage everyone to remember that behind the visor of these superhuman athletes, there is a person — an individual with feelings, family, friends, and loved ones.
“As a team, we cannot condone online abuse and urge all fans of this sport we love to be kind and respectful.”
The F1 parody account has issued an apology.
“Posting that screenshot was a mistake,” the account posted on X.
“The Doohan family does not deserve to be attacked in the way they evidently were for our fake news post. We did not expect this post to cause any damage. We deeply, sincerely apologise to the Doohan family.
“This has been a wake up call on the real tangible affects of social media.”
The account said it should have done more to make it clear its post was fake.
The use of Mick Doohan’s Instagram account comes after the Aussie motorsport icon shared an image of his son’s driving record against Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly.
Mick Doohan sharing Pierre Gasly and his son Jack’s results from this season on his Instagram stories … 🤔
— Daniel Valente ðŸŽï¸ (@F1GuyDan) May 7, 2025
Alpine replaced Jack for Franco Colapinto on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/Q72C9uX9S0
He was attempting to highlight just how poorly the Alpine team has been performing but F1 fans pointed out that the graphic he shared also showed his son was being outperformed by his French teammate.
The disgusting truth about the ordeal for the family was only revealed last week when reports emerged the Australian and his family have been receiving death threats.
As first reported by leading F1 photographer Kym Illman, Doohan had been forced to hire a full time security guard.
“He was receiving all sorts of threats online so much so that he had around-the-clock security in Miami and was planning on keeping that security for the Brazilian Grand Prix,” Illman said on Instagram.
“It was plain to see by those close to the Aussie that those threats weighed heavily on him.
“People had discovered his personal email address and were sending email threats which resulted in Jack, his girlfriend and even his father holding real concerns for their safety in Miami and on top of that, Jack’s sleep was affected.
“I’m certain Franco wouldn’t be endorsing any of that behaviour from what is a minority of his fanbase.”
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