Jack Doohan and his family victims of cyberbullying

The replacement of Jack Doohan by Franco Colapinto is taking on unwanted proportions on social media. While the Australian driver has been demoted to reserve in favor of the Argentinian at AlpineThe 22-year-old driver and his family were victims of cyberbullying after a montage of a fake message from his father. It featured the five-time motorcycling world champion making fun of Colapinto's crash in the final moments of Q1 of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Saturday, with the following comment: " Very impressive "(Very impressive, Ed.), followed by three mocking emojis.

FRANCO COLAPINTO CRASH AT THE END OF Q1 😱

The pilot Alpine indicates being ok on the radio 📻#ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/ZzqMgFhihB

— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) May 17, 2025

A fake post about Mick Doohan

This montage is the work of a parody account on X (ex-Twitter), formulafakers. However, it didn't take much more to provoke the ire of some of Franco Colapinto's die-hard fans, who then went on an online rampage against Jack Doohan and his family. The Australian driver responded to the situation on Monday evening on his Instagram account: “As you can see, the story circulating is completely false. It was fabricated by Argentinian fans to put my family and me in a negative light. They edited the original post to make it appear that my father posted this, which is completely false. Please stop harassing my family. I didn't think it would come to this.”

If he mistakenly thought they were Argentinian fans, Jack Doohan corrected himself in his next story: "Correction: The source is not Argentinian. However, several Argentinian media outlets shared this falsely fabricated image, which sparked online abuse against my family." "The original source who posted and fabricated this story. This type of content is so damaging," Doohan also shared in another story linking to the parody account.

Alpine reacted on his social networks

A little later in the evening, Alpine also published a statement on its social networks: “As a Formula 1 team, we are fortunate to be part of a global sport that evokes great passion and strong emotions, with an ever-growing community of fans enthusiastically following every action of their favorite drivers, whether it’s a courageous overtake on track or the style they display as they arrive in the paddock. We encourage everyone to remember that behind the visor of these superhuman athletes, there is a person, an individual with feelings, a family, friends, and loved ones. As a team, we cannot turn a blind eye to online abuse and we urge all fans of the sport we love to remain kind and respectful.”

 

See this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by BWT Alpine Formula One Team (@alpinef1team)

The parody account in question also posted messages on its X account following this cyberbullying. One message read: "This is a joke. Mick Doohan didn't say that.", both in English and Spanish, followed by a second, much longer one, the translation of which is available below.

“Posting this screenshot was a mistake. The Doohan family does not deserve to be attacked in the way they clearly were because of our post. We did not expect it to cause any harm. We sincerely apologize to the Doohan family. This is a wake-up call about the real, tangible dangers of social media.”

"Our post was left online to be attached to our clarification that our account publishes parody stories. The media removed their articles, but unfortunately, they had already reached the general public and the damage was done."

“Once again, we are sorry. It was never our intention to attract hatred towards any pilot, and we should have made it more transparent that we are a parody account.”

🚨 | BREAKING: Outrage as Argentinians discover fabled Twitter account “formulafakers” posts fake news. pic.twitter.com/yxUishf6QS

— formulafakers (@formulafakers) May 17, 2025

pic.twitter.com/s9piUKi0Xx

— formulafakers (@formulafakers) May 19, 2025

VIDEO - Franco Colapinto is already sending his Alpine in the wall at Imola