Online fan abuse in the spotlight as Charles Leclerc calls out abuse against Mick Doohan

Charles Leclerc has called out the online hate targeted at Jack Doohan's father, Mick Doohan, and said that such a thing doesn't have a place in the sport. Since Franco Colapinto's return to F1 became official, there has been an influx of Argentinian fans.

Unfortunately, while the fans are very passionate and love Colapinto, they have a tendency to be very abusive toward anyone who is antagonistic toward the driver. Jack Doohan was first attacked online when Colapinto was announced as his replacement. The Australian was reportedly forced to hire personal security for himself and his family during the F1 Miami GP because of the threats he'd received.

This was followed by the race weekend in Imola, where Yuki Tsunoda had a moment with Franco Colapinto on track. What followed was the Japanese driver being abused online by the army of fans on social media.

This continued with a fake screenshot on social media that showed Mick Doohan taking a dig at Franco Colapinto, who had just had a crash. This subsequently led to Mick being attacked and even Jack Doohan being forced to issue a statement on social media to plead to the fans not to attack his family.

Charles Leclerc addressed the same quite strongly, as he said that such behavior has no place in F1. The Ferrari driver has often been a fan favorite, and there haven't been instances where he's faced a fan backlash or something of that sort.

While talking to the media, Leclerc touched upon how social media has become a bit too "toxic." He said, via RacingNews365:

"I wasn't aware of all the details of the situation, but I think as a global picture, that's never something you want to see. I think there's a lot of respect, and I've grown up with F1 as a target and looking at it, thinking that it was incredible to see so many different fans from different teams, but having a lot of respect."

He added:

"That's what I want to see going forward all the time, no matter what the situation is, so especially now with social media, it's more and more toxic, I think, and there is more and more false information spread. The most important thing to do is just be respectful first, and it is a shame to see these kinds of things."

Pierre Gasly echoes Charles Leclerc's take

Pierre Gasly echoed what Charles Leclerc said about targeting Mick Doohan, as he also felt that there was no place for such a thing in sport. Gasly was quite close to the action, as Franco Colapinto's Alpine teammate, after the Argentinian replaced Jack Doohan.

Citing agreement with Charles Leclerc on this, Gasly said, via aforementioned source:

"I fully agree with what Charles said, I don't think there's any space for abuse in any sort of way, anywhere, and it is just sad to see really. Because I think everyone has been really good, in that sense, the community we've had over the years really supporting but never really spreading hate on any other you can support any team, any drivers, even many, many teams, many different drivers, but at the end of the day, we've never really seen that sort of hate happening."

In line with Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly's take, it would be interesting to see if it could be prevented.