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Earlier this week, Formula 1 parody news account Formula Fakers shared a fake Instagram story of Jack Doohan's father, Mick Doohan, posting about the crash that Franco Colapinto suffered during the qualifying session at the Imola Grand Prix this past weekend. The post by the parody account has led to Doohan's family being harassed, causing the Australian driver to take to his social media channels and clear up the controversy while also pleading with the public to leave his family alone.
The fake Instagram story that was shared by the Formula Fakers X account was a doctored edition of a story that was previously posted by the former Alpine driver's father, showing off his son's finishes before he was replaced by Colapinto. Posting the two stories side-by-side, Doohan shared an appeal to the internet.
"As you can clearly see, the story circulating above is completely false. 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.
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"Please stop harassing my family. I didn't think I would have to get to this point"
In the following story, the 22-year-old also shared Formula Fakers' explanation of their post while pointing out the effect that these parody account posts have on the real world.
"The original source that posted and made the story. This type of content is so damaging," he wrote.
In the final post of the series, Doohan corrected himself. When he wrote that the original post was made by Argentine fans, from the same place where Doohan's substitute Franco Colapinto hails, he was wrong - it was picked up and falsely reported by Argentine news outlets.
"Correction: The source is not Argentine. However multiple Argentine outlets falsey reported the fabricated image which triggered the online abuse on my family."
Doohan has currently been benched, with Colapinto taking up the spot beside Pierre Gasly for the next part of the season.
FIA President makes statement on the online harassment faced by Jack Doohan and others
Apart from Jack Doohan, Red Bull Racing's Yuki Tsunoda also received some abuse online after an incident between him and Colapinto took place during the practice session at Imola, which caused the Japanese driver to make a gesture that was interpreted by fans as giving the new Alpine driver the middle finger. Both Tsunoda and Colapinto spoke out against this kind of treatment towards the drivers and were backed by FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who shared a statement via Instagram earlier today:
"No one should ever be subjected to abuse - driver, fan, volunteer or official. Our sport must join together in rejection of this behaviour."
The next race in the F1 calendar is the Monaco Grand Prix, taking place from May 23-25.
