Pierre Gasly received about 13,000 death threats, FIA president says

Threats after the Madrid race

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said Pierre Gasly has received about 13,000 death threats since the Spanish Grand Prix in Madrid. He disclosed the figure in an interview with The Drive, a US motorsport website. Gasly had already made the abuse public on social media, saying the threats were aimed at his family, his partner and himself. The race took place in mid-September, and the abuse followed a fight on track between Gasly and his Alpine team-mate Franco Colapinto. The figure came from the FIA chief rather than from Gasly, whose own statements focused on the threats. Ben Sulayem said the sport had never faced abuse of this kind directed at all of its drivers.

The on-track clash

The dispute began with team orders. Gasly was ahead of Colapinto, who was on fresher tyres and asked to swap places, but Gasly initially did not let him pass and slowed him down. Colapinto complained repeatedly over the radio that he was being held up unnecessarily. After Gasly's pit stop, Colapinto got ahead and finished seventh, while Gasly finished twelfth. Colapinto did not lose a position in the battle itself, yet the exchange drew a wave of hostility toward Gasly, especially from Argentina, Colapinto's home country.

Reactions from Alpine and Clarkson

Alpine team principal Flavio Briatore reacted immediately and threatened an interview boycott of Argentine media. In a separate report, he warned Colapinto's fans that the team could restrict access if the abuse did not improve. Colapinto asked his own fans to stop sending threats. The abuse was made worse by a joke from Jeremy Clarkson, who said Colapinto had a grid penalty for being Argentinian. Ben Sulayem defended the presenter's remark. Alpine later condemned comments made by a team guest in a recent television interview in Austin, saying such opinions did not reflect its values. Gasly called threats of this scale completely inappropriate, particularly when they reached his family and partner.

The FIA plan: bans and AI

Ben Sulayem said the FIA launched the United Against Online Abuse initiative years ago, using artificial intelligence to track down offenders online. He said a spectator who sends threats would be banned, and so would a member of the press, because the FIA has the power to do so. Anonymous accounts would be unmasked with AI, and he predicted that others would become afraid once one offender was exposed. He told fans and media that the sport risks being lost to online abuse and that there is no place for online perpetrators in motorsport. He added that drivers could tell fans they did not want supporters who threaten other drivers. In comments to SB Nation, he called online abuse a disease and a plague and warned that if nothing changes the sport will be destroyed.