Australian Formula 1 driver Jack Doohan has publicly addressed a wave of online abuse directed at him and his family, stemming from a fabricated social media post falsely attributed to his father, former MotoGP world champion Mick Doohan. The incident has escalated tensions within the F1 community and highlighted the real-world consequences of misinformation on digital platforms.
The controversy began when a parody Formula 1 account, “formulafakers,” created a fake Instagram post appearing to show Mick Doohan mocking Argentine driver Franco Colapinto’s crash at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. The post, captioned “Very impressive” with laughing emojis, was mistakenly reported as genuine by several news outlets, leading to widespread backlash against the Doohan family. As a result, Jack Doohan and his family received death threats and other forms of harassment, prompting him to hire full-time security during the Miami and Brazilian Grands Prix.
In response, Jack Doohan took to Instagram to refute the false claims, stating, “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.” He emphasized that the doctored content was entirely untrue and called for an end to the harassment.
The parody account “formulafakers” issued an apology, acknowledging the harm caused by their post and stating, “Posting that screenshot was a mistake. The Doohan family does not deserve to be attacked in the way they evidently were for our fake news post.” They admitted to underestimating the real-world impact of their actions and expressed sincere remorse.
Alpine, Doohan’s team, also released a statement condemning the online abuse and urging fans to remember the humanity of drivers: “As a team, we cannot condone online abuse … The
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