The argument in the comment sections after Baku was not about who caused the Turn 1 crash. The stewards settled that in document 66: Franco Colapinto "braked too late", hit Pierre Gasly, who then hit Lando Norris, and all three cars retired at the lap 32 restart. The penalty was a five-place grid drop at his next race and no penalty points. What readers fought over was whether a driver can be made to answer for people who abuse others in his name.
Under RaceFans' report of Alpine's statement on 27 September, the thread split cleanly. "Maybe Colapinto should take actions and tell his fans to stop it," wrote Alex Rusch. Tony Mansell answered the sacking argument directly: whatever anyone thought of Colapinto's driving, "the online abuse is not his responsibility". And one reader, uzsjgb, supplied a precedent: "Same thing happened with Agustin Canapino in IndyCar. He lost his drive, because nobody wanted to be associated with this sort of thing."
Five episodes, one name in common
Colapinto's season has produced a sequence that statements from the team, the governing body and the press document. In an open letter on 2 April, Alpine condemned "the hateful messages aimed towards Franco after last weekend's race in Japan" and the abuse aimed at Esteban Ocon after he and Colapinto collided in China. After the Dutch Grand Prix, where Colapinto took a drive-through and two penalty points, the FIA's United Against Online Abuse coalition said stewards "were targeted with online abuse" for applying the rules. On 24 September FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem called the abuse of Gasly and his family, which followed Gasly briefly holding up his team-mate at the Spanish Grand Prix, "completely unacceptable." Two days later came Baku, where abusive comments "targeted various people involved," Norris among them.
The targets range from two rivals and a team-mate to a panel of stewards and Colapinto himself. What the episodes share is the incident that preceded each.
The line Alpine will not cross
Alpine's 27 September statement says the abuse "has become a regular occurrence in recent races and cannot be condoned," and then refuses the framing the comment sections were supplying: "Condemning abuse on social media is not aimed at any one fan base or the supporters of one team or driver, this is universal."
Read against the sequence, that refusal is a position rather than a platitude. Alpine has had its own drivers on both sides of it inside one season: Colapinto as the target in April, Gasly as the target in September after delaying his team-mate. A team that named a fanbase would be naming one of its own drivers' supporters as the problem, and the statement is written so that it never has to.
What happened to Canapino
The Canapino episode began with contact between his Juncos Hollinger car and Theo Pourchaire's Arrow McLaren at the Detroit Grand Prix in June 2024. The Race reported that Pourchaire then received death threats from supporters of the team and its driver. Within days Arrow McLaren announced it had "terminated its commercial alliance with Juncos Hollinger Racing, effective immediately." Canapino said he had "not seen a single death threat directed at those who claim to have received them," then stepped out of the No. 78 for Road America.
He came back. RACER reported that he "showed contrition to the team and fans of the series" and raced on until 7 August, when the team announced it was "mutually parting company" with him. Its statement thanked him and gave no reason. RACER's account of the split is about money and results: finishes of 22nd, 27th, 25th and 26th had put the No. 78 "in jeopardy of failing to land one of IndyCar's $1 million Leaders Circle contracts." No source read for this piece ties his departure to the abuse.
So the precedent readers reached for does show a consequence, and it is a different one. The cost arrived within days and it landed on a commercial partnership between two teams. The driver kept his seat for two more months and left in a split both sides called mutual.
Norris, between Baku and Sepang
Norris had his own arc. Straight after the crash he said that "if you cause a crash on a restart like this, you should have at least a one-race ban" and that "he shouldn't be there." By Monday he had apologised on Instagram for comments "I simply should not have said." On 1 October, having been on the receiving end himself, he drew the line where Alpine had: "abuse always takes things too far, death threats are certainly one thing that takes things way too far."
Alpine's statement ends with its one checkable commitment, to work with "the championship promoter and rights-holder, and the governing body" on ways to tackle online abuse. Colapinto starts the race at Sepang on 4 October five places further back than he qualifies, and whatever that commitment produces will be measured against the sixth episode, or its absence.