Several news outlets picked up a fake Instagram story purportedly posted by Doohan’s father Mick after Franco Colapinto crashed in qualifying for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
An image circulated online showed a screenshot of Colapinto’s crashed Alpine and the caption “very impressive” with several laughing face emojis.
The fake image, which X account Formula Fakers shared, quickly gathered steam as outlets in Australia and Argentina picked up the story.
The parody account has since apologised for the post after Doohan condemned the post.
“As you can clearly see, the story circulating above is completely false,” Doohan said in an Instagram story.
“It was fabricated by Argentine fans attempting to portray me and my family in a negative light.
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“They edited the original content to make it appear as though my father posted it, which is entirely untrue.
“Please stop harassing my family. I didn’t think I would have to get to this point.”
Doohan clarified that the source “is not Argentine” but that “Multiple Argentine outlets falsely reported the fabricated image which trigger online abuse on my family.
“This type of content is so damaging.”
In a statement, Formula Fakers said it was a mistake to post the doctored image.
“The Doohan family does not deserve to be attacked in the way they evidently were for our fake news post,” a statement read.
“We did not expect this post to cause any damage. We deeply, sincerely apologise to the Doohan family.
“This has been a wake up call on the real, tangible effects of social media.
“Our original post had been left up in an effort for it to be attached to our clarification that our account posts fake news.
“Luckily, news outlets had taken down their posts, but, unfortunately, it had already reached the general public and the damage was done.
“Again, we are sorry. It was never, ever our intention to draw hate towards any driver, and we should have made it more transparent that we are a parody account.”
— formulafakers (@formulafakers) May 19, 2025
Alpine issued a statement on Tuesday, but did not directly reference Doohan.
The team was also implicated in another swathe of online abuse directed at Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, who was subject to racist comments after an incident with Colapinto in practice.
“As an F1 team, we believe we are fortunate to be part of a global sport that evokes great passion and emotions, with an ever-growing community of fans who enthusiastically follow their favourite drivers’ every move, whether it be a brave overtake on track or what style they are sporting when they arrive in the paddock,” Alpine said.
“Ae encourage everyone to remember that behind the visor of these superhuman athletes there is a person. An individual with feelings, family, friends and loved ones. As a team, we cannot condone online abuse and urge all fans of this sport we love, to be kind and respectful.”
Formula 1 continues its triple-header on May 25 with the Monaco Grand Prix.
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