Sergio Aguero and Argentina's foreign minister have joined the social media pile-on aimed at Lando Norris after his criticism of Franco Colapinto following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The British driver sparked anger in Argentina with his response to the collision caused by Colapinto that took him out of the race. Colapinto locked up his front brakes at a safety car restart and barrelled into the side of team-mate Pierre Gasly, who was pushed into the McLaren of Norris on the outside. All three retired from the race as a result of the damage.
Norris calls for bans
Norris did not mention Colapinto by name, but the Alpine driver was the clear target as Norris said: "I think the FIA should be more strict and start handing out bans for this kind of stuff. It's just careless from people. It costs a lot of money, all my parts are in the bin now. People should just get banned, because that's not driving that deserves to be in Formula 1."
The suggestion that Colapinto should not be in F1 has not gone down well with his fans, some of whom have a pre-existing reputation for targeting and abusing drivers and pundits who have said something negative about Argentina's only current F1 driver. Norris' most recent social media posts have received hundreds of comments, many in Spanish, attacking him. Many left personal insults, some made references to the Falkland Islands, while others posted images or GIFs referencing Argentina's recent World Cup semi-final victory over England.
Aguero and minister join in
Former Manchester City striker Aguero, a vocal supporter of Colapinto since before he even made his F1 debut, posted a GIF of himself wagging his finger, which had been liked 30,000 times at the time of writing.
Argentine government official Pablo Quirno, the country's minister of foreign affairs, also got involved. He posted on his official government social media account on X: "Sure, Lando Norris called for a penalty for the driver who crashed into Oscar Piastri in Montreal in 2025. Ah, no… right." It was a reference to the crash caused by Norris with his McLaren team-mate at last year's Canadian Grand Prix.
The torrent of abuse directed at Norris comes despite Colapinto publicly accepting total blame for causing the incident. He admitted his "big mistake", which prompted a 10-second time penalty from the stewards. Because he could not serve that punishment, due to retiring from the race, it has been converted into a five-place grid drop for next weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix.
Alpine condemns abuse
Responding to the abuse received by Norris, Colapinto's Alpine team said in a statement: "We feel it's necessary to speak out once more about the hate and abuse online following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Not only aimed at one of our own drivers, but also members of the Formula One community, including media, and to our racing counterparts who we respect, admire, and revel competing against in the pinnacle of motorsport.
"Mistakes happen when racing at the limit and no matter the result or outcome, nobody should be subject to hateful or abusive comments. Condemning abuse on social media is not aimed at any one fan base or the supporters of one team or driver, this is universal and should be called out and recognised to all fans of the sport.
"As we have said in previous instances, we strongly condemn the reaction of some fans online and stand in solidarity with Formula One, the FIA, and other teams in wanting to stamp it out. It has become a regular occurrence in recent races and cannot be condoned.
"We know as a proud participant and stakeholder in the sport, we hold a responsibility to speak out and also help support in finding a solution. We will continue to work closely with the championship promoter and rights-holder, and the governing body to discuss ways in which to tackle online abuse and encourage healthy sporting rivalry, which Formula One is renowned for and what makes it so special."
It has been a difficult situation for Alpine to deal with, especially given some sections of Colapinto's personal fanbase have not shied away from attacking team members, including his team-mate Gasly. Boss Flavio Briatore said before the Baku race weekend that he could ban Argentine news outlets from speaking to Colapinto on race weekends if abuse of Gasly continues.
Briatore said: "If the Argentinians want to support Franco, they [must] support Franco clean, loyal, not what I see on social media. If not, at one point Franco will stop talking with everybody, because if I see every time we have a lot of anger from the fans, and this and that, for no reason.
"If the people are like that, then we will stop the interviews with the Argentinian television, we will stop everything, because it doesn't make sense, what I'm reading on social media."
