{"id":946363,"date":"2026-10-30T12:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T12:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946363\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T12:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T12:30:10","slug":"pierre-gaslys-shocking-13000-death-threat-revelation-puts-jeremy-clarkson-in-the-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/946363\/","title":{"rendered":"Pierre Gasly’s shocking ‘13,000’ death threat revelation puts Jeremy Clarkson in the spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pierre Gasly<\/a> received 13,000 \u201cthreats on his life\u201d after a minor team order issue at the Spanish Grand Prix, according to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.<\/p>\n

Jokes such as Jeremy Clarkson\u2019s \u201cFranco\u2019s got a grid penalty for being Argentinian\u201d aren\u2019t helping, although the FIA president has defended the TV personality\u2019s tone.<\/p>\n

FIA chief: This is a sickness and this is a plague<\/p>\n

Formula 1 is facing a growing crisis as keyword warriors and social media trolls hurl abuse at not only the drivers, but also their families.<\/p>\n

This hit fever pitch after the Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring, when Gasly\u2019s teammate Franco Colapinto was told to move over Gasly, with the Argentinian notably unhappy with the team order. <\/p>\n

\u201cSwap. Swap. Hello? Swap! Swap!\u201d raged Colapinto<\/a>, adding: \u201cThis is f**king unbelievable! Yeah, great! For f**ks sake!\u201d<\/p>\n

It sparked a barrage of online abuse towards Gasly, who had his life threatened along with those of his family and his partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally,\u201d the Alpine driver told PlanetF1.com and other media, \u201cI find it a little bit disturbing for our sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a top athlete, so I know I\u2019m exposed. It\u2019s always been the case. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut to that extent of threat, attacks, I find it completely inappropriate, especially when it reaches out to family members, you know, girlfriend, etc. I don\u2019t think that should be the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

The situation was not helped by TV personality Clarkson taking a dig, as a joke, at Colapinto at the United States Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of qualifying and informed that Colapinto had been given a grid penalty for taking new power unit components, Clarkson quipped: \u201cFranco\u2019s got a grid penalty for being Argentinian. Probably.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alpine chastised him in a statement to PlanetF1.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re aware of the comments made in a recent TV interview from a guest of the team in Austin,\u201d said the team. \u201cWe would like to reiterate that these are personal views and do not align with the team\u2019s values of promoting kindness and respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cFranco is our driver and has our full support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Sulayem, although defending Clarkson\u2019s joke, admitted online abuse is a growing concern for Formula 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that we are facing here that we never faced is this online abuse against all of the drivers. This is a sickness and this is a plague,\u201d he told SB Nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is more important than the view of Jeremy. When he said that he means good, he misses the old days, and that\u2019s normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the challenges, the risks that we have from losing the sport is from the online abuse, and that\u2019s where we need you.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, the FIA is doing its part. We did \u2018United Against Online Abuse,\u2019 but we have to use a lot of technology, AI, to expose these people. There\u2019s no place for them, because if we don\u2019t do something, our sport will be destroyed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a joint venture. It\u2019s a marathon. For Pierre Gasly to have 13,000 threats on his life, 13,000. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t do it alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean we had stewards, [a steward] who was threatened to be killed. These are volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such has been the abuse from Colapinto fans towards anyone deemed to have harmed him, Alpine\u2019s de facto team principal Flavio Briatore warned them that if it continued, he would stop Colapinto from speaking to the media.<\/p>\n

F1\u2019s online abuse problem<\/p>\n

Gasly calls out online abuse after Colapinto Alpine team order saga<\/a><\/p>\n

Flavio Briatore issues ultimatum to Franco Colapinto fans over online abuse<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf this continues, there will come a time when Franco will stop talking to everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see a lot of anger from the fans over and over again, for no reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it continues to happen, we will stop giving interviews to Argentine television. We will stop everything because what we read there makes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Sulayem applauded Briatore\u2019s stances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked what Flavio said, specifically talking to Colapinto\u2019s fan base. \u2018If you don\u2019t stop the hate, we will block access to Franco\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought that was a good way to maybe send a message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if more team principals need to send similar message, he replied: \u201cNot only the principals. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the responsibility of everyone. The drivers have fans. The drivers can also say to the fans, \u2018Stop.\u2019 I don\u2019t want you to be my fan if you are not behaving. So the drivers have the responsibility. They are ambassadors, they are role models, and protecting other drivers is protecting them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we as the FIA, we have a responsibility. The team have a responsibility. You have a responsibility. The governments have a responsibility. Other federations have a responsibility,\u201d added the FIA President.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd more than that, the high-tech companies who can reach people also have to block [these people].\u201d<\/p>\n

Read next: Doctor reveals brutal human impact of frantic F1 2026 schedule<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pierre Gasly received 13,000 \u201cthreats on his life\u201d after a minor team order issue at the Spanish Grand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[821,64,63,817,837,813,816,818,7426,44,1513,85],"class_list":["post-946363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-alpine","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-fia","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-jeremy-clarkson","tag-news","tag-pierre-gasly","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}