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A Formula One driver received vicious death threats that resulted in him being accompanied by armed guards to a Grand Prix
Formula One driver Jack Doohan has disclosed that he received appalling death threats which led to him being assigned armed security for his safety. The Australian racer faced the distressing ordeal last season whilst competing for Alpine.
The incident in question happened before the Miami Grand Prix last May, with the 23-year-old making the chilling revelations on Netflix’s F1 docu-series Drive to Survive. He spoke candidly about the threats he received, stating: “I got serious death threats for this [Miami] Grand Prix, saying they’re going to kill me here if I’m not out of the car.
“I had six or seven emails saying if I am still in the car by Miami, all my limbs will be cut off.” The harassment continued beyond that point, as weeks following the race, Doohan turned to social media to appeal fortrolls to stop targeting his family in an online campaign thought to have been fuelled by social media users from Argentina.
Doohan – who was demoted to a reserve position at Alpine following the Miami Grand Prix – was substituted by Franco Colapinto, who hails from Argentina, having previously worked as the team’s test and reserve driver.
The online assaults against Doohan’s family also featured a Formula 1 parody account called ‘formulafakers’. The account fabricated a fake Instagram post, purported to be from Doohan’s father, former MotoGP world champion Mick.
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The post featured a doctored image of Colapinto’s crashed Alpine car and a caption that read: “Very impressive” alongside laughing emojis, seemingly mocking the South American driver.
Jack Doohan sent a public plea to online trolls to stop the targeting towards his family(Image: https://www.instagram.com/jackdoohan/)
The post was erroneously reported as genuine by several Argentinian media outlets, leading to a torrent of abuse aimed at Doohan and his family. The situation escalated to such an extent that Doohan was provided with armed security and a police escort at the Miami race, where he was accompanied by his girlfriend, Ebony Zippora Gold, and his trainer.
“I was there with my f****g girlfriend and my trainer, and I’ve got three f****g armed men around me. I had to call my police escort to come and get it under control,” he added. The stress he was under meant he couldn’t savour finally reaching the zenith of motorsport.
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He said: “I wasn’t able to enjoy being a Formula 1 driver, something I dreamt of for so long. So yeah, it’s pretty s***,” Doohan stated. ” Before his demotion, he failed to secure a single point in the first six races of the season and eventually split from Alpine last month.
He has since made his comeback to F1 as earlier this month, he announced he’s joined Haas as a reserve driver for the 2026 season.
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