In the 2024 Detroit Grand Prix, Théo Pourchaire participated in IndyCar racing.
On lap 60 of the chaotic IndyCar Detroit Grand Prix, Arrow McLaren driver Théo Pourchaire and Argentine racer Agustín Canapino made contact on a restart. Now, Pourchaire — only in his third race — has admitted to receiving “so much hate and death threats” as a result.
Pourchaire, who currently serves as the backup driver for the Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, will now take the wheel of the No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet for the remainder of the IndyCar season. This opportunity arose due to the unfortunate wrist injury sustained by the car’s original driver, David Malukas, forcing him to withdraw from the 2024 competition. The French racer has faced numerous challenges since his entry into the series, including a recent incident with Agustín Canapino of the No. 78 Juncos Hollinger team.
In a restart, Pourchaire made a late dive into the challenging Turn 3, while Canapino believed he could slip in behind Hélio Castroneves’ No. 60 car. Unexpectedly, both vehicles found themselves in the same spot on the corner simultaneously, resulting in a racing accident that, although rather foolish, was ultimately unintentional.
Little was made of the contact during the NBC broadcast, but on social media on Monday evening, Arrow McLaren was forced to issue a post on X pleading, “Arrow McLaren and @juncoshollinger will not tolerate any form of abuse or discrimination. Those participating in such actions are not welcome in our online community.”
Théo Pourchaire soon quoted the post to add, “I’m sad I received so much hate and death threats in the last 24 hours for such a small incident in the Detroit GP. I hope people can understand that we are all humans and we can make mistakes. But it’s not normal to abuse people online.. Please be kind to each other,” followed by two emojis.
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It soon came to light that Pourchaire was facing a spate of angry messages from Canapino’s fan base. Canapino was a hugely popular touring car driver in his native Argentina before the Juncos Hollinger Racing team invested in IndyCar and brought the Argentine racer to the team. Since Canapino’s first IndyCar race in 2023, the driver has been involved in quite a few on-track incidents that have led his fanbase to tear down the competition.
In fact, Marshall Pruett of Racer reported last year that “social media attacks… from some of Canapino’s fans” directed at former Juncos Hollinger driver Callum Ilott after the Long Beach Grand Prix ultimately forced the Brit and his team to part ways. Similar attack rained down on Ilott at Laguna Seca later in the season, only reinforcing Ilott’s decision to leave when Juncos Hollinger refused to push back against the furor of the Argentine fans.
Further, in the aftermath of the Pourchaire/Canapino fiasco, fans began sharing a clip of team owner Ricardo Juncos calling Pourchaire what can be translated from Spanish as “the son of 1,000 whores” or “son of a bitch” in response to the crash.
The fallout is still ongoing, especially as Arrow McLaren’s X post about abuse raised further questions about what had happened between Pourchaire and Canapino for otherwise oblivious fans. Juncos Hollinger Racing has not yet made its own X post; previously, it has only publicly responded to one incident of Argentine fans attacking other drivers online.
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