Horner reflects on Verstappen getting booed: 'Disappointing reaction'
F1 News
Earlier this month, Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner and Max Verstappen did not receive the warmest of welcomes at the F1 75 live event. In London, fans booed the team. The Red Bull team principal now reacted to what happened in the British capital and the statement the FIA released afterwards on the matter.
'Disappointing reception to Verstappen'
"It was a big event. Obviously all the teams put a lot of effort into it, which was good and interesting to see," Horner begina at the press conference in Bahrain.
"Of course launching your car is a bit like launching at an away trip in a home fans stadium. Fans will always back the teams and drivers that they want to, and of course we’ve been the protagonists over the years. I guess the only disappointment I had with it was that, the reception to Max as a four-time world champion was disappointing," he reacted on his team and the four-time world champion getting booed a week ago.
"But passion in sport is always going to be there. If the launch should have been in Holland, no doubt the reception had been somewhat different."
After the event, the FIA also released a statement about the fans' booing. Horner explained his team had nothing to do with that. "They made their own comments on it, it was nothing that we certainly asked for. I didn’t have any conversation with the FIA following the event. It was obviously part of their campaign to stamp out online abuse."
Horner sees fan base changing
Horner however does see that sport can have such an effect, and many will choose sides. "The fans are the DNA of the sport, and I think the fandom has changed obviously over the last few years as we’ve been welcoming more and more diverse fans to the sport. Sport is polarising, and competitive sport, across any premier sport in the world, [is polarising]."
"Fans are passionate and they support their drivers, they predominantly support their teams. And you can’t dictate that. So we’re delighted to race in such a big audience, and you’re going to get different reactions depending on where you race in the world, and that’s the same in any elite sport," he concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Kimberly Hoefnagel
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