Max Verstappen said it was not worth his time to respond to fans who booed him at Formula One’s season launch in London.
Both Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and Verstappen were subjected to jeers at the O2 Arena by the British crowd.
The FIA, F1’s governing body, who were also targeted with booing, moved to condemn the “tribalist” reaction while standing up for Horner and Verstappen for “contributing greatly to the sport we love”.
Verstappen’s father, Jos, suggested his son might boycott any future season launches in England, while Horner said the reaction to his star driver was “disappointing”.
Asked about the reception he received in London on the second day of testing in Bahrain, Verstappen said: “Was there any booing? Maybe I’m deaf. I don’t need to really talk about it. It’s not worth my time.”
While a number of cheers drowned out the initial negative reaction to Verstappen’s face appearing on the big screen at the O2, Horner’s appearance on stage to introduce his Red Bull team was met largely by jeers.
Horner was accused by a female colleague of coercive behaviour last year, but was twice exonerated by the F1 team’s parent company, Red Bull GmBH.
However, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believed the jeering was directed at Horner rather than Verstappen.
“We were all surprised about the amount of booing that happened, particularly to one individual,” said Wolff.
“That was big and bad. It’s his (Horner’s) home turf and still Christian got these boos. Boos shouldn’t be in the sport, but in my opinion, that wasn’t directed at Max. That came as a consequence of what happened before.”
