Max Verstappen plans another Formula 1 boycott
Max Verstappen plans another Formula 1 boycott as according to his father, he will skip F1 75 should it ever be held in England again, after the Red Bull driver and his colleagues were booed by the sellout crowd at London’s O2 Arena on February, 18.
The landmark evening was meant to be a celebration of F1’s legacy and future, with each team showcasing their latest car liveries along with exclusive interviews with all 20 drivers and 10 team principals.
However, the evening took an unexpected turn when Red Bull’s star driver and team principal Horner were met with loud boos from sections of the audience in an almost-villainous pantomime-like moment.
The boos come as part of Verstappen’s ongoing feud with the British media, drivers and other F1 personalities such as stewards, finding himself in conflicts with each of Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and George Russell since he finally got a car good enough to regularly win races in 2021.
Now Jos Verstappen, father of the reigning four-time world champion, admits that, whilst the presentation was okay, the booing left him firmly disheartened as he reveals his son plans another Formula 1 boycott in response.
“In itself, I thought it was a reasonable set-up,” Jos told RaceXpress. “Only I thought it was shameful what happened there with Red Bull Racing, that Christian Horner was booed like that, and Max was booed too.
“Look, then you do it for Formula 1, you are there to promote the sport and then you are booed by the public. I don’t think that’s acceptable.
“I get it because Max is the only one who fires up those Englishmen and says exactly how things are. But I don’t think this is acceptable, it’s really a disappointment what happened there.
“No, Max has no appetite for that, to be booed like that in front of 25,000 people. He also says, ‘If this is in England next year, they definitely won’t see me.’”
Verstappen hits out “rampage” F1 75 event
Verstappen has never been particularly fond of promotional commitments and hours before F1 75 began, a post on X.com (formerly Twitter) appeared to show the star “liking” a post criticizing the event as a “waste of time”.
Now after being booed, he may be even more unwilling and the elder Verstappen, who raced in Formula 1 in the 1990s, sympathized with his son, questioning the purpose of attending events designed to showcase the sport when they instead result in hostility.
“You are there to promote the sport and showcase the new colour schemes of the cars, but if they then go on a rampage like this,” Jos continued. “The question is what are you there to do?
“He has to get ready to go there anyway, but then you get booed like that. I think they need to take a hard look at that, because that’s not part of this sport.”
