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23/02/2025
NEWS STORY
While Mohammed ben Sulayem may want to hear the "roaring sound" of the V10, he doesn't want to hear fans expressing their opinion of Christian Horner and Max Verstappen.
When it came to Red Bull's turn to present its livery at Tuesday’s F1 75 Live event in London, booing rang out in parts of the 02 venue hosting the event.
Earlier in the evening, the event MC, Jack Whitehall, had singled out Verstappen to make light of his spat with George Russell last year, the Dutch driver, though looking uncomfortable, laughing off the jibe.
In reaction to the booing the FIA has now issued a statement condemning the booing, all but describing it as abuse.
"Great rivalries throughout the history of motorsport have contributed to making it such an exciting experience for fans," said an FIA spokesperson.
"But what underpins sport at all levels is a culture of respect. As such, it was disappointing to hear the crowd's tribalist reaction to FIA Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen and his Red Bull Team Principal and CEO Christian Horner, at the F1 launch in London.
"Max and Christian have both contributed greatly to the sport we love. In the season ahead we should not lose sight of that.
"As part of the FIA’s commitment to protect the integrity of the sport, we are leading a coalition tackling online abuse in sport under the banner of our United Against Online Abuse campaign.
"We stand with all of our competitors, officials, volunteers, and fans to unite against this growing threat. We urge the sporting community to consider the impact of their actions both online and offline."
Such is the concern the matter will probably be raised when the World Motor Sport Council meets later this week.
Of course, it wasn't only Red Bull that got the crowd booing, for when mentioned for the "great work it is doing" the sport's governing body also got the full treatment from the crowd.
Though not to the same extent as football, those "great rivalries throughout the history of motorsport" have also divided fans, who over the decades will have cheered one driver while booing another.
At Monza, almost anyone who threatened Ferrari's hopes was subject to abuse from the crowd - back when the term abuse didn't encompass almost everything - while (sadly) at some events 'fans' have been known to cheer when certain drivers crashed out.
Ayrton Senna was always subject to a certain amount of abuse at Silverstone, particularly when battling "Our Nige", but the year after his death 'Senna S' T-shirts were very much the order of the day.
Sadly, as authoritarianism becomes the order of the day, the FIA, under Ben Sulayem's guidance, is following the example of the likes of Keir Starmer, leaving one to wonder when people will be banned - or worse - for posting mean comments about certain drivers or teams.
Finally, a suggestion. If F1 does intend to repeat the F1 Live event, might we suggest that rather than the likes of a heavily scripted Jack Whitehall, Ricky Gervais is recruited. The British comedian and writer absolutely roasted the assembled luvvies at the Golden Globes in 2020, and would surely be just the person to tell Ben Sulayem and the rest a few home truths.
Indeed, other than sitting there squirming, we might get to see the likes of the FIA president and Stefano Domenicali booing.