Jos Verstappen wasn’t impressed by the response of the crowd in the O2 Arena to Christian Horner or his son Max Verstappen.

The two Red Bull men were met with less than positive reactions by the predominantly British crowd at the F175 launch event at the O2 Arena in London this week.

Jos Verstappen: Booing Christian Horner and Max was not acceptable

The appearance of Max Verstappen on-screen early on in the show at the O2 Arena prompted a mixed reaction from the attending crowd – while there was plenty of cheering for the four-time F1 World Champion, the Dutch driver was also greeted with a loud chorus of boos.

Given that Verstappen’s successes in recent years have come at the expense of British rivals like Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton, as well as Verstappen hitting out at perceived bias from British media and FIA officials in recent months, the reaction was not entirely unexpected.

Later in the show, Christian Horner took to the stage and was greeted with more unequivocal booing. Despite being the most successful British team boss of the last two decades, the home crowd failed to greet Horner with delight and, while Horner initially appeared somewhat thrown by the reception, quickly rallied to acknowledge the reception and carry out the team’s launch speech.

The pantomime-like drama can be attributed largely to driver-related allegiances, given that the majority of the British public attending raised the roof for Norris and Hamilton, as well as Mercedes’ George Russell and rookie British driver Oliver Bearman, but the extent of the booing came as a surprise to Red Bull – even with the fore-knowledge that the crowd was there to cheer on their home heroes.

With Red Bull opting against having their drivers speak on stage, some observers suggested this was in response to the booing levelled at Horner, but Red Bull had never planned on having Verstappen or new teammate Liam Lawson speak – early on in the planning phase for the ceremony, Red Bull had decided against the path of short and surface-level comments during the seven-minute slot and, instead, focused on their launch video and car reveal routine.

Jos Verstappen, father of Max, has spoken out about the reception Red Bull received on the night in London. While he and Horner haven’t always seen eye-to-eye, particularly during a tense 2024 season, the Dutchman was clear in that he felt it “shameful” that Horner and Verstappen were greeted with negativity.

“In itself, I thought it was a reasonable set-up, only I thought it was shameful what happened there with Red Bull Racing,” Verstappen told Dutch publication RaceXpress.

“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.”

Disappointment in the crowd’s reaction was also felt behind closed doors at the FIA, with the governing body having also come in for booing from the attending crowd.

Sources indicated to PlanetF1.com that the booing of the FIA is merely a byproduct of its unenviable position of being the regulator and enforcer of F1’s regulations, but that there was greater concern about the booing focused on competitors within the sport.

With the FIA making a big push to tackle the issue of online abuse through its United Against Online Abuse initiative, there are concerns that the effects of soccer-like tribalism within F1 – as evidenced on the night in London – are something that makes those efforts to stamp out the issue all the more difficult.

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