Max Verstappen won't attend F1 events in England, says father Jos and FIA responds

The F1 75 event held at London’s O2 arena got a mixed response and most of them criticised the event for being British-biased. Since the start of Formula 1 in 1950 at the Silverstone track, the sport always had a debate regarding british and non-British drivers. The Governing body, people inside the F1 leadership, broadcasters and even some stewards were accused of being british biased. Many non-British racing drivers claim they were unfairly treated during races. Even the world champion Max Verstappen has many times accused the F1 and Sky sports of always biasing the british drivers.

What happened to Max Verstappen and Red Bull?

Though the F1 and the broadcasting media reject these claims it was clearly evident during the F1 75 event held in London. The O2 Arena was completely filled and most people were british. The British crowd cheered when talking about Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and George Russell who all were british drivers. The incident happened when the defending champions Red Bull and Max Verstappen came to the stage.

The crowd started booing Christian Horner and Max Verstappen whenever their names were taken. They even cancelled the Red Bull driver's speech after the unveiling as they felt there would be a lot of crowd booing for Max and it would spoil the atmosphere. Now Max Verstappen’s father Jos Verstappen lashed at the british crowd as shameful and said his son won't attend any F1 event in the UK hereafter.

'Max won't be in the UK'- Jos Verstappen

The Former F1 driver said “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.” Jos answered when asked about Max Verstappen attending the next event in London, he said "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'.”

FIA responds

After that, the FIA released a statement regarding the issue. There it said “Great rivalries throughout the history of motorsport have contributed to making it such an exciting experience for fans. 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.”

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