Max Verstappen can’t complain about boos when he acts the pantomime villain

F1

Max Verstappen looks set to be pitched into a hectic, high-stakes battle for F1 victories in 2025, between at least four teams. How will fans react if he resorts to his trademark strongman tactics?

Max Verstappen puts his hand on his hips on stage at the F1 75 Live event

Four-time world champion Verstappen received a hostile reception in February

Mark Sutton/F1 via Getty Images

When Max Verstappen tours the Albert Park circuit ahead of this Sunday’s Grand Prix, how will the Australian crowd react to a world champion who was roundly booed at his last major appearance?

The hostile reception to Verstappen from the crowd at the F1 75 Live season launch event seemed to take him by surprise and triggered a swift response from both racing’s governing body, which has pledged unspecified plans to take “firm action” against fans who boo drivers, and Verstappen himself who will boycott any future British season launch event — according to his father.

But the four-time F1 champion doesn’t appear to have asked: ‘Am I the villain?’

For a UK audience, familiar with the slapstick pantomime format and its reassuringly certain separation of goodies and baddies, the appearance of Verstappen on stage at the O2 brought an instinctive reaction: he couldn’t be a better panto villain if he was trying.

What better way to identify himself as a no-gooder than, when newly-crowned world champion, he refused to help team-mate Sergio Perez finish second in the title race over a petty dispute, six months before?

He cast Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director George Russell as the pantomime dame when he called him “Princess George” in 2023. That was in response to a small brush at Baku when the pair were fighting for position in the opening lap of the sprint race.

The incident wasn’t investigated by stewards but Verstappen was enraged and confronted Russell after the race, calling him a “dickhead”. “Expect next time the same,” he said, vowing to avenge the supposed slight.

Max Verstappen argues with George Russell at the end of the 2023 Azerbaijan GP sprint race

Verstappen accosts Russell in Baku, 2023

Bryn Lennon/F1 via Getty Images

Then, after having it all his own way in the best car on the grid for more than two years, he drove Lando Norris, his first serious title rival, off the track repeatedly during 2024. After being handed a hefty 20sec penalty for his actions, he effectively shrugged and excused his actions by saying that his car was too slow.

Before the end of the season, there was still time to reignite his clash with Russell after he was again penalised for impeding the Mercedes driver in practice ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix, costing him pole position.

That brought another hostile encounter outside the stewards’ room. “He said he was purposely going to go out of his way to crash into me and, quote, ‘put me on my f***ing head in the wall’,” alleged Russell.

From the archive

There are few angels in the tough world of F1, but Verstappen’s approach stands out. And if early indications are anything to go on, we could be seeing a lot more of his unforgiving, unsentimental side in 2025 as he fights for position in a car that appears to lag behind the leaders.

The most pertinent comparison would be professional football. F1 yearns to take its place as one of the world’s favourite sports, and has made a very good job in recent years of cultivating the type of fandom football inspires so well.

But football stadiums are also intense cauldrons of screaming, shouting, catcalls and more, all fuelled by fanaticism and aimed at the opposition – apart from outright abuse, the players largely shrug it off and move on to the next game. It’s all part of being in the gladiatorial arena. And F1’s champion can’t handle a few boos…

There’s plenty to admire in Verstappen’s single-minded determination to win. But it’s also easy to see why fans might be inclined to boo the world champion, especially at February’s launch in in Britain, birthplace of Norris, Russell and of course Lewis Hamilton whose rivalry with Verstappen in 2021 bitterly split fans — even before the farce of Abu Dhabi.

There’s an argument to say that becoming a Formula 1 world champion should merit a level of respect that would make booing them unimaginable.

But when the drivers are part of an entertainment event, the equation changes: heckling a comedian, groaning when a band plays their least-loved album, or booing a baddie on stage, doesn’t mean the audience doesn’t appreciate talent — they’re simply playing their part in the show.

Max Verstappen pushes Lando Norris off track at the start of the 2024 F1 US Grand Prix

Verstappen takes defending to the extreme against Lando Norris at last year’s US Grand Prix

David Buono/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

There’s also a different appreciation of what it means to become champion when the drivers are presented as personalities; the teams themselves whip up an almost religious-like fervour among their fans; and the risks are less obvious in much safer cars.

All of which Max Verstappen well knows given his vocal complaints about the F1’s drift from serious sport to entertainment product — a view some readers will sympathise with.

He refused to take part in a series of Drive to Survive in protest at its “fake” storylines and panned the Las Vegas Grand Prix as “99% show and 1% sporting event”.

Max Verstappen in front of Melbourne skyline ahead of 2025 F1 Australian Grand Prix

Verstappen has said little in press conferences ahead of the Australian Grand Prix

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Verstappen said he hoped he was ill ahead of the F1 75 launch so that he’d be able to miss the event, and his lack of enthusiasm for the way that grand prix racing is going is so pronounced that he was the butt of one of host Jack Whitehall’s opening jokes.

So in front of a modern F1 audience, after all the exaggerated villainy, Verstappen shouldn’t be surprised if some decide to boo.

His solution is to boycott future events, but F1 might be better served if he left the histrionics to the theatre.