Max Verstappen's 'British Boycott' is the driver learning from the mistakes of a former 4x F1 champion from Red Bull

Max Verstappen and Christian Horner were vociferously booed by the crowd at the F1 75 launch event, and it has led to a turn of events that wasn't expected. We've had the Dutch driver's father, Jos Verstappen, make it clear that the Red Bull is not going to a promotional event again if it is held in England.

In essence, Max Verstappen is exercising a 'British Boycott' of sorts where the driver doesn't want anything to do with the fans of that country. We've also had the FIA surprisingly intervene and release a statement, calling on the fans to be more respectful. Amongst all of this, there have been reactions on both sides. On one side, we've had fans backing Max Verstappen, claiming that nobody should be subject to boos and disrespectful behavior.

On the other hand, there are fans who have questioned if the Red Bull driver should be this affected by a group of fans booing him. The answer to this question lies in Max Verstappen learning from the past and not making the same mistakes that a former 4x world champion, Sebastian Vettel, did.

Max Verstappen is not the first Red Bull driver to go through this

If one has followed the sport long enough, they would know that Max Verstappen is not the first Red Bull driver who has faced the ire of the fans. His predecessor at the same team faced something similar and arguably much worse in the early 2010s.

When Red Bull started making its mark on F1, it did so with another young driver in Sebastian Vettel. The German joined the sport in 2007 and was already the youngest race winner by 2008. In 2009, he was promoted to senior, and from that point onwards, began the journey to the top.

In 2010, on an F1 grid with Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, and Jenson Button as champions/superstars, Vettel was the youngest of them all and was looked at as this talented driver who was more of a character off-track. It was thus to the surprise of quite a few when it was this young German who would sneak through and become the youngest F1 world champion.

While this was a feel-good story at first, Vettel grew from strength to strength in 2011 and started dominating the sport. A sport that was supposed to have Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso as their shining stars suddenly had this young driver beating them every weekend.

By 2013, the discontent had turned to hate. While Sebastian Vettel put together one of the most dominant seasons in F1 history, he was booed on the podium at every race he went. It almost became a feature of the German's podium celebrations and left a bad taste.

The 'villain' portrayal

While this was something that Sebastian Vettel never mentioned himself, Adrian Newey recently opened up and critiqued the F1 broadcast and the bias that's become a feature. According to the Red Bull man (at the time), Sky Sports had a nationalistic tilt to its broadcast, and both Sebastian and Max had been unfairly villainized by the media during their respective stints.

If you follow the coverage in F1 during the 2010s, which started with Red Bull domination but was subsequently followed by Mercedes doing the same, the contrast is evident. Vettel not following team orders in Malaysia in 2013 was a scandal, but Hamilton doing the same in Hungary in 2014 wasn't.

Vettel's driving standards being under the microscope in 2010 but Hamilton's multiple crashes in 2011 not being a topic of discussion was a major contrast. So was the fact that the German's success was put down to the car being built by Adrian Newey, while nothing of that sort was ever said about the Brit's success.

The same thing has followed through with Max Verstappen, who got the first taste of it in 2021 when he battled Lewis Hamilton. The Dutch driver's first lap moves on his title rivals were criticized and termed 'aggressive' during the broadcast. The problem was the contrast, however, as Hamilton had made a few of those same moves on Nico Rosberg a few years prior, and there was no pushback whatsoever.

For Max Verstappen, just like it was with Sebastian Vettel at the time, the unapologetic behavior for winning has ended up turning them into a villain in the eyes of quite a few fanbases. What happened during the F1 75 was just a result of that.

Max Verstappen has approached this differently compared to Sebastian Vettel

On a baseline level, it is either a case of Max Verstappen being a different personality or him learning from what Sebastian Vettel went through that the driver has approached it differently.

The German never pushed back against some of the underhand comments that were made about him by the British press. He continued to be gracious and gave them time even when some of the coverage was just not ideal. Even when it came to the fans booing him, the driver never really pushed back against that and just took it in his stride.

Max Verstappen, on his part, seems to have learned from this, or he's just not willing to take unfair attacks. If fans boo him during a race weekend, he doesn't mind because it is a part of the sport. However, if they boo him during a promotional event for the sport, then that's not acceptable according.

Similarly, the driver has made it clear that he's not going to take the underhand comments in the broadcast lying down. This was evident in 2022 when the entire Red Bull team exercised an embargo on Sky Sports for the comments made by F1 presenter Ted Kravitz.

Unlike Sebastian Vettel, who, despite being the face of the sport at the time, never flexed his muscles in front of the media and continued to stay humble, Max Verstappen is just not going to be disrespected. if the fans of a region are not going to be respectful then he isn't obliged to travel to that part of the world.

He knows he's the biggest name in the sport, and he knows the power that he has. Unlike Sebastian Vettel, he's not afraid to wield it and put everyone in their place. This is precisely why he's quite openly criticized the British broadcast and put them on the defensive. Even now he has quite bluntly made it clear that he would not tolerate anyone's disrespect.

Max Verstappen knows he's the biggest name in Formula 1 right now, and he is willing to yield the power that Sebastian Vettel arguably once had but never used.