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, which has led to an unexpected turn of events. Max's father, Jos Verstappen, has make it clear that the Red Bull driver 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, as he seemingly 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.

Amid all of this, there have been reactions on both sides. On one hand, 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.

But the bottomline might simply be that Max Verstappen is 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 something like this

Anyone who has followed the sport long enough would know that Max Verstappen is not the first Red Bull driver who has faced the ire of fans. His predecessor at the same team faced something 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, from where he began the journey to the top.

In 2010, on an F1 grid with champions/superstars Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher and Jenson Button, Vettel was 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.

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

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

The 'villain' portrayal

While this was something that Sebastian Vettel never mentioned himself, Adrian Newey recently opened up on the issue, criticizing the F1 broadcast and the bias that's supposedly 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 F1 coverage during the 2010s, which started with Red Bull domination but was 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 put under the microscope in 2010 but Hamilton's multiple crashes in 2011 not being a topic of discussion was another 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.

Hamilton, however, 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 for a few fanbases. What happened during the F1 75 was a result of just that.

Max Verstappen has approached this differently than Sebastian Vettel

Either because Max Verstappen is a different personality, or because he has learnt from what Sebastian Vettel went through, the Dutch driver has approached the issue 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. And when it came to the fans booing him, the driver never really pushed back; he just took it in his stride.

Max Verstappen, however, is not quite as willing to accept 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, that's not acceptable according to him.

Similarly, the driver has made it clear that he's not going to take any underhand comments during the broadcast lying down. This was evident in 2022, when the 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, Max Verstappen has indicated that he is 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 has 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 wield the power that Sebastian Vettel arguably once had but never used.