As the dust settles from the F1 75 launch event at London’s O2 Arena, the echoes of booing targeted at Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner and Max Verstappen still reverberate. Guenther Steiner, the former technical operations director for Red Bull and ex-Haas F1 team boss, has voiced his perspective on the controversy, suggesting it’s more about fans hopping on a trend than expressing genuine negativity.
According to Steiner, the prominent boos that rang out as Red Bull unveiled their RB21 livery for the upcoming F1 2025 season were more in jest than a reflection of any real animosity. The crowd’s reaction, he argued, was just a part of a larger pattern in Formula 1, where it has become fashionable to boo Red Bull and Horner.
This sentiment was shared by Steiner during his appearance on the ‘unlapped’ podcast by ESPN. He maintained that there were no malicious intentions behind the crowd’s response. Instead, he suggested the booing was in good humor, emphasizing that every crowd has its mix of supporters and detractors.
“Jumping on the bandwagon” is how Steiner described the trend, hinting that the boos were more about group dynamics than any real criticism of the team.
Podcast host Nicole Briscoe pondered whether some of the backlash was due to Red Bull’s success and the drama that surrounded the team last year. It’s a well-known phenomenon in sports that fans can sometimes resist celebrating a team’s achievements. When asked if Red Bull had a right to feel aggrieved, Steiner had a clear answer.
Steiner firmly believes that Red Bull, as well as the FIA, Formula 1’s governing body, overreacted to the situation. The FIA had previously released a statement denouncing the booing, a move Steiner felt was unnecessary.
In the wake of the event, Max Verstappen’s father, Jos Verstappen, expressed his son’s decision to skip future events if held in England. This sentiment was reportedly acknowledged within Red Bull. The team was also reportedly dissatisfied with the event’s organisation, having expected a more diverse audience rather than a predominantly British one, especially following recent defeats against homegrown talents Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton.
Steiner, however, advised against taking the incident too seriously, calling it an “overreaction”. He pointed to the inherent passion of sports fans and described the booing as an expression of emotion rather than a harmful act. He further argued that such emotional displays are what make the sport exciting and engaging.
Steiner summed up his perspective on the issue by dismissing it as a ‘nothing burger’. According to him, the unfavorable reception was a fleeting moment, and the fan favourite could change in the blink of an eye, given the ever-changing dynamics of sports fandom. In conclusion, Steiner expressed the simple truth that not everyone can be universally loved, a reality that teams and athletes should accept and move on from.
