Domenicali unhappy at continued booing of Vettel

2013 Singapore Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali says he was unhappy to see Sebastian Vettel being booed again after his victory in the Singapore Grand Prix.

“We must recognise that our opponents have done a better job than we have and compliment them because in sport you have to accept when your opponent does better than you,” said Domenicali.

“That’s the same for the fans: I wasn’t happy to hear that Vettel was booed under the Singapore podium as well. The German driver was perfect and he was helped out by a car that was as quick as it was reliable: this should be acknowledged.”

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo previously criticised the behaviour of the crowd following the Italian Grand Prix, where Vettel was also booed.

Following yesterday’s race Vettel said much of the jeering seemed to come from Ferrari supporters: “Most of the fans are dressed in red, Ferrari has a very strong fan base for a reason: they have a lot of tradition in Formula One, they’ve been around longer and won, and they’ve been more successful than any other team.”

“There’s more and more blue people – more and more people dressed in blue so we are doing a good job on that front. But obviously they are quite emotional when they are not winning and if somebody else is winning, they don’t really like it.”

2013 Singapore Grand Prix

Browse all 2013 Singapore Grand Prix articles

Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

114 comments on “Domenicali unhappy at continued booing of Vettel”

  1. Domenicali protecting the future Ferrari driver.

    His ultimate motive is Seb – Kimi pairing.

    1. I totally agree. Its strange though…Domenicali should hire Newey, not Vettel.

      1. He’s tried to hire Newey several times, and I think offered more money than Red Bull are paying him. Its not worked as Newey has said he doesn’t want to move to Italy.

    2. Oh Kimi again…what will be the excuse when Alonso cleans the floor with him? Will Ferrari be sabotaging him again? It seems like a sport for them – remember, during that time that Massa beat him?

  2. “But obviously they are quite emotional when they are not winning and if somebody else is winning, they don’t really like it.”
    Not sure if he’s been reading on forums what people accuse him of, but touché!

    1. F1 should be PEGI 5 or at most PEGI 8 then :)

    2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      23rd September 2013, 17:45

      @mnmracer when the driver wears red, all is forgiven :P (booer logic?)

  3. @keithcollantine
    Do you know, has there actually been a pundit, (ex-)driver or team-boss who has condoned the booeing, or even found it acceptable? I can’t remember the last time the paddock seems to so universally support one opinion.

    1. @mnmracer As with most things, I’m more interested in the competitors themselves rather than the media. I think it says a lot that the two big names at Ferrari have criticised it and they should be praised for doing so. It’s very sporting of them and it sets an example that those doing the booing should learn to emulate.

      1. @mnmracer @keithcollantine if I beleive spanish tweets Antonio Lobato from Antena 3 Spain has done so

      2. @keithcollantine Well the media in my humble opinion has again blown something out proportion.
        Every time they ask another driver or team principal about it or try to over-analyze why it’s happening, only encourages those fans to keep booing.

        At the end of the day if it’s not affecting the way Vettel drives and it doesn’t bother him so why should it affect us? I’m tired that after every race, every F1 site has remind us of how much Vettel is hated, when in reality is nothing like that, I’m sure 99% of F1 fans respect him a lot but like I said the media keeps the story going and the booing keeps growing every race thanks to them.

        1. Either it’s the media making a fuss over nothing, or the media causing the booing. You can’t argue both at the same time.

      3. @keithcollantine I’m really starting to warm a lot more to Ferrari now: first we have them criticising the booing with Montezemolo, then signing Räikkönen (hats off to them for that especially), the again with Domenicalli re-iterating the message. Of course also we had Alonso picking up Webber (which was a nice move, even if it got him a reprimand?).

        Even though they are essentially the sworn enemies of Red Bull, I really of admire the sportsmanship they’ve been showing recently.

        1. Although that said, I’ve just seen the CCTV footage and that was pretty stupid from both of them, even though I doubt there was any malaicious intent.

          1. On the Alonso Webber incident, of course.

    2. I can totally see why people do it. People pay hundreds of pounds to watch a race, and get no entertainment at all.

      1. @danbrown180
        How is that a reason to boo at a driver who does a perfect race from start to finish? If someone goes to an F1 race expecting a guaranteed nail-biting race they don’t know F1.

        1. If you go see a movie and it turns out to be something you didn’t like, are you not allowed to tell people “eh I didn’t think it was that good of a movie”????

          1. I gotta say this, if you boo a movie when you are not happy how it turned out, maybe you should take a look at yourself pretty hard. Either way, formula 1 is a world class sport, and do not need people like you.

          2. But it’s completely different to seeing a film; an F1 race is a live, evolving entity, and you can already know what will happen in the film before you go to see it.
            At an F1 race however, there is only uncertainty as to the outcome; it’s not the drivers job to purposely make an exciting race; it’s their job to win.

          3. Who boos at a movie? haha

            Also, the is a very significant difference between booing a competitor in F1, which is bullying, and saying you didn’t like it.

          4. Then you should boo others teams as they are the ones not performing.

        2. @f1andy83 I didn’t say boo a movie, I said tell people it’s not that good of a movie, or give it “two thumbs down instead of two thumbs up”. That’s no different then booing, it’s showing displeasure in something.

          F1 doesn’t need people like me? No, F1 and the world doesn’t need people like you who vilify people for having an opinion that differs from yours because you have a fragile ego and have never had to compete for anything in your life. If you had ever been in a competition you know that Jeering, Cheering, Booing, that’s what makes a competition great, the people spending their hard earned money or their well deserved off-time to be able to voice their opinions on the competition they are seeing is what makes competition & sport great, and if you can’t see that then you are in fact the kind of sport the person doesn’t need.

          @xjr15jaaag Most people who see a movie don’t know what will happen in said movie before they go see it. What’s the point of spending insane movie ticket prices to go see something you already know the spoilers too?

          1. That’s a terrible analogy. If people were booing because of their displeasure with the “movie”, or the “F1 product”, or the “boring race”, then they’d boo every single person on the podium. Let’s drop this fiction that the boo-birds are just unhappy consumers voicing this displeasure with what they got for their money. It’s patently false.

            The other things is, there are various ways in which people can air their opinions without making an ass of themselves and imposing on others. Some people actually want to hear the questions being asked and the answers given during an interview. If I’m watching a movie and you stand up and start yelling “boo!” in the middle of it, I’m going to call management and get you ejected from the premises. And if you are honest with yourself, you’d do the same thing if I was booing a movie you were trying to watch.

            “Voicing ones opinion” is not a get-out-of-jail-free card entitling people to be rude, boorish, and obnoxious in public.

          2. Very well said.

          3. For a man that has been in a competitions it makes you quite a sore looser if you think that the race is interesting only if your driver wins.

  4. Wow, now the Tifosi are the F1 hooligans? I sense that as long the media keep pushing this thing about booing, it will get bigger and bigger.

    Anyway, I remember Alonso being booed by Tifosi in 2006:

    http://youtu.be/KgkvuTdb2J0

    I bet those same guys love Fernando nowadays.

    But, isn´t that a more deep question about the nature of F1? Maybe we are seeing a backlash of how F1 was designed by FIA, FOM, media and teams through the years.

    Those guys always pushed F1 to be a driver oriented sport, when in fact it should be a team oriented sport in all its levels.

    Ok, we have the Multi21 thing, but maybe what is happening is that those booing are, subconsciously, a protesting for what F1 people (including media) sold for them for years: a Drivers Championship.

    Vettel domination is a team efforts and should be perceived like that.

    So, for some who are condemning the audience, don´t blame the uneducated crowd for felling frustrated, but those ones who always manipulated the fans’ perception of the sport.

    As an aside, I´d like to remember Seb on the Autosport Awards telling some good and funny jokes and, I have to confess: it is hard not to like him, or not to think he is a great kid with a well liked character.

    So, I feel for him, mainly for him being the target of fans’ frustration towards F1 and for the incompetence of the teams that those fans support.

    1. Becken, you’ll see below similiar comments I make that you beat me to posting while I was typing.

    2. i don’t agree with fans booing drivers on podium, i always liked vettel’s character until i heard the comments he made about Bruno senna in brasil 12 and most recently after malaysia 13. Its hard to imagine public figures making such comments …. tell me which driver says others did not deserve the the win? … esp comment on senna is over the top IMO, no sane person will make such comments. Its hard to imagine such comments coming from likable or “good” guys. About Malaysia am not expecting him to apologize or anything, that is totally his wish, but words chosen are in bad taste.

      1. You treat Senna as a god/”special person”? If he would have made a comment about a random family it would have bothered no one. Senna is no more important than anyone else.

        Shows how unlogical the reasoning is.

      2. tell me which driver says others did not deserve the the win?

        Alonso spent much of last year claiming that he was racing Newey and not Vettel. Hamilton has spent most of the last few years saying the same thing. They ALL think that they deserve to win and that when their competitors win, it is undeserved. Welcome to F1.

        1. Rubbish. Their comments about the RBR cars implies nothing at all about their opinions of Vettel (or anyone else for that matter).

          1. That’s some deep denial.

          2. @jonsan – You keep telling yourself that, since you have such a low opinion of your fellow human.

      3. Discrediting your own post with your nick don’t you think? Not much to take away from that pile of crumbles.

    3. They are specifically booing at Vettel. It’s not at the FIA, it’s not at F1 in general.

      There is no excuse for it. Not stupidity, nor boredom.

      1. artificial racer
        24th September 2013, 17:22

        It is some sort of alliance between (primarily) Spanish Alonso fan hooligans, hardcore Tifosi, and a few HAM and WEB fans thrown in.

        I’ve never seen this level of disrespectful behavior in many years of F1. The TV pictures showed it clearly, Ferrari/ALO fans out of their minds and yelling their heads off.

        Well passion is good I guess, but not when it’s mindlessly aggressive. And ALO should not encourage it.

        1. Yes, its all Alonso’s fault. His jedi mind tricks are forcing them to boo Vettel.

  5. I really like Domenicali, he’s such a cool dude. He gets a lot of complaints because the way things have been in Ferrari the last couple of years, but I think it’s unfair. The team has done a very good job, even if they hadn’t won the titles.

    1. I think he’s a cool dude aswell, his very open to the media, and speaks a lot… The problem is that I think that he isn’t the best manager…

      1. he isn’t the best manager…

        I read this a lot, how do we actually know this?

        1. He has the biggest budget and is always 2nd with arguably the best driver on the grid. Whereas Red-Bull is consistently 1st, ergo they have the best manager.

  6. Formula 1 markets itself as a show and now it’s not delivering. It’s gone after the big giant money by pandering to fairweather audiences. Now it’s getting what it asked for. And pretty much all the major players in F1 carry a part of the blame. Now they’re getting indignant about the predictable effects? Please.

      1. @maciek Very well said. F1’s gadgets that have watered down the racing and passes for the dedicated long-time fans, have also not delivered on their promise to prevent processional races and a runaway season.

    1. @maciek the problem is the fans are not getting mad at the “show” or the other teams that are not delivering the show. What do you want from RBR and Vettel to said: “Hey we are too far ahead, lets no go to some races to let Ferrari, and other teams cacht up”.

      Is not on RBR or Vettel to give a show if the other teams were doing things as competent as they are we will have a close fight.

      1. @celeste I don’t see where @maciek is saying any onus is on RBR as you are suggesting. I would suggest that most of the booers ARE mad at the show and disappointed that their guy isn’t winning and that only SV is lately. I would suggest that most of the booers fully understand that SV/RBR isn’t doing anything wrong, in fact are doing things so right that their guy no longer stands a chance. And this at a time when we have had such tire strife, and still have phony DRS passing, that were supposed to keep someone from running away with the show. I think the most important question F1 needs to ask itself is why this year…why now are people booing to the point of team principals speaking out against it?

      2. @celeste That is entirely sensible, rational and fair-minded. But it’s also entirely beside the point here. I’m not trying to find a justification for the booing, I’m just reflecting on where I think it comes from and I put the blame – indirectly, but pretty squarely – on the culture of blind ‘growth’ that today’s F1 is built on. All I’m saying is: you go after the shallow money, you go after customers rather than fans, you get what you asked for. Now the customers aren’t getting what they were promised and they’re not happy. I don’t blame them. They’re not the ones pretending to be something they’re not. Formula 1 is, though – it’s pretending to be a show that is accessible and exciting for anyone and everyone. And that is just simply not true. But lots of people in F1 from the top to the drivers are spending lots of time trying to make as if it was. But now the jig is just about up, because in trying to sell F1 to everyone, they’ve managed to water down the sport and fail at delivering suspense, so even die-hard fans are getting tired of the artificiality and there’s not nearly enough real excitement to keep the new audiences happy.

        1. Given that the booing is specifically aimed at Vettel, I’m not sure you can come to this conclusion. I think you are manipulating the situation to fit your ideas, rather than forming your ideas from what you see.

    2. Well said.

      I’m very close to calling time on F1. Each year it seems to be more about showbiz and less about racing. Marketing and sponsorship have long been central to F1 but it seems to be total now – the “commercial concerns” seem to govern the sport. But perhaps worst of all is how saccharine F1 has become as a result of the corporate dominance: no team or driver can say anything in the slightest bit controversial (on racing in Bahrain, for instance); F1 has become a sport of boys, not men (if only there were some women on the grid!).

      MotoGP, on the other hand, is almost always blisteringly exciting.

  7. I have a different take on this that seems to be in the minority.

    Firstly, SV seems to have the right attitude about the booing and it is the same one that Nascar drivers have taken all along since booing is very prevalent there…paraphrasing…’they’re not booing me in a personal way, they’re just passionate about what we do, thank goodness, and they don’t like seeing their favourite driver beaten.’ So if SV is fine with the booing, I ask why everyone is getting this bent out of shape over it.

    Secondly, I’ve seen people yesterday and today on this site ask for better manners and better sportsmanship from the booing audience, yet on the track where it counts some would say that SV ignoring team orders was bad manners and poor sportsmanship. Most thought that was the sign of a true Champion, except for the MW supporters I’m guessing. So a driver can do whatever he wants on the track where it counts and it is honoured, but an audience member needs to be sterilized from emotion? Or some might say no, the audience member needs a lesson in how to show class, or dignity, or manners. Some would argue that is not what SV did when he ignored team orders.

    But I think thirdly, and most importantly, we should be asking why this booing seems to be more an issue this year, mostly from the last few races. I suggest that the audience has witnessed a season where tires were a massive issue, and DRS still exists, that were supposed to both shake up the field, shake up the races, and yet instead, for all the gadgets and the tire controversy that most people seem to think degrades F1, we still have a runaway WDC. And it’s the same one as the last 3 years. I think if F1 wants to get rid of the booing, it needs to look at itself in the mirror and as why this is suddenly an issue. Perhaps next year’s radical changes will change things up, but for now I would say, for what amounts to a pretty processional race yesterday, they might as well get rid of the gadgets, and imho largely curtail downforce, and let’s get back to driver vs. driver seat of the pants racing and then maybe all the drivers will have all the audiences respect and admiration in a truly tight series of races and a Championship coming down to the last race with 3 drivers in the running. Maybe the booing says as much about the state of F1 as it does about animosity toward one driver who actually ‘gets’ the booing.

    1. Some would argue that is not what SV did when he ignored team orders.

      Bad example, because team orders are exactly the contrary of sportmanship. They’re widely hated. That’s why Webber has been widely celebrated when he has disobeyed them. This one in particular that, Vettle having won two championships by less than 7 points, could have costed him the title in the end. It was both the logical and best suited (from the sport point of view) option to disobey them.

      You’re comparing apples to oranges here.

      1. Team orders may in your opinion be widely hated, but many people around here seem to defend them just fine when they favour their favourite driver. Many people around here think it is quite natural that RBR is SV’s team, Ferrari is FA’s, even that Mercedes is LH’s already.

        No I think it would depend on the circumstances. You are saying that MW was popular for ignoring team orders (but not by SV fans I’m sure), but I would argue that is because he is the perceived underdog on the team, so he is ‘sticking it to the man’ or ‘standing up for himself’ by ignoring a team order on a team that is perceived to be SV’s. SV ignored a team order in the first race of this season with everything yet to play for on a team that is perceived to be ‘his’ to begin with.

        As I recall, on the podium after that first race, which SV won having ignored a team order, he looked sheepish, and I’m guessing it was because the audience, no doubt carrying the same potential for booers as these more recent races, didn’t quite know what to do with that…it was an uncomfortable win for SV because he really stuck it to MW with all the math to play for yet, and it made for tons of talk on this site. We all saw MW after that race and if looks could kill…Eventually the heat of the moment passed, the team decided that there was nothing they could do about SV ignoring team orders, and it passed on by. SV said he would do it again, it was about the WDC, and he’s been applauded for letting nothing stand in his way. But at first blush, in the heat of the moment and given the circumstances, SV was not applauded.

    2. @robbie You sure you are not saying that booing occurs because Vettel is winning? Rules next year don’t change tires or DRS it makes them more powerful than ever. Processional racing is normal for a street circuit and till the not so distant past it would have been deemed quite eventful.
      You sure Vettel was not told that he will get Webber by the end in Malaysia and the team changed view toward the end?
      Finally, I hate booing hate that noise. The silver lining is that it may lead to removal of podium interviews which I mostly dislike :)

      1. You sure you are not saying that booing occurs because Vettel is winning?

        Yes that is part of it. But he was last year too. And the year before. Did we have this discussion about booing SV then? Did team principals feel the need to speak on this issue when SV was winning his WDC’s the 3 previous years?

        Rules next year don’t change tires or DRS it makes them more powerful than ever

        Don’t know what you mean by this, but my point is that for this year the problematic tires and the DRS that the majority thinks doesn’t belong in F1, have not actually done anything positive for F1, imho and many others, and so when SV is running away with it I think it is reasonable for the audience to ask why then do we need the gadgets that seem to be taken overwhelmingly as a negative for F1.

        Processional racing is normal for a street circuit

        And yet processional races have occured at more than just street circuits this season in spite of the gadgets that were put there to prevent that. So perhaps F1 needs to look at why this year SV is being booed. You are trying to debate my points which is fine and is why forums exist, but that doesn’t change the fact that SV is being booed and it has become something that team principals and Brundle on the podium feel the need to speak out about. We need to be asking why it is happening this year.

        1. Maybe casual fans achieved critical mass? :D

          DRS flap will have larger space for movement. The tyre supplier will be more powerful than ever with ability to alter tyres as it sees fit during the season.

          I was being nice when I said “street” in particular – F1 always has had processional racing. People don’t understand that F1 is a engineering sport and as such everything is quantified and measured. Qualifying just prepares people for what is about to come. Of course we don’t live in a perfect world so there is significant “random factor” which could shuffle the end results and it often does. The rain used to be the biggest main ingridient IMO but now we have black box tyres doing it every weekend.

          1. *weather and reliability used to be the biggest/main*
            (reliability still seems to be a factor for RBR at least)

  8. Biggest kudos to Brundle who actually while on the podium admonished (albeit gently) the booing crowd.

    1. I’d just like to say something in response to that…
      I’m not excusing the booing necessarily, but it sounded to me like Vettel received polite applause when he was announced as the winner. The booing was in response to Brundle pointing out the fact that he now had a 60 point lead in the championship.

  9. Boyish appearance
    Boyish manner and approach
    Perception that his achievements are not an accurate representation of his ability compared to RAI/ALO/HAM etc
    Petulant behaviour on the rare occasions things don’t go his way.

    It all adds up to a not very popular driver and as fans see the sport heading into possibly a long WRC-esque period of one man domination they want to make their feelings known.

    I don’t like the booing but I also think giving people orders on how they should express their feelings about a flipping car race is a load of right wing authoritarian nonsense.

    1. I don’t like the booing but I also think giving people orders on how they should express their feelings about a flipping car race is a load of right wing authoritarian nonsense.

      Asking for basic manners and sportmanship doesn’t equal “giving people orders on how they should express their feelings” nor is, in any shape or form, remotely close to “a load of right wing authoritarian nonsense”.

      Careful with the slippery slope and lack of context there.

      1. Asking for basic manners and sportmanship

        Is that what SV displayed when he blatantly ignored the team order in the first race and stuck it to MW? At first blush he looked sheepish on the podium and like he had egg on his face, and MW’s look was one that could kill. I seem to recall a ‘hush’ in the audience. They didn’t quite know what to do with this kind of a win. Others knew right away, or decided after the heat of the moment, that they liked what SV did because it showed true WDC spirit and that he was going to let nothing stand in his way by thumbing his nose at MW, and the team, and orders.

        Some audience members have let nothing stand in their way by thumbing their nose at SV, but that doesn’t affect the points standings. It’s ok for SV to teach us that nothing will stand in his way, starting from race 1, yet the audience that doesn’t affect the points standings doesn’t dare show an emotion, or support for other drivers, unless they do it quietly or respectfully? To my thinking SV started off the season speaking very loudly and disrespectfully to MW on the track…is it really that big a deal if the audience speaks back a little now, and probably as much to F1 and it’s current state as to SV?

        1. I already explained to you a couple of posts above why I don’t think Vettel’s action were unsportsmanlike. And even if they were, that doesn’t excuse the behavior of the public. Two wrongs doesn’t make a right, so it’s a moot point.

          And no one has said it’s a big deal, it’s just not a nice thing to see.

          1. Fair enough…you don’t think SV’s actions were unsportsmanlike, but I think some did. And it might have set the tone for them starting with race 1.

            Just to be clear I’m not a big fan of the booing either…have never been one to do that…so I agree it’s not a nice thing, but I think it has become a bigger deal than it needs to be when team principals feel the need to speak out about it, as did Brundle on the podium yesterday. And that’s fine too. It’s there opinion. I just think we should keep in mind that there’s a few positives to be had out of it. Firstly it shows that there are some passionate people out there, and secondly it should raise questions to F1 as to why they are booing, seemingly moreso this year than previous times SV has dominated.

            I do know this…the booers feel the way they do, and telling them it’s not nice likely won’t change the reasons why they do it.

          2. Also something to consider is that the podium interviews are a recent thing. So the reasons for the booing may not necessarily have to do with something Vettel did this year, or with the current state of F1. Maybe it’s just something that some F1 fans would have always done given the chance (I mean, there’s a 2006 video of fans heavily booing Alonso, and I doubt it was an isolated case).

            And I agree that this may be becoming a bigger deal than it actually is, but I assume it’s because the F1 is simply not used to it. We’ll get used to it, get over it, or maybe go back to interviews in the tv set. Which wouldn’t bother me, I was never a fan of podium interviews.

          3. It really is not a big deal, or any deal at all. I don’t think that anything needs to “excuse the behavior” of the public when all they are doing is shouting some boos to a guy who’s finished his race already. In sports around the world, fans always get upset when one person/team seems to be doing all of the winning. Who cares?

            I don’t recall so many voices chiming in from the paddock when these incidents were occurring:

        2. Is that what SV displayed when he blatantly ignored the team order in the first race and stuck it to MW?

          You crack me up. if you cared so much about sportsmanship and if you regarded obeying team orders as being integral to it, you’d roast Webber on a regular basis for ignoring team orders. But you don’t, suggesting that the things you say you care about and the things you actually care about have a partial intersection at best.

          I won’t even get into what F1 fans who cared passionately about sportsmanship should think and say about Alonso.

    2. Some so-called fans live in a weird reality.

  10. Apparently they are booing because they believe RBR where handed the advantage with the tyre changes. They were not booing at RBR or Vettle, but instead at what they believe to be a farce.

  11. Has anyone actually asked a member of the crowd why they’re booing? I haven’t seen a single journalist, commentator, paddock dweller, or blogger actually attempt to find out. So far the reasons posited have been:

    “Fair weather fans”
    “Bored of vettel domination”
    “Tifosi madmen”
    “irrational hatred”
    “don’t understand the sport”
    “knuckle draggers”
    “failing to react to red bull domination in the same way that I choose to”

    Doesn’t seem that complicated to take one of the many useless hacks infesting the paddock and get them to ask, mid boo, why.

    1. Any journalist who goes against the grain loses their paddock pass :P

    2. @hairs Asking for something you already know is redundant. What other reason could there be? A dislike for blond hair? The fact that Vettel looks somewhat similar to an overrated pro wrestling? I can’t think of any reason besides the one you named, if you can please enlighten me.

      1. @klon I named several. But some of them don’t make sense, such as the “dominating the sport” one. If that was the case, why didn’t they boo him in 2011? Or Schumacher in 2004?

        I hear a lot of assuming but not a lot of thinking when it comes to this booing.

  12. I wanna be the one telling the tifosi in the fall of 2015 that Seb will wear red in 2016 :)

    1. that would be quite interesting

      1. Is it the Tifosi? Sorry I didn’t that the memo that nasty Tifosi for the evil booing. If that was the case why would Vettel want to join?

        1. *sorry, re-worded

          Is it the Tifosi? Sorry I didn’t that the memo that it was the nasty Tifosi responsible for the evil booing. If that was the case why would Vettel want to join?

  13. Not that I want to make this discussion even difficult then it is but I have seen some YouTube videos of the booing and it wasn’t only people in red doing the booing but also McLaren fans and even some people with Lotus shirts. If memory serves me correct a lot of fans at the British grand prix did exactly the same… correct me if I’m wrong there. It is being done by fans from diffrent teams/drivers, I don’t like how some are only pointing at the Ferrari fans. I just wanted to clear that falsehood.

    I can’t figure this out, why on earth can’t some people on this earth not recognise their team was beaten on track fair and square and accept it. I mean I’m a Ferrari supporter but I also try to support the whole grid. At the British grand prix I was shouting at the TV when Hamilton tyre blew up. I really was impressed how he had achieved that Pole position and really wanted him to win. I’m pretty sure a lot of people here have the same opinion. This doesn’t mean however that I don’t criticise other teams or drivers though. But booing someone? No way, I going to call it for what it is: coarse and vile.

    The FIA and FOM need to take a stand on this because it also bad advertising for F1 and definitely not good commercially. It turns people of the sport. If it happens at next race the ceremony will be suspended until the crowd stops or it will be done at the back of the paddock. I know it is harsh but this silliness need to stop now or it will infect more idiots.

    1. I understand your sentiment, but I can’t think of a way FIA and FOM could ‘take a stand’ and I really doubt a minority group of booers are harming F1 commercially and turning people off the sport, nor that booing is infectious. I think most sports fans are well accustomed to two teams at a venue, one of them being the home team, the other one being the team that gets booed. Would the governing bodies of baseball, football, soccer, basketball, rugby, cricket, etc etc ever even consider trying to curtail booers? No…it just comes with the territory.

      Instead FIA and FOM should look at their product and ask why the booing this year. Perhaps some have hit the nail on the head and that it is a product of having podium interviews rather than shuffling the drivers into a seperate interview room away from the public. But that doesn’t prevent anyone booing once the checkered flag comes out and the top 3 drivers park their cars for the closing ceremony.

      But booing someone?

      As others have suggested, maybe only some of the minority group of booers were actually booing SV. But I’m sure some were booing RBR, or the product of F1 these days, or the fact that their guy is looking to not have a shot at the WDC this year, or maybe that it wasn’t that exciting a race and someone made a cakewalk of it. I wouldn’t assume it is a personal attack on SV. He certainly doesn’t.

      If it happens at next race the ceremony will be suspended until the crowd stops or it will be done at the back of the paddock.

      I think treating the whole crowd like they are children because of the actions of a few would be worse and would truly be a turnoff and show the booers that their actions had an effect.

  14. I don’t think the booing this year is entirely personal, I think it’s frustration that Red Bull and Vettel are so good and that other teams are failing, when at the start of the last two seasons it looked like the other teams might take the championships.

    In 2012, McLaren had the quickest car and championship worthy drivers, Lotus were quick and Alonso was having a season most drivers dream of. Red Bull also look off the pace at times and Vettel a little unsettled sometimes also. Anti-climax – McLaren are terrible, Lotus not quick enough, Red Bull and Vettel make gains and drive brilliantly. Alonso takes it to the wire, but Vettel still (deservedly) wins.

    2013, Mercedes arguably quickest, Lotus win first race, Ferrari quick again. Anti-climax – Fernando not on 2012 form at the early stages, Ferrari up and down, McLaren nowhere, Lotus up and down, Mercedes do not take advantage of early pace because of tyre-shredding. Vettel on supreme form and Red Bull miles ahead one again.

    The booing is inappropriate, but when seasons start off looking like thrillers and when Red Bull look like they might topple, they don’t. Which is hugely disappointing for the fans of other drivers

  15. I would really like to see Alonso reacting on the podium. That would be real sportsmanship.
    I don’t think he has it in him, though.

    1. Reacting to what?

      1. When Vettel was giving his onstage interview and the crowd started booing him Alonso tried to cheer up the atmosphere by waving to the crowd… and the booing stopped.

    2. Exactly when watching the booing again you can see him urging the crowd on which is in poor taste.

  16. Perhaps if Sebastian learned a word called humilty he might not get booed. The ‘mulit-21″ from malyasia is still in everybodys memory. I am quite frankly sick of RBR domination. F1 racing is beoming dull & boring of you are hoping your driver/tea, can compete for the race win. I fell asleep watching the race yesterday & Kimi came from 13th to finish on the podium. I don’t wear Ferrari red this year but I will next season. There might possibly be an F1 race in New Jersey afterall but if it is going t be another vettel show why should I waste my money going to see a race for 2nd place? Answer is I won’t.

    1. Perhaps if Sebastian learned a word called humilty he might not get booed.

      Because Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Schumacher, Senna, Prost, etc were the prime examples of humble human beings, right?

      1. I must say, SV is one of the most humble WDCs ever. In comparison to these others. By that I mean he is very self confident, without being arrogant.

    2. Every time Vettel wins, you know who he thanks? The team. If that isn’t a sign of humility, what is?

    3. You sound like a brand new football fan complaining that the same few teams finish on top of the league every year and that the games often finish one-nil when you want them to finish five-four. The solution is not to change the sport to suit you, it’s for you to learn to appreciate the sport for what it is.

      F1 racing is beoming dull & boring (if) you are hoping your driver/team, can compete for the race win.

      If that’s the only reason you follow F1, you are certain to be bored a lot of the time.

  17. People love winners, but honorable winners. That’s why Schumacher was booed several times as well. He crossed the line too many times (Crashing Villeneuve in ’97, or parking his Ferrari in Monaco ’06, etc etc) I don’t think there is any problem with Vettel’s domination, however, Malaysia will haunt him for a while. His attitude after the Malaysian race isn’t helping either. At first, he admitted his mistake, and I think most people were willing to let it pass. Unfortunately, he later reversed his apologies, and the booing became the norm.

  18. I think my english language is missing something here…Why is he talking about blue people ?

    1. The Red Bull shirts and merchandise is blue, so Blue People = Red Bull fans.

      1. Thanks ….I was thinking blue Ferrari fans :-)

    2. Lol he was just saying that Ferrari, as one example, has a huge following and a rich history in F1, so you see a lot of people wearing red in the crowds at F1 races. ‘Blue’ people would be ones wearing RBR clothing and his point was that it is their job to get more and more people behind them, supporting them, like Ferrari have been able to do over the years, so he’d like to see more ‘blue’ in the crowd. I suppose his implication was that it was mostly Ferrari/FA fans that were booing.

  19. Booing means the fans of other teams are displeased with the result as fans of other teams should be if their team doesn’t preform. It DOES NOT mean that they hate the driver/team they are booing or that they want to see him die in a slow firey death while his family is inches away unable to help, which is what it seems most people crying about the booing think it means.

    As much as those boos are showing displeasure towards the other team they are also showing displeasure towards their team as well for not preforming well enough and it should also be seen as a motivating factor for their team.

    1. What kind of backwards reasoning is that? Boo your own team then…
      Not that it makes you anything less of a poor sport, but at least that would be reasoning.

  20. I am quite disappointed on the amount of ignorant people who are part of this web site. I know everyone is entitled to their own opinions and etc… but I always held the people who belonged here to a higher standard, at least higher than supporting such a ignorant, and low class thing like booing. Again, disappointed, but not surprised, society is less polite, and increasingly more uneducated, resorting to bulling people they do not like. It is quite a disappointment that so many of you support such an action, and I do hope you will never get bullied in your life, but if you do you will realize how this kind of behavior is unbecoming of a well educated and polite human being.

    1. How is booing (aka showing displeasure/disapproval in something) bullying? If that is bullying then your post where you show displeasure/disapproval of what other people is doing is also bullying. Also I would reckon to say that your blanket generalization and characterization of people who boo or support booing is rather bullying in itself so therefore you would be nothing but a big fat hypocrite.

    2. I don’t hear anyone around here supporting or promoting booing…they seem to just be either against it, or pointing out that it is not that big a deal. I really don’t think anyone is equating it to bullying, and certainly SV would be the most affected if this was bullying and yet there is no indication that he takes it that way. My goodness if booing is bullying then most professional sports must be quite unhealthy for quite a few millions if not billions of fans globally.

      If you want to go down this road, let’s debate how much positive support SV got in Malaysia for ignoring the team order to remain behind MW. Could that not be considered a bullying tactic toward MW? Or at least unbecoming of an employee given an order by his superiors? Some drivers cut other drivers off on purpose, and some drivers give the finger or the fist to said drivers like that is going to do something. I always found MS to be the biggest bully ever in F1, and he was doing it using his car as a weapon at speed and could have killed someone. In other words I have found the behaviour of some drivers at some times far far more unbecoming, as highly paid professionals doing a dangerous thing, than a relative few fans who verbally don’t live up to your standards. Why I am surprised at the attention this booing is getting is that I thought everyone knew that in a large crowd you are never going to have 100% of them being ‘well educated and polite’, and even the ones who are, are human, and can have their weak moments when in the heat of the moment the education and the politeness goes out the window to make way for emotion. Sometimes it’s just a crowd mentality type of thing. Strength in numbers whereas individually those people wouldn’t have said a thing. Millions upon millions of highly educated and polite people have stupidly smoked their way into lung cancer and a premature death. That’s humanity for you.

      1. If you want to go down this road, let’s debate how much positive support SV got in Malaysia for ignoring the team order to remain behind MW.

        You really need to get off this hobby-horse, because both your facts and your reasoning are faulty. SV did not receive “positive support” from RB for “ignoring the team orders”. SV got a lot more grief for it from RB than Webber ever did on the numerous occasions he ignored team orders.

        Could that not be considered a bullying tactic toward MW?

        Only if you think what Webber did to Vettel in Brazil was a “bullying tactic” as well, and you clearly don’t.

        Sometimes it’s just a crowd mentality type of thing.

        You could justify people calling drivers racist names (or doing much worse) with that sort of logic.

  21. As wise man once said “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
    (pun intended)

  22. Every great show needs a Villain.

    1. @prof-kirk I think that’s a cliche which isn’t necessarily true. Besides which Vettel has many supporters and isn’t a “villain” to everyone.

  23. In order to stop the booing the FIA should mandate that all winners who are:
    a) blond. b) German. c) called Seb
    Must be issued with and must immediately put on, a pair of thick sheepskin mittens. ;-)

  24. I still don’t get all the fuss about booing either. It so commonplace in a baseball, one of the most mundane spectator sports on the planet.
    There are so many worse things that fans can do.

    I love Brundle and I also have huge respect for Vettel, but you know what? If I’m at Austin and he dominates it, I might just boo for a bit.

    1. If your nick really does point to your allegiances, you ought to be having a Vettel shrine, taking a daily bow of honour in front of his statue, for what he did at Monza 2008 was as big as anything a Minardi fan could have ever hoped for.

  25. I really don´t care about the booing but I feel that even if SV was wearing a red suit, we would not get booed but he would still get no claps or cheers. It´s not the team that gets most people, it´s him. Simple as that. I can´t explain but that is what I feel.

    1. I disagree, if he was performing like this for Ferrari he would be treated like a God, like Alonso is. Vettel essentially drives for a drinks company that has no motoracing history or romance. They are using F1 to boost their brand.
      It will take a generation before they can dream of the support that the likes of Ferrari or McLaren get.

  26. I think the booing is ridiculous and very childish, however, Vettel needs to be told from his own team how unsportsman-like he has become and although winning races is what he’s paid for, he should do it in such a way as not to cheat or disregard the rules, (especially from his own team!). Bad language has also been an issue with him. His actions and comments affect the sport and therefore if he brings the sport into disrepute then he should be reprimanded/fined/etc, like any other sports person. It seems to work in football why not F1?

  27. I was at the british GP and stood up and cheered when Vettel had a DNF. Why? because it made the race and championship more interesting at the time. But no point in booing the guy.

    However since then, you can only really admire the utter dominance of the Guy, 35 seconds gap in the last race is unreal, imagine the gap if there wasnt a safety car.

    If i’m disapointed in anything its that. I want to see competitive racing, and if Vettel wins a battle then so be it.

    So its over to the other teams to pull the finger out for 2014 and give us a competitive and exciting championship.

  28. Don’t you think it could be because the lack of fidelity for RBR? I mean, if you witness an historic team winning like Williams or McLaren (which by now is a constructor as well) did through the ’80s and ’90s you are more in the mood to cheer. When Mercedes or Renault (and to a lesser extent Ferrari) wins, everyone owning a car of their brands will walk three feet off the ground for the rest of the week. What we are seeing for the fouth year in a row right now, is basically a big can with four wheels attached on it, not the kind of F1 team I’d imagine to cheer for…

  29. The boos actually started in Melbourne – the first race of the season. Seb came in third behind Kimi and Alonso and he got booed on the podium. This was BEFORE Multi-21 and I think the crowd booed simply because he had been outperforming their home hero for the past 4 years. Simply a case of sour grapes and the boos carried on from there.

Comments are closed.