MAX VERSTAPPEN says it is a “shame” that Formula One crowds are starting to behave “like football fans”.
World champion Verstappen and big rival Lewis Hamilton have both been booed at races this season.
Max Verstappen (centre) and big rival Lewis Hamilton (left) agree F1 fans should stop booing drivers at races
Belgian-Dutch ace Verstappen was taunted at the British Grand Prix.
Dutch fans cheered when Hamilton crashed in qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s Verstappen and Mercedes’ Hamilton and their respective teams regularly aim barbed comments at the other side.
Their heated rivalry came to a head when Verstappen pipped Hamilton to the title in the final race of last season in hugely controversial circumstances.
But Verstappen says it is not acceptable for their tribal followers to vent their spleens in the stands at race meets.
He told Sport1: “Basically, I think it’s a shame that the fans react like football fans, who always boo the opponent.
“In the Netherlands they whistle Lewis, in England they do it to me.
“I think it’s a shame because we often have extremely tough, sporting fights.”
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Hamilton criticised the fans who cheered when he slid into the barriers during qualifying in Spielberg on Saturday.
The seven-time world champion told Eurosport: “It is mind-blowing that people would do that, knowing how dangerous our sport is.
“I am grateful I wasn’t in hospital and wasn’t injured.”
