On the surface, the atmosphere at the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix looked incredible. A lot of the stands had fans wearing orange, in support of Dutch driver Max Verstappen and lighting orange smoke. If you stopped reading right now, you would think that the Red Bull Ring was the place to be.
Instead, the weekend was dominated with accusations of horrible fan behavior. On Sunday, a number of teams invited fans who revealed they were abused to watch the race in their garage. This included a Lewis Hamilton fan who had her dress lifted by drunk fans for being a Hamilton fan. The fan revealed that she was told that “she didn’t deserve respect because she was a Hamilton fan.”
This Twitter thread compiled posts of people either observing others, or they themselves, being catcalled, sexually harassed and being inappropriately touched; people shouting racial and homophobic slurs and Hamilton fans being mistreated for wearing his gear. And apparently this isn’t just a 2022 thing as there have been reports of this kind of behavior at the Red Bull Ring for years.
Fans also cheered when Hamilton crashed in qualifying. That was something Hamilton was critical of, not necessarily because it was directed at him, but that fans were cheering a crash before knowing whether or not he was seriously injured. Fans at last year’s British Grand Prix also cheered when Verstappen and Hamilton tangled on the first lap, sending Max into the barriers and out of the race while Hamilton won despite having a 10 second penalty. Verstappen was taken to the hospital for precautionary checks. That being said, two wrongs don’t make a right. Just because one set of fans are being horrible, doesn’t mean another set of fans have permission to act similarly.
Multiple drivers, including Verstappen, criticized the behavior of the fans in Austria. Sebastian Vettel called for zero-tolerance and instill “lifetime bans” on inappropriate fans while Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff went further by telling those fans, “We don’t want you. If you’re part of that group, f*** off.”
Everyone knows that fans help fuel their respective sport and that without the fans, the athletes wouldn’t be making big bucks doing something they love. That doesn’t mean fans should be immune to deserved criticism. Obviously, and I feel this is said every time someone criticizes the fans, it’s a very small percentage of the fanbase who’s like this and that’s true to an extent. But while this is a small portion of the fanbase, it’s a big enough group that’s growing, regardless of the sport. They make the sport they love look bad and they make the driver they love look bad by association.
As an F1 fan for nearly 30 years, it’s something I’m completely sick of. And those who react by playing the “whataboutism” game can also go ahead and take Toto Wolff’s advice. The sport will survive without you.
[RaceFans]
