Zak Brown says booing of Christian Horner and Max Verstappen ‘part of sport’

McLaren boss Zak Brown has defended the booing of rival boss Christian Horner and world champion Max Verstappen at Formula One’s season launch in London.

Both Red Bull team principal Horner and his driver, Verstappen, were subjected to jeers at the O2 Arena by the British crowd.

The FIA, F1’s governing body, who were also targeted with booing, moved to condemn the “tribalist” reaction, while standing up for Horner and Verstappen for “contributing greatly to the sport we love”.

However, speaking in Bahrain on the opening day of this week’s three-day F1 test, Brown said booing is part and parcel of elite sport.

“I’ve never been to a sporting event that’s been quiet, where someone’s not yelling at a football player for missing a goal, or in ice hockey or baseball,” he said.

“I didn’t hear anything in London that was other than cheering and booing. And I’ve certainly seen a lot worse on social media, where you go, ‘wait a minute, you’re kind of going a bit too far’.

“Cheering and booing has been part of sport, every sport, forever, and that’s what fans do. They yell at their TV when they’re watching with their buddies. Everyone has a favourite team, a favourite driver, a less favourite side.

“I didn’t think there was anything violent, and you see other sports that have had riots break out. It was far from that. It was fans doing what fans do, voicing their opinion on who they were cheering for or not.”

While a number of cheers drowned out the initial negative reaction to Verstappen’s face appearing on the big screen at the O2, Horner’s appearance on stage to introduce his Red Bull team was met largely by jeers.

Horner was accused by a female colleague of coercive behaviour last year, but was twice exonerated by the F1 team’s