We get people telling us how wrong it is, how disgusting it is, how we should all just cheer them because they are fantastical athletes... And most people seem to think it is generally just Ferrari fans (purely because it happened at Monza which is very much Ferrari territory.)
In some ways I agree, but being on the outside of all this for a while now (how long ago was it since I watched a race?) and also being within a fandom where I grew up learning to boo at "bad" guys which morphed into "people I dislike" later in life I still have my unique view on it all.
Now I agree we should all respect every driver no matter where they come in a race. What they do is incredibly difficult and respect should be there from the moment they step in a car.
That is pretty much the point I stop agreeing.
As I've said before in my blog on fans booing I feel differently about booing for a number of reasons.
I am happy for people to boo Fernando Alonso, go ahead and boo him all you want. What I take great pains seeing online is people who TAG HIM ON TWITTER just to tell him how much of a "greasy Spanish git" he is or how he's a "Cheater who doesn't deserve to win".... And both of these came from a friend of mine I follow who just so happens to be a Vettel fan AND HATES THAT FANS BOO HIM.
Really?
REALLY?!
So it is less acceptable for me to boo someone then it is for you to personally send nasty messages to a driver? Because when you tag them on twitter that is what you are doing, sending them personally that message. Yeah they might never read it or they might be grown up enough (like Seb is) to ignore fans and their stupid ways but you are still personally sending a piece of hate towards a driver who according to you "deserves respect".
I dislike Seb and I poke fun a little when he loses just like Hamilton. Its part of being a fan. I make jokes like the rest of us so I'm not hypocritical enough to damn people who just boo. So what they are booing? What is that really going to do other than show a racer he's unpopular? I'm guessing Seb can tell he's got as many critics as he has fans. It is NO DIFFERENT to sending Alonso hate mail because he's evil or whatever. Get off your high horse and come back to reality.
Lets face it people are annoyed with Seb for the same reasons people are annoyed with Alonso, they are champions, they take the number 1 spot in a team and they are brutal. It just so happens both of them have widely popular second drivers. Personally I prefer Webbers approach to it then Massa's though I also prefer Alonso to Vettel. But I don't let that cloud my judgement of any of the four of them, they all deserve respect and I'd never tag Massa in a twitter post telling him he's weak willed, a loser and should stop sniveling and get over himself (just so you know I don't even think that I am just using it as an example.)
Of course that is a rant about one type of fan. Some people are reading that thinking "what the hell does that have to do with anything? It doesn't excuse booing and those fans are just as bad as booing fans!" And of course in some ways you are right. That was just one thing that annoyed me (recently, especially as I don't want to upset my friends who do this quite regularly and I feel like banging my head against the nearest wall) so I'll explain it now in a different way...
As I said above and in the other blog I grew up a little differently. This is where I'll lose a lot of you because you'll sit there and tell me that wrestling isn't real it is just a show but I'm still using it as an example.
I grew up watching wrestling as well as racing. Many wrestlers get booed just for being them (look at many "foreign" wrestlers they get booed purely for not being American even if they are good guys!)
I went to TNA last year and Garret Bischoff who at the time was a good guy was being booed louder than any bad guy purely because no one liked him. Tip it the other way and a lot of the bad guys where being cheered because people like them. The important part there is the fans where making up their own mind not going on "good guy" // "bad guy" status. It all came down to personal feelings.
We grew up that way, yeah it is all part of our "show" as you put it but the simple act of booing was never about being disrespectful it was about showing displeasure, showing you weren't happy, showing you didn't like someone or a story line.
So how can we merge the two together? With wrestlers being persona's and not really themselves in the ring you aren't really booing a person, whilst in F1 you are. Why do I think both are acceptable?
Because I don't care if people show they are unhappy?
It is easy for neutrals and good people to get uppity about people being passionate, but that is what it is. Passion. If you didn't feel passionate you'd leave with a few laps left to go because it bored you to death seeing Vettel just win from pole. Only people who are passionate will stay and cheer or boo.
People might not understand that but it happens.
Read some of my blog posts, when something touches me in a passionate way (no jokes please) I get angry, I get happy, I rant or scream and don't care what people think. I prefer people like that. The world isn't a fluffy place and you can boo a result you dislike and still respect that driver because at the end of the day F1 is just a show. Yes in the end Seb is Seb and you are booing Seb but in the moment you aren't, you are booing Red Bull you are booing "Vettel" you are booing because that isn't how the show was meant to go for you.
Is it right?
No but it isn't wrong either.
Some people seem to think that fans of all kinds should just be lovely people.
Thing is you could stand next to someone all race long find out you have 100 things in common, exchange phone numbers and plan to meet up next year, the moment the race ends they boo and you think its disgusting behavior but it was only 5 minutes before that when you were talking to that person and knew that they had a passion for the race just like you.
I prefer people expressing how they really feel, it isn't some big conspiracy, you want interviews on the podiums and drivers to be more open. Open the sport up more and the more it becomes just like wrestling, the racing is real, the people are real but it is packaged just like any episode of RAW or Smackdown (or IMPACT if that is what you like) is.
Come see the show, see Vettel and the fallout to Multi-21 including dramatic music, see the revealing interview with Felipe Massa where he tells the world he won't help Alonso.....
If you want to know when it became acceptable to treat F1 like a wrestling show then just look at how BBC/SkyF1 and various newspapers present the sport. For every event and big news story there is a good guy and bad guy, they either become the face of all innocence whether they deserve it or not (Massa) or the face of all evil whether they deserve it or not (Vettel/Alonso) and some media outlets or social media personalities play off that for as long as they can.
They do this because it is the way F1 is these days, the drama on track isn't enough.
Now if you are still sitting there thinking I'm talking baloney then good for you!
You possibly don't see people tweeting nasty things to drivers, or else you do and you dislike those people as much as the ones that boo drivers.
You probably can't see how a wrestling show and F1 can be comparable, or else you might think fans booing at a wrestling show is just as wrong as it is in F1.
You probably are annoyed at my suggestion that fans boo out of passion thinking that passion should only make you do good deeds....
Well good. You are better people then I am that is for sure.
If people started booing Alonso every time he won a race it wouldn't phase me, enough people in this world have shown they have no respect for him whatsoever anyway, these are the same people who tend to call for fans heads for booing at Vettel.
Personally for me the drivers at times play to the camera, even the ones that are private and not really media friendly are just playing to the cameras. Booing might not be graceful and it might make you shake your head at certain corners of this fandom but all you have to do is search different forums to see that a lot worse can be done.
Sebastian Vettel has kind of made himself a marmite champion, he was so well loved to begin with but recently he's shown that side of him that all champions had but that he and Red Bull tried to make out didn't exist with Vettel. It is probably why I dislike him but like Alonso, at least when Alonso is asked about team orders he shrugs it off because he knows he benefits from them, if he ignores them when given to him then he shrugs it off because he doesn't care what people think of him. My problem with Vettel was when Multi-21 happened you could see from the change in one interview to the next race interview that after the race he was "saving face" and then he decided he didn't need to anymore.
You might not see that but enough people felt that way just like enough people felt like Alonso should be banned because Nelson Piquet Jr agreed to smash his car into a wall or because Massa played the team game. People ignore when Sebastian or others scream "I'm faster than my team mate let me through" and point to it as arrogance when it comes to Alonso.
Maybe the fact that I was a fangirl not that long ago and trawled many internet forums and was a fan to one of the most disliked drivers (or at least it feels that way) that I've grown a thicker skin.
Sometimes I feel when people complain about booing it is because they haven't got thick enough skin.
Should you need thick skin to follow F1?
If you are going to support a driver yes. If you just enjoy the racing why does booing bother you truthfully? Why does booing mean lack of respect? Just like why can't quality and quantity be the same thing?
I think I've blabbered on quiet enough so I'll sum up in hopefully a way that will actually make sense to everyone.
I agree that every driver deserves respect, but we live in a world of freedom of speech, we fight for this freedom and we abuse it all the time.
Fans are not pearly white angels of goodness, in fact many have a nasty side to them (not a majority just many) and some aren't fans at all merely trolls out to upset people.
When you get "into" this show that F1 really is (some compare it to a circus amongst other things) you will get carried away.
No champion I believe in my lifetime has ever had a 100% public backing. People might not have really booed drivers before now but it is no different from many nasty banners at tracks or horrible and vile rantings about how much people dislike certain drivers online.
What makes it so different?
Because you can't ignore it. You can ignore a petty fan tweet abuse to someone. You can ignore a sign at a track you never saw in the first place. You can ignore fans ranting about how this driver is ugly and deserves to be fired. You can't ignore the many people who are voicing an opinion.
It might not be one you can respect, but it is still valid.
When the race ends you have three choices. Cheer, boo or stay silent. Not one of those options shows a lack of respect to a driver for doing what they are doing, it might show a lack of respect for actions unconnected to that or just the fact you aren't happy with the result but you can physically still boo someone and respect them.
I booed Hulk Hogan when he came to ringside at IMPACT @ Wembley. I respect that man greatly and was honoured to meet him in person. But I booed him because I don't support him, never liked his personality in the ring and I refuse to be told I had to be quiet or go with the crowd of support.
I respect Hogan more than I respect James Storm who I cheered until my lungs were raw. I still respect Storm.
Would I boo a racing driver if I went to a race and didn't like them?
No. I wouldn't see the point to be fair. Not because I'm against booing but because I never see F1 as a "show". But people do.
F1 isn't just a sport anymore it is a show and people buy into it and booing will happen. If it didn't before then we are in for a tiny bit of a change that is all.
This blog isn't about telling people why people boo, I don't actually know why they do, it isn't trying to give a reason for it or change people's minds on booing.
I am writing this blog because some people seem to be completely in the dark why someone would boo and act like only bad people (not them honest) would boo.
Football fans boo. Rugby fans boo. I'm sure once or twice I've heard cricket fans boo. Wrestling fans boo. Now F1 fans boo.
You might not like it (valid opinion) but it isn't as bad as people are making out. I don't want to change your mind on it but I want to give you a reasoned opinion on why some people might not share your outrage.
Just remember a good person, a good fan, a passionate fan and someone who is just as decent as you can boo a driver purely because it was an out burts of their feelings after a race. Don't judge people on booing, complain all you want but think about why you'd actually really feel the need to cheer. Most people just clap or get on with life and that is it, when you physically cheer at the TV screen because something wonderful happens think what makes you do that. It is the same with booing and MUCH nicer than some of the things fans get up to.
And one last word (what a long summing up!) for some people out there before you point the finger and get hysterical about booing look back at what you've said about other drivers that you personally don't like and rethink your stance.
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