Max Verstappen states he has no issue with being booed amid his period of success in Formula 1.
During the pre-race procedure ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, Verstappen was met with a chorus of boos when he was introduced by rapper LL Cool J.
The crowd response differed greatly from some of the other drivers that were presented before the Dutchman, with drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez receiving cheers.
Verstappen has enjoyed continued success across the last two years, winning back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022.
He is also the heavy favourite to take a third championship this year and currently holds a 14-point lead over team-mate Perez in the standings.
With Verstappen pinning his run of success as the reason behind his reception in Miami, he asserts that he’s unbothered by the hostile response.
“I think if I would be driving in the back nobody would do anything in terms of reaction,” he said.
“It’s normal when you are winning and they don’t like who is winning. It’s something for me that is absolutely fine.
“As long as I stand on the top that is the most important. I take the trophy home and they go back to their houses and they can have a nice evening.”
Verstappen’s road to victory started from ninth on the grid – he went deep into the race on a set of Hard tyres before swapping over to Mediums.
He then went wheel-to-wheel with Perez and overtook the Mexican for the race win, his third in the opening five races.
“Yesterday I said to myself minimum P2 because I think that is where we should finish anyway with the car we have.
“But it’s always difficult to know what is going to happen. If you have a terrible lap then you make it even harder for yourself, but luckily it didn’t work out too bad just making sure we didn’t have any damage on the car.
“But then again it’s all about the performance of the car, how you feel in the car and the performance you can extract.
“Luckily that all worked out today and you can move forward and win the race.”
