Fernando Alonso believes the “proper culture” of Formula 1 has gone due to new, uninformed football-like fans.
F1’s popularity has sky-rocketed in recent years thanks mostly to Netflix’s Drive to Survive and last year’s epic championship battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
However, go on social media or look in the grandstands and you’ll find that the days when everyone had their favourites but still respected the rest have been replaced with the same tribalism you get in other sports.
This was highlighted by how Verstappen was booed all weekend by some fans at Silverstone, while many in the Orange Army cheered after Hamilton crashed in qualifying in Austria.
Alonso though doesn’t think this mentality is something entirely new and used the attitudes towards him as an example of the fickle nature of F1 today.
“I think the perception from the outside or the feeling towards me has changed from time to time,” the Alpine told The Race.
“In 2007, maybe people had a perception of what I was as a driver or as a person. Then that changed when I was in Ferrari, I was a very nice fit in the Latin team.
“Now I think that the fans that we have now, there are new fans and in a way – and I don’t want to lack respect to them – but they don’t know much about Formula 1.
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“They just are more like a football kind of fan, where they just follow the results, whoever is winning does the best and whoever is last is not Formula 1 level.
“They don’t understand much about car performance and the package that you need. So you are on more of a rollercoaster kind of feeling, of perception, of what the people feel about you.
“When you do a good weekend, you seem like God. When you do a bad weekend, you are too old – or you are too young or whatever.
“But we are all going through these phases. I think now the fans are just watching the race immediately, they have a feeling and then switch off until the next Sunday.
“There is not a proper culture of Formula 1 anymore.”
In Austria, concerns over fan behaviour were also raised after reports of racist, homophobic and generally abusive remarks by some.
That has triggered extra security and extra measures to be put in place for this weekend’s French Grand Prix, with Sebastian Vettel praising those who come forward.
“Maybe you are seeing a generation coming to the track who complains about it and makes a noise and uses different platforms to complain about it,” he said.
“It is great to see people having the courage to stand up because by learning about it, we can do something about it.
“It has been going on for some time at all major sporting events.
“It is more than about time that it is changing because there is no space for those things.”