Max Verstappen doesn’t believe he can stop Dutch Grand Prix fans booing Lewis Hamilton this weekend.
The seven-time world champion has been audibly jeered by the ‘Orange Army’ in recent races, and the first race at Zandvoort since 1985 is set to see a partisan atmosphere in favour of the Red Bull driver.
But while Verstappen has previously condemned the booing of his championship rival, he doesn’t feel he can influence his fans to respect Hamilton.
“I look at it like this…when you go to a football match, you come into the home ground, the opposition will be booed at some point,” he told the media on Thursday.
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“It’s not up to the local club to go on to the speakers and say ‘guys, you cannot boo’, because it will naturally happen.
“I don’t think it’s up to me to then say ‘guys you cannot boo’ because at the end of the day I am not them and I have to just focus on what I am doing on the track.
“I am pretty sure that most of them are here for a great weekend to see cars racing and of course, some of them will boo. I cannot decide for them.”
Hamilton did try to endear himself to the Dutch fans by arriving at Zandvoort in all orange on Thursday, but accepts booing is to be expected.
“I’ve never been someone who would go to an event and boo, but I understand it,” he said. “You see it at football events. It’s just the passion that the fans have, or a dislike that some of them have of their opponents! But I respect it.
“I’ve always loved coming out to Holland. Amsterdam is one of the greatest cities. I know I do have some ‘Team LH’ fans in the Netherlands, which I really appreciate. It will probably be a small portion in the grandstands out there and I admire them being able to withstand the boos too! But that’s sport.
“What I do is I just try and turn that energy that they propel towards me, however you want to take it, and turn it into [a] positive, and try and put it into driving.”
Indeed, Verstappen did concede he was hopeful the atmosphere at Zandvoort wouldn’t impact Hamilton negatively.
“That would be bad if that would give me an added boost,” he said of any hostility. “As long as it doesn’t affect Lewis I guess that’s what you want to hear, right? That’s the most important.
“What I hope from the whole weekend is that everyone is having a good time and they enjoy seeing the cars on the track. Seeing us battle it out there for the best possible result.”