Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko says the crowd at the F1 75 launch event were clearly in favour of Lewis Hamilton after Max Verstappen and Christian Horner were booed.

Formula 1 staged its first-ever collective season-launch event, attended by all 10 teams and 20 drivers, at London’s O2 Arena last month in celebration of the 75th year of the World Championship.

Helmut Marko responds to Max Verstappen, Christian Horner booing incident

It saw the teams pull the covers off their car liveries for the F1 2025 season, as well as acting as Hamilton’s first public engagement since his blockbuster move to Ferrari.

Despite being hailed as a success, the extravaganza was marred by the booing of Verstappen and Horner when Red Bull appeared on stage.

It came after Verstappen and Red Bull were embroiled in a thrilling rivalry with Hamilton and Mercedes during the 2021 season, which ended with Verstappen sealing his first of four straight World Championships in highly controversial circumstances.

The booing incident prompted a firm response by the FIA, F1’s governing body, which issued a statement on the matter to condemn the “tribalist reaction” of the audience.

The FIA leapt to the defence of Verstappen and Horner, praising the pair for contributing “greatly to the sport we love.”

Appearing on the Sport and Talk from Hangar-7 show, Marko played down the suggestion that the season-launch event should become an annual occurrence.

And he claimed that Verstappen and Horner were exposed to a hostile atmosphere in London with the crowd clearly on the side of seven-time World Champion Hamilton.

Marko said: “The 75th anniversary of Formula 1 justified it, but I can’t imagine doing it every year now.

“It was a pro-Hamilton audience. You could really feel that.”

“The teams also approached their individual presentations completely differently, with one team completely detaching its presentation from the sport, while other racing teams such as McLaren or Ferrari focused entirely on tradition.”

Marko’s comments come after Verstappen’s father, the former F1 driver Jos Verstappen, warned that the reigning World Champion could refuse to appear at similar events held in the United Kingdom in the future.

PlanetF1.com understands that Red Bull are also unhappy with how the event played out having been left under the impression that the season launch would take place in front of a mixed-demographic audience rather than a predominantly British crowd.

Verstappen Sr said: “Max has no appetite for that, to be booed like that in front of 25,000 people [sic].

“He also says: ‘If this is in England next year, they definitely won’t see me.’

“I couldn’t agree more with him. You’re there to promote the sport and showcase the new colour schemes of the cars, but when they go on a rampage like that, the question is: what are you there to do?

“He has to get ready to go there anyway, but then you get booed like that.

“I think they should take a hard look at that because that doesn’t belong in this sport.

“In itself, I thought [the event] was a reasonable setup, only I thought it was shameful what happened there with Red Bull Racing.

“That Christian Horner was booed like that and Max was booed too.

“You do it for Formula 1, you are there to promote the sport and then you are booed by the public. I don’t think that’s acceptable.

“I get it because Max is the only one who fires up those Englishmen and says exactly where it’s at.

“But I don’t think this is acceptable. It really is a disappointment what happened there.”

Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com at the recent pre-season test in Bahrain, Verstappen laughed off the incident when asked for a response to the booing incident.

He said: “There was booing? I didn’t hear any. Maybe I’m deaf.”

“I don’t really need to talk about it. It’s not worth my time.”

Horner went on to describe the booing of Verstappen as “disappointing” and likened the F1 75 event to an away match in football, telling media including PlanetF1.com: “It was a big event.

“It was obvious that all the teams put a lot of effort into it, which was good to see.

“Now, of course, launching your car is a bit like launching your away strip with a home fan stadium. Fans will always back the teams and drivers that they want to and, of course, we’ve been the protagonists over the years.”

“I guess the only disappointment I had with it was the reception to Max as a four-time World Champion. That was disappointing.

“But passion in sport is always going to be there. If the launch would have been in Holland, no doubt the reception would have been somewhat different.”

Horner dismissed the suggestion that Red Bull had any influence on the FIA’s decision to release a statement, adding: “The FIA, they’ve made their own comments. It was nothing that we certainly asked for.

“I didn’t have any conversation with the FIA following the event.”