World champion Max Verstappen himself also kept his distance – fans of the Red Bull pilot are said to have been involved in the incidents. “I’ve read some shocking stuff, that’s not okay.”
The “Orange Army” becomes a problem
In fact, for years now, every Grand Prix in Styria has been a big performance by the “Orange Army” – which actually turns the race weekend in the Alpine Republic into the second “Netherlands Grand Prix”. The “Orange Army” are – to put it mildly – the most passionate of the Verstappen supporters. Thousands of them populate the grandstands and the surrounding facilities, enveloping the route in orange smoke.
But: Now the “Orange Army” could also become a problem. Not just for Verstappen, but for Formula 1 as a whole.
For example, one visitor reported that her dress had been lifted in a fan stand in the midst of Verstappen fans. When she confronted the perpetrators, they replied that as a supporter of Lewis Hamilton, she deserved no respect. The atmosphere between the fan camps of the two rivals seems to be charging up more and more.
Deeper and deeper rifts between Verstappen and Hamilton fans
During qualifying in Spielberg, Hamilton had to experience for himself the abysses that can lead to: When he hit the gang quite violently, there was great cheering among the numerous Verstappen supporters – even before it became clear that the Brit was uninjured.
Verstappen had previously teased in an interview with “Sport 1” that the lower intensity of the duels with his current competitor Charles Leclerc than that of his duels with Hamilton is based on “how much you respect the other person. As I said, I know Charles very well long. That way you automatically have more respect for each other because, logically, you know each other a lot better.”
“I think that’s a shame”
Despite all the rivalry with the seven-time world champion, Verstappen also said: “Basically, I think it’s a shame that the fans do indeed react like football fans. They always whistle at the opponent. In Holland they whistle against Lewis, in England against me . I think that’s a shame, because we often have extremely tough, high-quality sporting fights. You also have to respect the opponent.”