This is a follow-up to the piece I wrote earlier this week, Ban Mexico Boo Brigade & Hooligans for Life. I wrote it in good faith, but perhaps too angry about how Lando Norris was treated in Mexico.
I stick to my guns and double down on the fact that Norris was booed unfairly and unjustly by a section of the crowd at the Mexico City Grand Prix, a race the McLaren driver and now 2025 Formula 1 Championship leader dominated in ways Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton did in their heyday. Pure class.
My immediate reaction was that the people who booed should be identified and banned. I was wrong. I hadn’t thought it through properly, because booing is a form of expression, and I believe in free speech to a point. Anything that promotes hate or encourages violence is unacceptable.
Our readers made that point loud and clear in the comments. I learnt something, and tempered my views. I respect them for that and always have. We are proud that GrandPrix247 has a core of long-standing die-hard readers who know our sport, and our comment section is full of smart, passionate F1 fans who keep us on our toes. They know who they are.
I booed a bad performance or two in my time...
Of course, I’ve heard booing at races since I was a kid, at motor racing on a national level in South Africa, and even at F1 level. Sport tends to have good guys and villains. When a driver who’s been the bad guy breaks down in front of the crowd, people boo, he waves or gives the finger, and off he goes.
It’s part of the sport. Booing has always existed. and I can’t pretend I’ve never done it myself.
However, there’s a difference between banter and abuse. When there’s a rivalry, like an Englishman versus a Dutchman, the home crowd will always favour their own. At Silverstone, the Brit gets love. At Zandvoort, the local hero gets cheered and the rival gets jeered. It’s national pride.
Ferrari fans take it to another level because it is more than a team; being a Red is a way of life. The Tifosi at Monza and Imola boo with passion. Always have. Always will. And that’s the way it is. I admit it was draconian to suggest banning them.
You can’t regulate booing
It’s part of every sport played at the highest level. Even if golf is not your thing, the cancer of booing and appalling fan behaviour was on display throughout the Ryder Cup weekend. It was vile, a shocker that every major sports promoter needs to study and prevent.
It is supposed to be a sport first and foremost, and if you love the sport, invariably, you salute brilliance no matter who delivers it.
There is no finer moment for me in sports than when fans in a stadium or sporting arena rise in unison to applaud a rival's fine performance on the day. Respect for a rival team's player who starred in a game. It's when barriers of prejudice are broken by sporting excellence.
It's rare, but when it happens, it is the purest and most beautiful thing. A real collective respect which is hard to explain unless you witness it and feel the emotion,
Thus, I hope it explains to readers why for me, there are limits. If a sports person or race driver delivers the kind of performance Norris did in Mexico, he doesn’t deserve to be booed. He deserved a standing ovation, whether you like him or not.
You can’t stop the boo brigade, and MUST not, because it’s their right to free speech, and that's not negotiable if it does not incite hate or violence. But booing brilliance is evidence of ignorance, people who don’t understand the sport. They're there for the selfies.
When is booing justified in sport?
Picture this: An entitled, underperforming, incident-prone driver beaching it in front of a packed grandstand in Brazil. The driver went off for no apparent reason, buried it in the gravel, and the crowd there boos and demands the team's Brazilian reserve driver get a chance. Fair enough. I probably would boo, too. That’s justified booing, in my book.
Also, when a backmarker is being lapped by the leader (or P2 and P3) and the slow driver ignores blue flags, and then takes out the leader. Wherever they end up, the culprit will be booed at the side of the track, justifiably so. We've seen it happen. That's sport.
Having said that, I will double down and repeat that what cannot be forgiven are vicious fights in the stands. My original call still stands: lifetime bans. I also imagine these are the same types of people who probably do the booing. I have no proof, but I can picture it.
When that kind of behaviour happens in the Premiership, or NBA or NFL or whatever top-flight sporting arena, those fans would be ejected and never allowed back. The Premier League cleaned up its act decades ago and literally saved football from hooliganism. Formula 1 needs to show the same zero tolerance.
And I am super glad to report they have swiftly rooted out a culprit.
Formula 1 bans scumbag for fighting in Mexico
Formula 1 has issued a lifetime ban to a spectator who started a fight in the grandstands during the Mexico City Grand Prix. Video footage from the Foro Sol Stadium showed the fan punching another spectator before being restrained by nearby attendees and escorted out by security.
The sport confirmed it acted swiftly, with an F1 spokesperson telling RacingNews365 that the altercation was “an isolated incident which was dealt with quickly and the individual in question was removed and banned for life.”
Even one fight in the grandstands is too many. The videos from Mexico were shameful. A handful of people fighting, but hundreds of others caught in the middle, kids watching, families terrified. And then it goes viral, seen by millions. It makes our sport look cheap.
When fans pay over a thousand dollars to attend a Grand Prix, not counting travel, food, or merchandise, at a world-class arena, a five-star event where there is no place for gutter behaviour of the kind we witnessed.
Was it an isolated incident?
I would question the "isolated incident" narrative as I, without once searching for Mexico GP violence clips or photos, received Instagram links to two separate incidents of ugly brawls on the day. Nevertheless, the lifetime ban is the right thing for Formula 1 to do. Justifiable zero tolerance.
Thus, I take back what I wrote about banning the boo brigade. Boo if you must, cheer who you like. That’s passion. That's free speech. That’s sport. Booing a champion performance like Norris delivered in Mexico is sheer collective ignorance, in my opinion. But they have the right to do so.
Boo if you must, but set your limitations regarding when to boo, when not to boo, and when it’s taboo.
But brawling in the grandstands is not negotiable. That’s not passion. That’s poison. Those thugs deserve lifetime bans. Bravo, Stefano Domenicali.
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