McLAREN boss Zak Brown has defended the booing of rival boss Christian Horner and world champion Max Verstappen at Formula One’s season launch in London.

Both Red Bull team principal Horner and his driver, Verstappen, were subjected to jeers at the O2 Arena by the British crowd.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA), F1’s governing body, who were also targeted with booing, moved to condemn the “tribalist” reaction, while standing up for Horner and Verstappen for “contributing greatly to the sport we love.”

However, speaking in Bahrain on the opening day of this week’s three-day F1 test, Brown said booing is part and parcel of elite sport.

“I’ve never been to a sporting event that’s been quiet, where someone’s not yelling at a football player for missing a goal, or in ice hockey or baseball,” he said.

“I didn’t hear anything in London that was other than cheering and booing. And I’ve certainly seen a lot worse on social media where you go: ‘wait a minute, you’re kind of going a bit too far.’

“Cheering and booing has been part of sport, every sport, forever and that’s what fans do. They yell at their TV when they’re watching with their buddies. Everyone has a favourite team, a favourite driver, a less favourite side.

“I didn’t think there was anything violent, and you see other sports that have had riots break out. It was far from that. It was fans doing what fans do, voicing their opinion on who they were cheering for or not.”

While a number of cheers drowned out the initial negative reaction to Verstappen’s face appearing on the big screen at the O2, Horner’s appearance on stage to introduce his Red Bull team was met largely by jeers.

Horner was accused by a female colleague of coercive behaviour last year, but was twice exonerated by the F1 team’s parent company, Red Bull GmBH.

“The FIA made their own comments and that was not something we asked for,” said Horner. “I certainly didn’t have any conversation with them following the event. It was obviously part of their campaign to stamp out online abuse.

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

“The only disappointment I had was that the reception to Max as a four-time world champion. 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.

“The fans are the DNA of the sport. The fandom has changed over the last few years as we’ve been welcoming more and more diverse fans to the sport. Sport is polarising. You can’t dictate that.”

McLaren ended Red Bull’s supremacy last season by winning the constructors’ championship, and with only minor changes to the rulebook the British team, led by Lando Norris, are likely to start the new season, which begins in Melbourne on March 16, as the team to beat.