‘We need to educate people’ - Wolff slams F1 fans for cheering Hamilton crash

Hamilton crashed out midway through Q3 at Turn 7, losing control of his Mercedes F1 car in dramatic fashion, and ending up in the barriers.

The seven-time champion was met with a chorus of jeers from the crowd which is largely made up of Max Verstappen’s fans - the ‘Orange Army’. 

Mercedes teammate George Russell also crashed in qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, and he was met with a similar volume of jeers.

Booing and jeering is a hot topic at the moment after last weekend’s British Grand Prix.

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Verstappen was greeted with boos and jeers after qualifying at Silverstone, although Hamilton was quick to tell his British fans not to do it. 

"I think we’re better than that,” Hamilton said last weekend. “I would say we don’t need to do the booing. We have such great fans, our sporting fans feel emotions up and down, but I definitely don’t agree with booing. I don’t think we need to do that. I think we should be here pushing everybody. 

"It doesn’t make any difference when you boo someone, they’ve already made the mistake, or whatever it is. But I really do appreciate the support I have here. Maybe some of them are still feeling the pain from last year, still.”

While Hamilton is not fighting Verstappen for the title this year, the pair’s intense championship fight in 2021 means there’s still bad blood between their respective fan bases.

Speaking after qualifying at the Red Bull Ring, Wolff believes F1, the media and the teams need to work together to “educate fans”.

“I think we just need to speak more to the fans that cheering when a car is in the wall or booing for a driver that gives an interview, it’s not what we would do with our competitors and enemies even though you can think we would have some animosity out there,” Wolff said. 

“No one should actually do it. We need to collectively with F1, with you guys [the media] educate people.”