Booing erupted after Vettel’s wins in Belgium and Italy, and surprisingly at
the less partisan circuit of Singapore, as Vettel moved closer to a fourth
straight world title.
The opprobrium has been put down to plain boredom from fans, as the German has
won more than half the races this season and already has one hand on the
championship trophy.
On Sunday night, he led from pole position to the chequered flag in an
astounding – if not entertaining – demonstration of uncatchable
front-running.
But there is also residual anger after Vettel controversially ignored team
orders and passed Red
Bull team-mate Mark Webber to win the Malaysian Grand Prix in March.
While Vettel apologised to Webber at the time, he later struck a defiant tone
and insisted he would do the same again. Webber has announced his departure
from the team at the end of the season.
Horner said he didn’t know what was behind the booing but understands the
incident in Malaysia may be a reason.
“It’s been done, there has been an awful lot written about it and there were
circumstances that were involved in that,” he said.
“When you have a guy who is becoming almost a serial winner, it becomes like
when people watched Mohammed Ali, they wanted to see who would beat him,” he
said.
“That is the case at the moment; people want to see who is going to beat
Sebastian.”
The team principal added: “He has got a broad set of shoulders but like anyone
he has feelings and I don’t think it is right.”
(Edited by Kristian Walsh)