{"id":139847,"date":"2022-07-06T15:24:14","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T14:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/?p=139847"},"modified":"2022-07-06T16:27:05","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T15:27:05","slug":"how-attitudes-evolved-towards-f1-drivers-ahead-of-the-british-grand-prix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vuelio.com\/uk\/blog\/how-attitudes-evolved-towards-f1-drivers-ahead-of-the-british-grand-prix\/","title":{"rendered":"How F1 Driver Attitudes Evolved Ahead of the British Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Sunday, Carlos Sainz scored his first Formula 1 win at the 2022 British Grand Prix, overcoming Oracle Red Bull Racing\u2019s Max Verstappen, who lost his lead in the first few laps due to bodywork damage. Verstappen and Perez top the leaderboard and Oracle Red Bull Racing tops the constructors, which is reflected in media coverage as the team has also been the strongest competitor in overall media presence since F1 began in March.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the month leading up to the GB race, pressure has grown on UK-based teams following heightened array of discriminatory language towards this year\u2019s drivers. Piquet’s attack on Lewis Hamilton<\/a> made national headlines in the final week of June, alongside the suspension of Red Bull\u2019s Juri Vips<\/a> due to racial slurs used on Twitch. Between 20 June and 4 July, \u2018racism\u2019 and \u2018xenophobia\u2019 were the third and fourth most popular search terms on an international scale in relation to Formula 1.<\/p>\n

Overall, Oracle Red Bull received an 82% positive sentiment on all UK coverage between 1 June \u2013 1 July. This is largely due to Verstappen\u2019s current lead in the FIA Formula 1 Standings<\/a>, alongside a selection of bespoke modifications on his vehicle ahead of the GB race. However, while the team\u2019s victories have been greatly supported by positive attitudes across UK press, Verstappen\u2019s personal relationship with the Piquet family ultimately created a spike in national negative coverage between 26 June \u2013 5 July. Of the 1,106 print and online news sources that associated Verstappen with the racial attacks on Hamilton, 92% were negative in overall sentiment.<\/p>\n

Commentary was also amplified around this time by the booing that took place over the race weekend, which Verstappen was quoted as calling a \u2018bit of a problem\u2019 but he still called the Silverstone Circuit a \u2018great track and great atmosphere in general\u2019 (AutoSport, 02.07.22<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Most Mentioned Drivers<\/strong><\/p>\n