Chandhok: Red Bull bizarrely becoming more unpopular with British fans

Ewan Gale
Monday 20 February 2023 13:49 - Updated: 13:50

Former F1 driver turned pundit Karun Chandhok believes Red Bull has "bizarrely" become unpopular with British fans.

The Milton Keynes-based outfit won the constructors' championship last season along with the last two drivers' titles courtesy of Max Verstappen.

But with the vast majority of British F1 fans backing seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes has become the de facto team of choice.

Speaking on the Autosport podcast, Chandhok said: "It's pretty funny because we talked about this in Abu Dhabi last year, when I said I was talking to the people at Red Bull and how bizarrely they had made themselves more unpopular with the British fans, despite winning the last two world championships and dominating a season.

"But I think there are several reasons for that."

"It is clear that they do not have a British driver and certainly in this country people felt that it was Red Bull against Lewis.

"Add George [Russell] and Mercedes has two Britons in that team. I think the old saying that, apart from Ferrari, the fans still gravitate more towards a driver than a team is still true.

"And certainly in this country Red Bull is not that popular, I think their popularity itself has decreased."

Abu Dhabi should have been handled differently

The rivalry between Verstappen and Hamilton was fractious in 2021 and reached a controversial end at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The aftermath left the sport and its fans divided and Chandhok believes the situation could have been handled more empathetically by the team.

"They could have said, 'well done Lewis, it was a great fight, too bad it didn't work out for you'," explained the former HRT driver.

"Then I think the wave of negativity toward them alone in the coverage and the way they came out with it could have been limited, if they had chosen their words carefully,"

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