Sebastian Vettel is on the brink of claiming his fourth consecutive FIA Formula One World Championship.
The German driver will become the first ever driver to claim his first four titles in secession, he will become the youngest ever quadruple World Champion and only the fourth man in the sports history to win more than three world championships.
He will join Alain Prost, Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher as the most successful drivers in Formula One folk-law.
And yet this season the 26-year-old is being booed on a fairly regular basis country-to-country.
Members of the Red Bull team played down his seemingly lack of support declaring that in Britain it was because of the home support for drivers like Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button and even adopted Aussie Mark Webber.
Whilst in Italy, the Monza crowd are obviously big Ferrari supporters and are well known for their partisan support.
But in Singapore the boos continued, despite Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle’s attempts on the podium to get them to stop.
‘The problem is standing up on the podium what you see is there’s a small collective group and then it’s like a pantomime. I think it’s so unfair because it’s not sporting. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told Sky Sports.
So why is it happening?
‘To be sure Malaysia [when Vettel ignored Red Bull team orders and raced team-mate Mark Webber] didn’t help but as we all know Malaysia’s happened, it’s been done.
‘When you’ve got a guy that’s winning and almost becomes a serial winner it’s like people when they watched Mohammed Ali, they wanted to see who is going to beat him, and it’s a little bit the case at the moment – people want to see who’s going to beat Sebastian.
‘So when he keeps winning maybe it isn’t the most popular result but I still think it’s not sporting and it’s not fair not to recognise when a sportsman has delivered in the way that he has not to see that recognised.’
So should fans boo? 2008 Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton doesn’t believe so, telling the BBC: ‘No-one should be booed for their success, no matter how easy or hard it has been for them to get there.
‘Booing is so negative, especially when someone works so hard to be a success.’
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