Ferrari team principal, Mattia Binotto, believes that Ferrari’s fans were simply unhappy at the way the Italian Grand Prix ended on Sunday, hence the booing.
The tifosi were sent into raptures on Saturday as Charles Leclerc took pole position, with Max Verstappen, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez in behind.
The reigning champion had an engine penalty that sent him back to seventh, Perez started 13th due to penalties of his own, and a back of the grid penalty saw Sainz go from 18th.
Verstappen made his way to second with relative ease in the opening laps, and took the lead when Leclerc was brought in during a Virtual Safety Car period.
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However, the green flags returned while the Monegasque was still in the pit lane, so the gamble did not work as hoped, and after Verstappen made his stop, he was bearing down on the Ferrari.
Such was the pace difference, that Ferrari pitted Leclerc again, but he could not recover the ground, so his fellow 24-year-old was on for a comfortable win.
However, this was jeopardised when Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren broke down towards the end, and it looked like the game was on again.
But the marshals could not get the car into neutral, so they could not wheel it back into a safe area, necessitating the cherry picker to come and retrieve it.
This ultimately took too long, and there was not enough time to get the lapped runners through and restart, so race control decided to end the Italian Grand Prix under yellow flags.
Booing could be heard during the post-race interviews and the podium ceremony, and while Binotto does not condone booing the winner, he reckons the fans simply felt robbed of a grandstand finish.
“Booing a driver is never great, especially if the driver has been Max, which today was the fastest driver on track and deserved the win, so that’s not good,” he told RaceFans.net.
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“But I think that the booing from our tifosi was more toward the FIA and simply by booing the first and the winner it was trying to boo the FIA.
“The reason was I think because the people out there believe that the Safety Car could have been ended before and give still a couple of laps for the show today, for battles on track.”
Sainz could not challenge Russell for third on track as a result of the finish, while Perez had to settle for sixth following issues early on when the front right corner appeared to catch fire during a pit stop.