Max Verstappen boycotting Sky Sports at Mexican GP - Reports
Max Verstappen has refused to appear on camera for Sky Sports or any of its affiliated channels during the Mexican GP weekend, according to reports. The Red Bull driver's boycott of UK-based Sky Sports and its German and Italian affiliates comes after F1 pundit Ted Kravitz said after last week's US GP that Lewis Hamilton was robbed of the 2021 title.
What happened at the Abu Dhabi GP last year is well documented now, as the then race director Michael Masi restarted the race with just one lap left. He did not allow the grid to unlap itself, and only a selected set of drivers were between the leader (Lewis Hamilton) and the driver in P2 (Max Verstappen).
That allowed Verstappen, on much fresher tyres, to attack and pass Hamilton on the last lap to take the win and the title.
Some context:
"[HAM] doesn't win a race all year, and then finally comes back at a track where he could win the first race all year, battling the same guy who won the race he was robbed in the previous year, and manages to finish ahead of him," said Kravitz, US GP. twitter.com/redbullracinge…
Sky Sports presenter Tod Kravitz said in his post-race feature Ted's Notebook last week about Hamilton:
"(Hamilton) doesn't win a race all year, and then finally comes back at a track where he could win the first race all year, battling the same guy who won the race he was robbed in the previous year, and manages to finish ahead of him. What a script and a story that would have been. But that's not the way the script turned out today, was it?"
What was even more inflammatory was Kravitz implying that Verstappen's success was primarily down to his car. He had said:
"Because the guy that beat him after being robbed actually overtook him, because he's got a quicker car, because of engineering and Formula 1 and design, and pretty much because of (Adrian Newey, Red Bull's Chief Technical Officer) over there."
Earlier in the US GP weekend, Kravitz had also made reference to Verstappen not winning titles in a 'normal way', after the Dutchman was confirmed the 2022 champion.
"Verstappen is around the (Austin) paddock; he seems very happy with himself. He doesn't seem to be a driver capable of winning a championship in a normal way."
Max Verstappen is not first driver to boycott British media
Max Verstappen is not the first driver to boycott British media in F1. It was first done by Michael Schumacher during his Ferrari stint.
The German had fought a British driver (Damon Hill) in a British team (Williams) to the title in 1994 and 1995. As he was disqualified from the championship in 1997, the vilification reached a level that the German stopped interacting with the British media at the time.
Max will not be partaking in any interviews with Sky affiliates this weekend… For all those wondering why we aren’t posting quotes from Sky Sports. 🙂
Similarly, Ferrari had a complete media blackout for the 2018 season after suggestions that Sebastian Vettel was getting unfairly targeted by the British media.
It remains to be seen why Verstappen has declined any association with Sky Sports as he's yet to address that, but it will be interesting to hear his point of view.