Verstappen, Red Bull snub Sky over ‘derogatory’ comments
Formula One world champions Red Bull and Max Verstappen said on Sunday they had refused to talk with broadcaster Sky at the Mexico City Grand Prix due to “derogatory” comments at the previous race in Texas.
Dutch driver Verstappen, who has won a record 14 races in a single season after winning in Mexico on Sunday, told reporters there had been “a constant kind of digging, being disrespectful,” especially from one individual.
“At one point it’s enough. I don’t accept it ... you can’t live in the past, you just have to move on,” the 25-year-old told reporters.
There was no immediate comment from Sky, which also has access to interviews carried out by Formula One television.
Verstappen won his first championship last year at the Abu Dhabi season-ender, with the Red Bull driver going into the race level on points with Mercedes Lewis Hamilton.
Then race director Michael Masi’s controversial change to the safety car procedure gave Verstappen the chance to pass his Mercedes rival on the last lap and deny him a record eighth title.
Some Hamilton fans feel the Briton was robbed and have been vocal on social media, where Verstappen’s “Orange Army” is similarly active.
Verstappen suggested some of the commentaries had helped stoke hostility.
“You keep disrespecting me and at one point I’m not tolerating it any more,” he said.
Red Bull principal Christian Horner said he decided to shun Sky after comments at the US Grand Prix where Red Bull won the constructors’ title for the first time since 2013.
In Mexico, the governing FIA announced the team had accepted a $7m (R128m) fine, and reduced wind tunnel time for 12 months, as the only team to have breached last year’s cost cap by spending more than allowed.
“Next race, service will be resumed. We just wanted to lay down a marker to say certain things aren’t acceptable and as a team, we stand together,” Horner said of his team’s boycott of the broadcaster’s English, German and Italian channels.
Sky has the rights to live coverage in the UK and Ireland and also provides coverage and commentary for Walt Disney’s ESPN networks in the US.
“Accusations of championships being robbed is something we don’t feel is an impartial commentary ... Max is very upset about it and as a team, we support him fully,” Horner said.
By winning the Mexico City Grand Prix on Sunday, Verstappen set a Formula One record of 14 victories in a single season, as well as the most points scored.
The Dutch driver led from pole position at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, stopping on lap 26 of 71 to switch from soft to medium tyres and taking the chequered flag 15.186 seconds clear of Mercedes’s Hamilton.
“It’s been an incredible year so far, we are definitely enjoying it and we’ll try to go for more,” Verstappen, who clinched his second title in Japan on October 9 and had an untroubled afternoon, said.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez finished third in front of his cheering home crowd after a race that was low on thrills and all about tyre strategy.
Verstappen’s win was the 25year-old’s fourth in Mexico and the podium was the same as last year.
In Austin, Texas, last weekend he had pulled level with German champions Michael Schumacher (2004) and Sebastian Vettel (2013) on 13 wins in a season.
There are more races now than then, however, with the 2022 season featuring 22 compared to 19 in 2013 and 18 in 2004.