Max Verstappen, Christian Horner have explained the decision to boycott Sky F1 during the Mexico GP weekend after disrespectful comments.
While the F1 Mexico GP weekend started off on a normal note but reports started to flurry on Saturday about an apparent boycott of Red Bull as they chose not to speak with any of the Sky Sports media personnel whether UK or Germany or Italy.
There was no official confirmation until after the Mexico GP race when both Verstappen and Horner clarified their stance. While the overall decision was due to the regular disrespect but the Dutchman’s tolerance was reached after listening the US GP broadcast.
It was seemingly related to Ted Kravitz’s ‘Ted’s Notebook’ programme where he constantly referred to Lewis Hamilton being robbed of the 2021 F1 championship. Verstappen was not happy with constant disrespect and took a decision which the team supported.
Here's what was said in the Notebook following the #USGP. #SkyF1 pic.twitter.com/TXBDN92gd3
— Motorsport Broadcasting (@f1broadcasting) October 30, 2022
“It had nothing to do this weekend,” said Verstappen. “But this year it’s been a constant… yeah, kind of like daily being disrespectful, especially one particular person. And it’s enough, I don’t accept it. You can’t live in the past. You just have to move on.
“Social media is a very toxic place, and if you are constantly being like that live on TV, you make it only worse instead of trying to make it better. You keep disrespecting me, and at one point, I’m not tolerating it anymore. That’s why I decided to stop answering them.”
This is not the first time that Verstappen has done something like this as he chose not to feature on Netflix’s Drive to Survive after his portrayal as a villain and a brash young driver in F1 where his words were taken out of context to make it a different meaning.
Team boss Horner agreed with Verstappen on the topic and explained the reasons for boycott which reached the tolerance levels with the coverage in US GP. The Bri, though, noted that normal service will resume from Brazil GP weekend.
Here’s what he said:
Reason for boycott –
Horner: “We were obviously disappointed with a series of derogatory comments – especially comments made in Austin – that have been made on Sky, so we feel that for this weekend, we just take a break, and it won’t do Sky any harm to take a break from them. There needs to be balance in commentary; some of the commentaries are excellent, but in some of the pieces, there is too much sensationalisation being done, and we stand together as a team. We’ve been very clear to them, and it’s not just Sky UK, it’s been all across the Sky channels so that will be just for this weekend, but it was to register our discontent. Sometimes some of the comments and accusations that are made it seems that TV is becoming ever more sensationalised.”
Why now and comments on Sky –
Horner: “Well, I think the accusation that the championship was being robbed is we don’t feel an impartial commentary, so obviously, we don’t feel it’s fair or balanced. I think the world we live in is always hungry for headlines and I think there needs to be a responsibility from the broadcasters not to feed those.”
Reactions of Verstappen –
Horner: “Max was very upset about it, and as a team, we support him fully and equally we were upset about it so I took the decision that we’ll have a weekend off.”
Difference in treatment –
Horner: “Red Bull is a cheap target sometimes, we know that. There has been a couple of issues during the course of the year, that we’ve addressed about as far as we’re concerned we’ve not said our peace but that’s it.”
Brazil return –
Horner: “Yes, service will be resumed, but we just wanted to lay down a marker to say that some things aren’t acceptable, and as a team, we stand together.”
Here’s how F1 Mexico GP panned out