Verstappen and Red Bull team members in Sky boycott

2022 Mexican Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen and Red Bull team members are refusing to grant interviews to broadcaster Sky this weekend, RaceFans understands.

Neither Verstappen nor Red Bull team principal Christian Horner spoke to the broadcaster following yesterday’s qualifying session, despite the world champion taking pole position. His team mate Sergio Perez was interviewed.

The absence of interviews with Verstappen and Horner – notably the team principal who regularly appears in Sky’s coverage during sessions – prompted speculation over a fall-out between the world champions and the major F1 broadcast. Sky’s coverage is broadcast in the UK, USA and other English-speaking regions, plus Italy, Germany and others.

Red Bull declined to comment when asked by RaceFans. However, the driver and senior team members including Horner and motorsport consultant Helmut Marko are expected to decline interviews with the broadcaster until further notice.

The reasons for Red Bull’s boycott of Sky are unclear. However the team has been a focus of attention this weekend as the FIA issued details of its penalty for exceeding the budget cap last year. The team was fined $7 million – the second-highest such sanction in F1 history – and had its aerodynamic development allocation for cut until October 2023.

Footage of a segment filmed by Sky reporter Ted Kravitz was widely circulated on social media amid claims his reference to Lewis Hamilton being “robbed” of the championship in last year’s contentious season finale had upset Red Bull.

Verstappen won the title by passing Hamilton on the final lap of the race after FIA F1 race director Michael Masi broke the rules by arranging a restart without having allowed all the lapped cars to unlap themselves. The FIA made extensive changes to race direction ahead of the 2022 season, including replacing Masi, who later left the sport’s governing body.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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67 comments on “Verstappen and Red Bull team members in Sky boycott”

  1. Facts don’t care about your feelings. Ted told the truth. Hamilton was robbed from his eight world championship title. Very childish of Verstappen and Red Bull to boycot Sky because of this. I guess it shows they feel Ted was right. Otherwise his comments it would not have hurt them that much.

    1. COTD.

      The lieing cheets from Red Bull got caught and now don’t want to face up to their actions

      1. lol@people acting like a 1.6% overspend was some sort of blatant or huge level of cheating, especially when you consider stuff like catering was factored into the overspend. And I don’t even like Max let alone RBR. BTW, let’s not forget, MB and Ferrari were spending the most person for years and years, which passes down A LOT more performance than a single season of 1.6% over the gap.

        1. the most per year*

    2. I guess it shows they feel Ted was right.

      Alternatively, it might show that Red Bull don’t desire to participate in others’ efforts to attack their team.

      1. It wasn’t an attack on Red Bull. It was an attack on the FIA.

        More Red Bull whinging.

    3. Your opinion isn’t fact, no matter how much your ego tells you so.
      So if we’re into the realm of “childish” you Hamilton acolytes have been leading that queue since the end of last year.

      1. So you don’t believe any rules were broken at Abu Dhabi?

        1. So you believe only in Abu Dhabi the rules were broken?

    4. Facts don’t care about your feelings.

      Funny you say that. The facts are that, despite the race director not applying the rules fully and properly, the result of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix stands after Mercedes dropped their protest. Therefore Max Verstappen ended the season with the most points and was declared world champion. Whatever that does to your feelings is up to you.

    5. Even if rules weren’t broken or tweaked, a last lap change of championship lead means the loser was robbed. Same as Liverpool being robbed of a draw by Leeds’ last minute goal yesterday. Doesn’t necessarily imply RedBull or the FIA were thieves.

      Lay your own interpretation on top of that, RedBull choose the worst possible interpretation, apparently. As my wife always does with my utterings.

    6. @spaframcorchamps Lewis fans quoting Ben Shapiro these days, lol.

    7. The problem was Ted made it sound that Max did the robbing and that is wrong ofcourse.

  2. What babies.

    I was a fan, but every week they become less and less likeable (bar Newey).

  3. Bravo bravo 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 What’s the point of this? To take off attention from the violation of the cost cap and their penalty? Everything has already been exposed to the world. It’s Kravitz just saying his opinion. Why boycott just because of Kravitz’s opinion? Pointless and more reason to dislike and to show no respect to Red Bull.

  4. I’m trully astonished by the latest remarks from RB. Horner said it’s not him, but the other teams to appologise to RB.

    Now they are not talking to Sky. Any idea what the Dutch journalist say about Lewis, Toto or Merc

    1. The majority of the Dutch journalists are mostly heavy Lewis fans, have a great respect for Mercedes, but can live without Toto :)

      1. That is mostly correct the Dutch journalist are proffesinals and onlt Silverstone was a moment they went a bit different but not for long.

  5. I’ve boycotted Sky for a while now.

    1. Even ITV were better. And they had ad breaks in the race

      1. No. They weren’t.

        They had James Allen and Jim Rosenthal.

        If that’s your idea of the pinnacle of sports broadcasting, you can have it.

    2. I’ve noticed they don’t broadcast interviews and profile documentaries about you. What a shame, I don’t know if I will have the strength to carry on.

      1. You’ll have to find it, as I don’t plan to change my current stance in the foreseeable future.

  6. Best news. Time to end Brit bias in F1.

    1. This rhetoric is so boring and false.

      I’m not British for the record.

      1. It’s not rhetoric … it’s accurate and a shameful delivery of what is supposed to be unbiased race reporting.
        Obviously you’re a LewSir acolyte which is why you love them so much, which proves how biased they are, and tells us a few other things about your demographic.

        1. You’re right, it’s probably not rhetoric, I actually meant narrative!

          Nope, not a Lewis fan either. It shows how good you are at reading people.
          I’m just not miserable enough to constantly want to bring others down like you.

          He was absolutely robbed though. That’s accurate.

          1. Sounds like a Lewis fan to me..

        2. Someone please point me to a rule or governance that says a pundit on TV has to give un unbiased opinion. You EXPECT them to, but there’s nothing to sat they have to. Ted or Martin give their option, you weigh it and either agree or disagree. That’s it. They are both learned men in the sport, either listen or don’t.

        3. Why does it have to be unbiased? I expect Calgary Flames announcers to be biased when I watch an ice hockey game. Why is this any different? What a dumb take.

      2. petebaldwin (@)
        30th October 2022, 20:28

        It silly to even try to pretend that Sky aren’t massively biased towards Hamilton. I’m sure the Dutch channels are biased towards Max and the Italian channels are biased towards Ferrari but to suggest that Crofty and Ted aren’t Hamilton fans to the point of being unprofessional, you haven’t watched a race on Sky.

        1. They also blow smoke up Max’s backside every opportunity!

          I’ve watched almost every race on Sky… Love you keyboard warriors with your baseless assumptions.

          1. petebaldwin (@)
            30th October 2022, 23:04

            Sky do….? Sky UK? And on a side note just so we’re clear, you’re not a keyboard warrior then yeah? Everyone else is but your special right? :D

      3. British media is VERY biased towards british drivers. Annoyingly so. Even speaking about drivers like Brundle, Blundell, Herbert and so on, it’s like they are better than other average drivers we’ve seen from that era. A bad performance by a british driver always get a better rating than a bad performance by anyone else. Not just on the telly, also on websites and even comments on twitter.

        From experience I can tell that the Spanish media is very bad too with bias towards Alonso and Sainz (horribly so! you’d not believe it), and I bet the dutch are biased aswell. But the british media gets the most coverage, and Sky’s commentators show up in the official youtube channel plus a lot of the broadcasts around the world. They influence a lot more people than anyone else.

        1. So you’re saying all F1 pundits are biased toward they’re own countrymen? My question is why wouldn’t they be? Or why shouldn’t they be?

    2. Sky F1 have been extremely pro-RBR all season, and much of their broadcast had seemed like the Red Bull Show. For him to boycott Sky for one comment when they’ve been singing his praises all year is childish in the extreme, especially when it wasn’t even a comment against him!

      1. Absolutely. Did Mercedes boycott Sky after Karun Chandhok’s pro red bull comments were broadcast on drive to survive?

        Everything is a performance for Horner. Happy to take the publicity of his comments from pit wall and interviews from his family home on Sky several times a season. Toys out the pram at the first sign of a negative comment.

      2. This has nothing to do with what has been said about Hamilton being robbed of an 8th title. A little convenient it is directly after they were caught red handed and embarrassed over the cost cap failure.
        They are playing the victim card again (like Horner saying RBR should be apologised to for the comments made by other teams – even though they transpired to be true). This takes the heat out of the media scrutiny whilst it is fresh and red bull brand doesn’t take a further reputation hit.

  7. Max robbed a silverstone win… Should be WC way earlier. You don’t hear them about that. Just always the focus on that 1 race….I watch Sky often and all the reporters do a great job. But Ted Kravitz his item is no good at all. They should cancel.

  8. Whinger Spice has had a busy week throwing all the toys out of the pram

  9. This is strange cause I keep seeing interviews by sky for verstappen, I saw them after quali and I’m seeing them now after the race…

    1. @esploratore1 Not so strange, in your market, it seems they are giving interviews.
      Ted Kravitz, who is a Sky Sports presenter in some markets, including the UK, said in a broadcast that LH was ‘robbed’ of the 2021 title. This word is commonly used in sport in the UK, if there is anything even slightly off about a sporting event, e.g. in football, a foul not given, and a goal scored ‘because’ of it.
      In the case of Abu Dhabi, there was indeed something ‘off’, as FIA reports, and a year of controversy attests.
      Now, normally, in the UK a comment like that would be taken in stride, and ignored or scoffed at. But not by RB, apparently.

      1. Ahh, thanks for clarifying, so it’s a matter of following the italian broadcast rather than the english one.

  10. At least there is one positive, don’t have to listen to Horner anymore!!!

  11. Turns out you can only throw out so many conspiracy theories in Ted’s Notebook until people are over you. Who knew?

  12. Sky’s coverage has been horribly biased for quite a while. To be fair, Brundle and Button are quite good to listen to but Croft & Kravitz are insufferably bad and have been for the past few years. The coverage is dreadful if you’re a fan of anyone not driving a Mercedes and the commentators barely hide their bias. Channel 4 should have kept the rights, they were considerably more balanced.

  13. Poor diddums. Did Ted say something to upset you?
    I don’t know if I will be able to cope with the disappointment of them caving in and talking to Sky again.
    Very disappointing, I was hoping for a more mature Max, but there you go.
    What will their sponsors and business partners be thinking?

  14. #Pathetic

  15. Forgetting RBR for a second, Sky is complete rubbish. Ted is particularly annoying as he manages to be both condescending and solicitous at the same time. And, BTW, it has nothing to do with his view Dubai as I agree it was an extremely unsporting decision. However, I don’t believe Hamilton was “robbed,” unless you’re going to agree Massa was robbed in 2008. He would have easily won the WDC if it weren’t for the Renault crash-gate in Singapore.

    1. In fairness Martin Brundle is excellent but the rest are just irritating to one degree or another. Jenson is amusing occasionally but generally lame, De Resta is awful and Croft is simply embarrassing.
      If I could switch off commentary I would and just listen to the track action. Would miss Martin but an acceptable price to pay.

  16. Very strange to not see Horner speak on skysports, finally we got rid of that worm on TV albeit RB boycott.

    Maybe we should ask Elon to ban all of RB’s twitter accounts in response.

    Seriously tho, no one cares about the RB brand , it’s ancient. Only the F1 team / football teams keeping it alive. RB drinks company will probably be worthless in the next 10 years anyway.

  17. As a fan and for the sport, shouldn’t they be obliged to do interviews etc regardless who it is? Not a good look for Red Bull

  18. Red bull don’t like the truth

  19. Mercedes propaganda company in trouble?
    This is how close ties with Wolff end. Only the blind can’t see how Mercedes manipulates and runs his hate campaigns.

  20. The Sky commentators do occasionally show their bias towards Hamilton and other British drivers, but it is clear that they do try to be neutral generally. This was not true in the past, with James Allen and Martin Brundle very clearly supporting Hamilton in the 2007 and 2008 Brazilian GPs (Brundle’s famous cry of ‘YES!’ when Lewis won in 2008), while Murray Walker was very obviously and deliberately biased towards British drivers, most notably Damon Hill. It seems as though they were previously the ‘British commentators’ and were supposed to be biased towards Brits, whereas now they are just commentators who happen to be British and sometimes show their bias when they are not supposed to. I don’t know when the switch happened, but perhaps with the move from BBC to Sky as the main broadcaster in 2012?

    1. However, you don’t have to be a Hamilton fan to think he was robbed last year, and credit to Ted for giving his actual opinion rather than what he is supposed to say to make F1 look better.

    2. 2008, man, f1 fans have long memories. I wish I remembered my lack of gray hair and lack of joint noises when working out back then with such perfect clarity.

      As for the bias, as a non Brit, what I hear is broadcasters who work for a British broadcaster with a lot of British subscribers trying to highlight content their audience wants when they are not in control of the actual feed. It’s their job. Like if you are watching NBC during the Olympics expect American “bias.” I don’t understand why this makes people so mad.

  21. It does make the team look amateurish and unprofessional to say the least, and for what, a comment made about a grands prix that took place nearly a year ago by a middle aged overweight sports pundit? You would have thought Red Bull and Christian Horner were above all that but one suspects that the cost cap saga is the real reason behind this latest temper tantrum.
    Breaking the cost cap ruling is no longer speculation but proven fact, Red Bull broke the rules, rules that in large part they pushed for in the first place. When you are on top as a team, with the performance advantage Red Bull have, you are going to come under attack from everybody. Its always been that way. Your rivals want to peg you back and if they can’t catch you on track they’ll try to do so off track. Remember the furore over Ferrari’s engines three years ago, its the same, or Benetton way back in 1994 when there was speculation about their car, I could go on and on.
    Whether its fair or not, there will always be those who will look at Verstappen’s first title and say he was gifted it.
    Michael Schumacher never escaped the shadow of Adelaide 1994, despite winning the championship six more times afterward. When you take the praise you have to be man enough and brave enough to take the flak, because it will come, whether you want it or not. Thats the true price of success.

  22. Well… Hamilton was robbed, that’s just the truth. Clear rules were breached by the race director so they could “go racing” and if the rules were followed it was Hamilton’s race win and title.

    I swear to god if this ends up with Sky removing Kravitz from their coverage it will be bloody depressing. Red Bull must be the sorest winners in sporting history.

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      30th October 2022, 23:13

      Probably true regarding Red Bull but at the same time, you don’t get a worse group of losers than British sports fans – and I’m British. Try and think of a famous sporting loss (and there are lots to pick from) where it was just admitted that the opposition were better. No… It’s always the referee or someone cheating or a player on the team letting everyone down…

    2. why..2 titles meanss they are winners

  23. Weird and childish. After threatening people with legal claims for saying you cheated when you admitted to cheating to get a lesser penalty for cheating it should take a minute before you can claim righteous indignation about reporters being mean.

  24. petebaldwin (@)
    30th October 2022, 23:10

    I actually quite like Ted despite him not being very professional – he’s still quite funny to listen to. It’s hilarious to see all these people who previously didn’t like him suddenly saying he’s a legend though because it fits their anti Max/Red Bull agenda.

  25. Redbull need media outlets more than media outlets need Redbull.

    Sky should return the favour next week.

    1. What are Sky gonna do, pixelate the screen every time they show the race leader?

      1. FOM is responsible for race coverage, not Sky.

        They can however refuse interviews. Though, they won’t, since nobody is as petty as Redbull in F1.

  26. Firstly, I have no issues with Ted Kravitz and/or anyone else expressing their opinion but understand by expressing that opinion Kravitz then owns it and therefore solely responsible for whatever comes back his way whether it be with interest.

    I like so many saw everything unfold on the night, and I can understand all the emotion that flowed from the drivers and teams involved on the night; that said, I couldn’t give a damn about the drivers/teams involved.

    Initially, Ted Kravitz’s first crack wasn’t all the bad given he was supposedly describing a film script, but when he came around for the second crack, then he was definitely out of order, and as such deserves everything that comes his way.

    Now to Abu Dhabi, all drivers/trams had the option to either pit for boots (tyres), or remain out for field position; pay your money and take your chance – so stop crying.

    The whole issue falls back on the decision taken by the F1/FIA race director. Everyone is saying that the director didn’t apply the restart rules as expected by all, but it’s my understanding that the rules were broad enough to allow the director the discression to apply the rule in numerous ways. If so, then no one driver or team was robbed as the director was still within his purview.

    Now back to Red Bull breaching the rules, it’s F1/FIA’s responsibility to be auditor, judge & jury of the rules, and those rules if I’m correct the penalty is not retrospective but served within the current racing year……

    No, I go back to my original comment about expressing an opinion, especially so public in this case. Bravery is not defined because I said it to your face in public. Why the person/team on the receiving end cannot retaliate in kind – that’s not bravery. I call it cowardice or a straight-up cheap shot.

    Now flip the switch and apply it to Red Bull’s response, whether their reply it’s correct or incorrect, they will own it and they will cop anything that comes their way on the chin irrespectively of whether you think it’s professional or childish.

    It’s their call; it’s not my call, it’s not your call or any other keyboard warrior for that matter.

    Brundle in my opinion called it right on the night in Abu Dhabi.

    John

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