Verstappen and Horner explain Sky boycott over ‘disrespect from one person particularly’

2022 Mexican Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen has explained why he and his Red Bull team have stopped giving interviews to Formula 1 broadcaster Sky.

The Red Bull driver did not speak to Sky after yesterday’s qualifying session or today’s United States Grand Prix, which he won. Team principal Christian Horner has also not given them an interview during that time.

Sky is one of F1’s biggest broadcasters and holds exclusive rights to the sport in several territories, including the UK. Verstappen said his decision to stop speaking to them was not triggered by their Mexican Grand Prix coverage.

“It’s nothing to do with this weekend,” he said in today’s FIA press conference. “But this year, it’s been a constant kind of like digging, being disrespectful. Especially one particular person. At one point it’s enough, I don’t accept it.”

“You can’t live in the past,” he added. “You just have to move on.”

He blames Sky’s coverage for provoking hostility towards his team on social media.

“At the moment, 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 in the world,” said Verstappen. “You keep disrespecting me. And at one point, I’m not tolerating it anymore. So that’s why I decided to stop answering.”

Verstappen added the amount of abuse on social media has become worse due to the growing popularity of F1.

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“I think it’s just the sport is more popular so there are more people watching so more people are writing,” he said. “I think it’s just that. It’s not great that they are allowed to write these kinds of things.

“So I hope we can come up with a kind of algorithm that stops people from being keyboard warriors. Because these kind of people they will never come up to you and say these things in front of your face, it’s just that they’re sitting in front of their desk or whatever at home, being upset, being frustrated and they can write whatever they like because the platform allows you to. That can be really damaging and hurtful to some people and it’s not how it should be.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the team’s boycott will not continue beyond this weekend. Horner said it was prompted by comments made in Sky’s United States Grand Prix broadcast and was not solely aimed at their British channel, Sky Sports.

“We were obviously disappointed with a series of derogatory comments that have been made on on Sky,” said Horner. “So we felt that this weekend we’d just take a break and that it wouldn’t do Sky any harm us taking a break this weekend.

“There needs to be balance in commentary. Some of the commentary’s excellent but some of the pieces there’s too much sensationalism being done. And we stand together as a team.”

Red Bull have explained their concerns to Sky, he said. “We’ve been very clear it’s not just been Sky UK, it’s been across all of the Sky channels, Germany, Italy.

“So it was just for this weekend, but it was just to register our discontent in sometimes some of the the less impartial comments that are made or accusations that are sometimes made as TV seems to becoming ever more sensationalised.”

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2022 Mexican Grand Prix

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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...
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British...

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198 comments on “Verstappen and Horner explain Sky boycott over ‘disrespect from one person particularly’”

  1. BLS (@brightlampshade)
    30th October 2022, 23:21

    Stage 1 of brushing recent events under the carpet. Cut the stories off before they can start.

    No one can ever accuse Red Bull of not being the smartest team on the grid.

    1. Well, if you watch sky, I no longer do, you would understand. These days broadcasters generally can’t get away with saying something ever so slightly spurious however sky likes to think they are racing in f1 or sometimes just part of team Lewis, they tease sky customers for questioning their self proclaimed impartial stance and say whatever they want. the aforementioned or not mentioned at all Ted Kravitz enjoys insulting and shaming everyone. I still don’t know how he got away with insulting Vettel’s father Norbert at the italian gp, a few years ago when Ferrari was the nemesis, he thought it was funny, calling the man Nobby or knobby 10x times.

      1. While i enjoy Ted reports he has sometimes the nasty maner to insult people (not directly but on the English way between the lines that is how i as a Non Native speaker would say) Also last Saterday he could taste his disapointment very well and started over 2021 robbing Lewis (and to me he was aiming the Max did the robbing while the FIA did that) I think there are people watching him and reporting this to Red Bull

      2. If LH is so sincere about this he should not use his SKY friends to say things but not actually saying it. This is fuel for a toxic environment. LH himself has to start to show some respect in words and body language to MV. Sky is bias as hell. questions being ask during interviews with one purpose; spin certain topics. This is a continuing way of reporting that is not funny anymore. Sky should ask theme self why a twice WDC is angry about there reporting. Nice in your face but behind your back only telling nasty things. If Sky start reporting facts and inform us with facts about the F1, that’s s great !! But i think Sky belongs to the people who also running the SUN, Daily Mail et etc and more of that garbage journalism

        1. What did Lewis say?

          1. I refer to his comment during the post race press conference the toxic environment on social media.
            You see during a lot of interviews that Sky reporters in coloration with for example LH mention something, discuss something never pin point it or saying it lout and clear but making things suspicious that fuels the opinion of LH fans. Why LH fans ?? Because a lot of time SKY taking a dig on RB/MV again and again and again. I am not saying this is LH fault he is just a player in this theater but bad journalism of SKY reporters who
            are bias and gives fans the fuel to polarize. They should take responsibility and report fair and with facts so fans can discuss those facts and not make up story lines or sensational headlines or suport the SKY agenda against a team or driver

          2. @heistheone

            If there is anyone to blame, it is redbull and horner himself. The biggest hypocrite and the worst words flame thrower in the whole of F1. At and after Silverstone, he went shy of going to court for murder charges against Hamilton. Up until that point, they (horner and marko) were constantly pumping the bs fuel max was being fed to boost max’s ego. He was a very dangerous driver and was taking super aggressive and unnecessary risks that people were avoiding to respond which further encouraged the horner marko pump jobs. Never they calmed max, instead fueled him with even more silly aggressiveness. Which led to Silverstone eventually, and lo and behold, they accused ham as a murder suspect shy of going to actual court. Does anyone really believe if in last race, roles were to be reversed and ham was the beneficiary of the most absurd and obvious cheat in the history of f1, horner marko and redbull would just bow their head down and leave it at that? I bet a million dollar that the season wouldn’t see the light of day from court proceedings and never ending threats of leaving and maybe they would actually leave f1 for good. Instead Horner marko in sheep clothing crying wolves now , distracting attention. Make no mistake, they are doing something def, time will show!

      3. I agree with you that the sky broadcast seems to have become less and less neutral and universal and more and more focussed on this kind of things, with some of them – i.e. Kravitz – being amongst the worst of them @peartree.

        On the other hand it still is less bad than what German TV did in the Schumacher years and some of the Vettel years. Or how the Dutch broadcaster (and the countries largest newspaper) cover F1 going along with much of the BS Red Bull feeds us.

        I am glad that the F1 TV coverage is a lot better in that respect.

        1. “F1 TV coverage is a lot better ” … $9.99 a month and happy to it. Will’s Pit Walks are all about cars and drivers. He bypasses those non-F1 “Megan Thee Stallion” types …

      4. BLS (@brightlampshade)
        31st October 2022, 14:34

        I don’t think Sky are especially anti Red Bull to be honest, after all Horner and Horner alone is granted the position of being able to wrangle his side of the story mid quali and mid race to Sky. No other team bosses get a regular slot in the commentary team.

        They all claim to be impartial but I don’t think any are, but they’re not wrong here. Difference of opinion on how to put it sure, but still not wrong.

        1. I’ve often wondered why Sky goes to Horner and not the other team principals for comment. Excellent comment! Additionally, I always mute lap 1 commentary of Sky’s hyped, blood pressure raising, comments. There’s no need for that! SENSATIONALIZING the first lap is news we can all see! Shut up Crofty!!

      5. Spot on. Good comment.

    2. If there is an issue with anything to do with sky, it is 100% guaranteed to be sky who has caused it.

      don’t ever stick up for the scum

    3. You’re not familiar with the barbra streisand effect, are you?

  2. If there’s any one team or driver who have benefited most from “keyboard warriors”, sensationalist coverage, and unbalanced commentary it is Red Bull and Max Verstappen. Now that they are feeling the pain of what they have unleashed on F1, they start clutching their pearls in indignation? I think Max is an incredibly talented driver and I think Red Bull is the most talented and performant team in the paddock but good grief they are petulant children when it comes to negative commentary.

    1. If there’s any one team or driver who have benefited most from “keyboard warriors”

      Let me tell you as one ‘keyboard warrior’ to another: nobody wins!

      1. @jff:
        Best comment

    2. Maybe people are fake F1 fans if they can’t respect his choice or personality

      1. This may be the quintessential keyboard warrior comment. I don’t really have a problem with Ver other than that massive overbite. For the love of god with all the money he has go to an orthodontist.

    3. Absolutely agree. Their comments post Silverstone last year truly turned it all up so they have themselevs to blame.b

    4. Anybody who is refusing to acknowledge that the blame for toxicity on social media is the fault of the people saying it are part of the problem.

      You want a fact? Social media is the worst invention to ever happen to the world

      1. Davethechicken
        31st October 2022, 17:23

        My doctor must be wrong but cause he told me energy drinks were the worst invention in the world ever.

      2. You want a fact? Social media is the worst invention to ever happen to the world

        You appear to have missed the prefix – the proper term is “anti-social media”

    5. Very well said

  3. Agree with RB, Ted, whomever, but there is no doubt that Ted is screwing over himself and Sky here. He is a pitlane reporter. He isn’t there to give his opinion. Giving his personal opinion will lead to bruised egos and hurt feelings, which result in him not being able to do his job as effectively. If the teams won’t speak to him, then what is he there for?

  4. Seems like their way of avoiding the questioning which would naturally follow the FIA’s decision last week.

    1. Sky showed some of Horner’s press conference on Friday, but only the questions asked by Sky personnel (including Croft and Kravitz). It looked like Horner was clearly rattled by Sky’s style of questioning.

      This was maybe the catalyst for Red Bull’s decision to snub Sky the last couple of days

      1. Absolutely, this is purely about Red Bull’s reputational damage protection. The embarrassment of being found guilty and having to accept that guilt is bad for the brand (whether it was intentional or just bad accounting mistakes).
        By cutting off one of the biggest broadcaster in F1 they can take the heat out of it whilst it is fresh.

  5. Of course I wholeheartedly disagree with unjustified or malicious online commentary, or bullying and personal degradation on social media, however I think there are more people than MV realises that would very much say such things to his face. They just don’t have the means to be in that position.

    As for boycotting Sky though. This seems to be a little disrespectful to their fans in my view. Perhaps there is some truth in what MV is saying, but it’s all just opinion unless it goes so far as to be libellous. Maybe MV and RB should – just as a suggestion – go and make their grievances known. . . . to their face?

    1. @cairnsfella Either I skipped half of this article and misread the other half, or there were some wholesale edits done between when I began typing my original post and a when I submitted it.

      Either way it has rendered my previous post moot.

    2. however I think there are more people than MV realises that would very much say such things to his face.

      This is quite pivotal in this debate. That what you state here is a perception brought to you by British media. It is in fact a vocal minority, call it a niche. It is certainly not the view of the rest of the world. And it has been mildly entertaining like seeing a kid not being able to cope with losing a competition, but it is getting old now. There seems to be a problem with some fans thinking they make up the fans of this sport while in fact they are 1-5% of the global audience. I could take this into a more political global context and see similarities in behavior on many more areas than sports alone, but am afraid that will trigger an even more fierce debate. Beware of this trend as I can not imagine it is constructive in any way.

      1. British media? The Fia admitted that masi screwed up and verstappan should not have won the 2021 World championship if masi followed the rules & if horner doesn’t like sky calling redbull out the cheating the cost cap……. Tough

        1. Because most of the UK f1 audience is forced to read and listen to UK media you would not know or noticed that your are played by SKY f1. Maybe you can’t understand that people in Russia believe a word Putin says or closer to UK soil; how was it possible that people believed a word the leave campagne said about the EU.
          When you are forced to listen or read information that is manipulated by a small group of people (SKY, SUN, Daily Mail) you have to watch out what to believe. It is used in the past very often efficiently to swing peoples opinion and manipulated the out-come. It called propaganda. As a outsider it is interesting to observe but dangerous.
          Of course the Ukraine war, Brexit are far mor important then F1 but the way (tactics) media plays it’s audience is the same.

      2. It sounded like you are threatening. Very Trump like. You have personally taken “this” into more political context, and of course you have seen similarities in “behaviours” because you have been an active participant in it. Your context is incredibly narrow, so don’t ever call it global, because you have no perception of what global is. It is obvious your world is narrow and no deep thinking ever needed where that world is. Entertaining? Absolutely not. It is quite a principal issue, confronting cheats. It is rather odd to say Sky is pro Hamilton. This paper and Sky are resolutely pro Red Bull. They made attempts to be fair and to be unbiased and they certainly veer on non-supporting as far as Hamilton is concerned.

      3. It seems you are on here with a distinctly anti-British hang-up rather than having anything useful to say… There is no true fan of F1 that can honestly believe that what happened at Abu Dhabi last year was right… Whether you believe it was a conspiracy, mistake, incompetence, or showmanship is up for debate but there is no debate about whether it was done correctly or not. It is irrelevant which country you happen to be from.

        1. The world has moved on, thats what I am saying

          1. Well – actually the world can remember the end of last year, recognise an absolute sporting tragedy that has scarred the sport forever, recognise changes in the FIA and the drivers code and then get right up to date with the facts that RB overspent by somewhere between 400k and 4million and not be stupid enough to think that that had no effect on the last two years championships. As CH, clutching his skirts and pearls would like everyone to believe.

            Meanwhile RB, once again, do not bother with the practice or none valid year of cost cutting accounting that all other do and then tries to bluff through their ‘mistake’ which interestingly their wholly owned sister team did not make. You know. While they were busy testing all the new RB parts to make up for the 1950,s soviet relic wind tunnel that RB are forced to use (smart people ask why they would use such? Could it be it’s immense stability and huge computer updates and their employment of the man who can see air?)

            Fun fact – they did similar at the outset of the hybrid rules and were excluded from Australia GP because they us3d their ‘better than FIA sensors’ to calculate fuel flow used too much and – yep – tried to bluster their way through it acting all hurt and upset.

            It is standard SOP for the team – fine but let’s not pretend or be forced to pretend that the zebra has no stripes!

            Or you can live in a bubble?

            And CH wants everyone to apologise to him?

            Ted spoke the factual reality.

            As Shakespeare said ‘me thinks they do protesteth too much’

          2. @drg i said before, i say again, i bet millions that if last year’s travesty was reversed in roles, max leading, and ham given the advantage etc… and ham won the title that way… we wouldnt have f1 this year, because redbul would use putin and nuclear threats to stop f1 racing a single race if they didnt reverse the decision! and would bring g7 council together from nato delegates and UN cabinets to get it sorted or ww3 or simply quit. if anyone thinks otherwise, i suspect their intellect or figure they started watching f1 from that race on and have no clue about what ch, hm, rb as a team have been doing all these years.

            i think ste of haas said it well, if they spent 1 million extra, they hired 10 people to find extra 10-100. when teams gets their competitors penalized for a mm of infringements, it makes huge difference to spend £1 vs £1.000.000 one is snack petty money, other is 10 technical people’s salary! or a few extra car parts to test, or 1 extra car to destroy!

        2. You may disagree. Independent Journalism in every country is important to keep the people in charge accountable.
          In mine view the BBC is a representative of quality independent journalism. But is it coincidence that the BBC is under fire of the right wing?? (Tory party) The same people who owns media-outlets and are mayor donors of that same party. Don’t misinterpreted mine remarks. Because i am critical about Sky and in general journalism in the UK it shows i care. The way SKY reports about many topics and persons is fueled with bias, personnel opinions and support there agenda. I try to warn people, you can support who ever you want but that not release you of any critical thinking. You saying; there is no true fan of F1 etc and focusing solely on the decision making in AD last year but i think that is a narrow view to look at things. I am a true f1 fan but i disagree with you about AD. That’s the fun of it; discussing f1 based on facts and opinions. There happen a lot of things in 2021 that you could have a debate about. I think that MV was the justified WDC that year for many reasons.

    3. Look at what happened to football ever since sky took over complete control of it(don’t fall for the crap that the premier league runs the premier league, it runs **** all).

      Sky is the problem here, only fools think otherwise

  6. So, only talk with people who say nice things about you???

    1. What a bunch of cowards.

    2. The world would be a better place without sky in it.

      1. And F1 would be a better place without cheats in it. But since the FIA refuse to do anything meaningful against cheats – historically and not just this time – and F1 insists on selling TV rights to people like Sky, both are here to stay.

        The problem starts and finishes with the sports management and rule makers looking for money and sensationalism – and not sporting integrity.

  7. Am I too cynical or is this just a smoke screen to try and move headlines from the budget cap penalty?

    1. Wouldn’t be surprised but hardly makes them look better.

  8. So the UK’s recently departed Prime-Minister-but-one Alexander “Boris” de Pfeffel Johnson had a method for not getting called out by fact based media, which was called the “Dead Cat strategy” – if you dump a dead cat on the table, everyone starts talking about that, instead of your latest lie, gaslighting, cheating, etc. Worked for him until the actual behaviour outclassed the pong.
    Funny how Red Bull smells just like a dead cat to me.
    Still strikes me as petulant, tho. :)

    1. Better then using the labour tactic of fabricating a dossier that led to an illegal war, hopefully Redbull won’t go that far.

      1. That Tony B.Liar government really brought these sort of techniques into the mainstream in the UK, to the detriment of the world IMHO. And it continues to get exponentially worse.
        I don’t think CH would go that far, but I’m less sure of that than I was…

      2. And don’t even start about what the liberals did in 1631.

        1. It’s just like when the stegosaurus refused to discuss if the giant ball in the sky was getting larger

    2. The ‘elites/parasites ‘ do this all the time. Start financial crisis, wars, plandemics to divert from their stealing and manipulation. The world ‘leaders’ just follow out their orders.

  9. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    31st October 2022, 0:18

    If anyone should be any boycotting, it shouldn’t be Red Bull. It should be the teams and fans against Red Bull…

    1. Itsmeagain (@)
      31st October 2022, 6:06

      You would like that. That’s the toxic environment here

  10. Leonard ‘Big Lenny’ Persin (@)
    31st October 2022, 0:21

    Filthy people. Hamilton fans should take a long look in the mirror before posting hateful comments online. 🤣🙄🤣🤣🤣

    1. @theessence You are just as much of the problem. Have you seen the hateful comments by Max/RB fans towards Ted? Nevermind the fact that Horner claimed the accusations of cheating was negatively affecting his workforce mental health and now he just basically does the same to another colleague in the sport by painting a target on their back.

  11. It’s not great that they are allowed to write these kinds of things.

    OR maybe don’t read it?

    1. No.
      Because at first, sport is supposed to be a place to learn sportmanship and to promote it.
      You can’t accept disrepect, no matter the subject.
      That’s not a way to conduct dialog.
      You can disagree with someone without being disrespectfull.

      And that’s the point they mean here.

  12. RBR are casting a shadow over their own achievements this year with this bizarre and childish maneuver. And it doesn’t need any more shade.

  13. I don’t think they get to take the high road after the toxic bile they spouted about Hamilton after Silverstone last year. You can’t spread lies and toxicity through social media then cry when it comes back to bite you. How about you look at yourselves Red Bull and the toxicity you’ve unleashed on the sport first. I couldn’t care less if they were never interviewed again.

    1. That race was pivotal in all of this as it triggered all toxicity. Had Lewis and his team responded in a human way and owned up, nothing would have happened. Yet they chose to show no class since for the first time in 8 years they encountered some competition. How small can you be? It instantly took away the shine and respect Lewis and Mercedes had built up.

      1. Lewis made a small mistake during an overtake which caused a collision. He apologized for it.

        Verstappen and Horner then embarked on a massive campaign to discredit Hamilton, going so far as to accuse him off attempted murder. This sparked massive amounts of abuse on social media directed against Hamilton, which RBR and Verstappen were very slow to denounce.

        As much as I disagree with the behaviour we see from some on social media, including that directed towards Max, he and his team should look to their own behaviour before blaming Sky. They should also consider how much it looks like their actions are an attempt to whitewash certain events and rewrite history…

        1. I get what you are saying. On a broader (beyond sports) view the media has been quite irresponsible or at least not taking any responsibility on life events the last decade, fuelled incredibly by Trump. I feel it is one of the biggest challenges in this era. The took the concept of free speech and totally abused it for their own agendas. Governments seem unable to do anything about it. Call on morality does clearly not work as most media have reduced themselves to tabloid level since it is all about reader and viewer number equalling money, rather than integrity. So I do not have a clear solution other than to put anyone working for a media company through a mandatory three year morality training. In absence of a better solution things like this boycott is another angle to take as nothing seems to stop the greed of the media.

        2. Absolutely. Personally, I’m more disturbed by the influx of Dutch football hooligans into the sport, assaulting people and throwing lit flares into the crowd, than I am by the idea that a coddled millionaire with a history of making racist comments feels “disrespected”.

        3. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
          31st October 2022, 14:12

          @drmouse I don’t think Lewis apologized for the incident, did he?

        4. Lewis made a small mistake during an overtake which caused a collision. He apologized for it.

          The mistake was having his front left wheel and suspension in the bit of space that Max chose to drive through.
          If Max had taken a fractionally wider line, rather than aiming for the apex as though no one was in the way, then he would have been in front of Lewis at the next corner.
          With relative performance in different sectors, the pundits reckon Lewis would have been back in front a little later and the race would have been to and fro for a number of laps.

          As the rules on such moves stood at the time, the “fault” was deemed to be slightly more Lewis than Max. Accuracy not being a strong point of the RBR/Max fans this was seized upon as proof of total blame with Lewis. Hans Christian of course spun a dark fairy tale.

          Back on topic – blaming Ted Kravitz for biased reporting is pure BS (or normal for CH) if you just pause for a microsecond and engage the memory cells.
          Who pointed out the aerodynamic features of the Merc wing stays to the viewers? The main topic of various articles was the “Ted Kravitz pointed out…”
          How exactly did that help Merc and hinder RBR?

      2. They tried to cover it up by over-celebrating at the end of that race, which was pathetic. No wonder Red Bull were incensed.
        The hardcore fans will never accept that there was any wrong doing either, because to admit that they got off light and bagged a lot of undeserved points makes the whole pretence of being robbed in AD void.
        You will also notice how the British commentators often show their views immediately after an incident but then jump up on the fence afterwards. In Silverstone, they immediately commented on there being plenty of space on the inside. Also in Monza, Brundle said that Max had done nothing wrong going for a gap that was wide open. In the heat of a moment you often hear what people really think.

        1. Nonsense. They celebrated because they won the race. And they had been told max was fine. You’re doing exactly what red bull do. Infact you may as well be Horner, if not it sounds like you’re taking his own thoughts as yours

          1. Rubbish. Try looking at what actually happened objectively instead of following the media narrative.
            Definitely don’t go by DTS, they had it in for Max for not being part of their pretentious show.

          2. Some of us did watch what happened and saw a racing incident at Silverstone that was needlessly but nevertheless penalised followed by a deliberate act in Monza by Verstappen to take out Hamilton or push his way through regardless of cost to either driver. That needless crash or let me pass attitude was then replicated in several other races by Verstappen which resulted in a whole scale rewrite of the overtaking rules for this year and widespread criticism or Verstappen’s driving standards last year. But sure because people are ciriticizing your favourite driver, there all in cahoots.

            Pretty sure you have some white face paint and red nose somewhere you need to be putting on.

        2. Exactly and subsequently on this forum most people only watch UK media and do not even notice they are played for someone else’s agenda.

          1. Only one team went to the media after that race and started a hate campaign against another driver on social media and it wasn’t Mercedes or Hamilton. Your pathetic xenophobia against the British is getting boring. On that point I would highlight this is a site created and run by a British company, if you don’t like that fact maybe you should setup your own site in your country. Indeed if it’s so bad, find another site that suits your agenda, surely there must be one if it’s so easy.

      3. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        31st October 2022, 14:59

        @Mayrton

        That race was pivotal in all of this as it triggered all toxicity. Had Lewis and his team responded in a human way and owned up

        Max was lucky to survive that but Max cut in and assumed Lewis had backed down. He realized he’d made a mistake and tried to correct but clipped Lewis’ wheel. While Lewis could have taken another angle, he did allow Max to go into the corner first and gave him enough space. You can’t hold Lewis accountable for Max’s ridiculous driving at Silverstone and Monza that could have killed either of them and came close to killing both of them.

        A disqualification for Max from the championship was the right decision there. He needed to cool down and drive responsibly. He didn’t drive responsibly for the entire season against Lewis with Lewis being the savior of all accidents from that point forward and you have to wonder how he was allowed to do so as any other driver not named Verstappen would have been disqualified or penalized for driving that way.

        Did Max deserve to win the championship? Not if he’s going to kill the other driver on every corner and the other driver is racing to save both drivers. Forget about Masi, the cost cap breach and everything else.

        Was it exciting? It was but Lewis should not be alive today and Max should have been behind bars for manslaughter. Max not only got away and saved his career and life at Silverstone and Monza but he also got 2 championships.

        It’s the worst reward ever offered to a racer for their reckless driving over an entire season.

        1. +100

          At last – someone with a reality check

          Thank you

          Pause now for the entry of this new thing recently developed (2016) called ‘British Bias’

        2. @Michael
          So was Giovinazzi not an attempted murderer for pulling off a move into T1 similar to what Max tried, only because the door wasn’t closed late on him?
          Was Leclerc also not reckless this year by giving Hamilton even less room on the inside at Copse, only because Lewis was a further car width to the inside than he was against Max? Check the onboards, your argument is seriously flawed.

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            31st October 2022, 20:38

            I don’t believe you can use another driver as an example. Hamilton may have decided to avoid a collision in that instance with Leclerc but it’s not up to Hamilton to be the collision-avoiding driver in F1. It’s not like you get extra points for being a better driver.

            I’ve seen the onboards from the Silverstone incident a million times because a lot of people say things but they are just fabricating stuff. It was a mistake from Max and probably a result of the fact that he is so aggressive that he’s uncontested in overtakes and assumed that Lewis would back down. Assumption is a driving error.

            I think you will agree with the following statement and I’d be surprised if Max and Lewis didn’t also agree with it:

            – If Max drove against another driver like Max, both would die by turn 1.

            – If Lewis drove against Lewis, they’d never crash and the racing would resemble what we saw last year between Lewis and Alonso.

          2. The same Max who has had no collisions this year? And the same Lewis who has had several?
            He turned in on Alonso in Spa and gave no room at all yet received no penalty, even after admitting he was at fault.
            Max left more than a cars width at Copse last year yet was supposedly ‘predominantly at fault’. It makes no sense.
            Lewis didn’t want to smash Leclerc out of the race a year later after doing it to Max the year before. The truth is, if he took the same line Leclerc would have been in the wall too. It’s a fact.

          3. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            31st October 2022, 21:40

            So now you are claiming that Verstappen is a safe and clean driver? Are you suggesting that Lewis was the offender last year? It would hardly surprise me.

          4. I believe the Silverstone incident sparked the war for the rest of the season and gave a large, undeserved points swing to Lewis.
            Watch the sprint race at Silverstone the day before, that will explain why Lewis made a desperate attempt up the inside at Copse. Max was positioned well, knowing that Lewis was never going around the outside like in the sprint and that the tighter inside line (where he left sufficient space) wouldn’t allow Lewis to carry enough speed to pass. The only way he was getting ahead was to put manoeuvre him out of the race, which he did.
            It’s pretty black and white if you choose to look at everything objectively.

  14. When the cap breach news broke and teams commented on it, never naming a team, Red Bull went all crazy stating they were going to take legal action, etc. Even though they weren’t name, Red Bull knew it was them and went on the offensive.
    The “Hamilton was robbed” comment is similar in that no one said Red Bull robbed Hamilton. It is generally accepted that Masi buckled under pressure to give a show and made the ruling. But Red Bull’s reaction to the “Hamilton was robbed” comment makes me wonder if they had some type of arrangement with Masi last year. A better show would have been a red flag but Masi didn’t choose that. Masi also didn’t choose a VSC. Masi went with the only option that guaranteed a VER win, safety car with a limited number of cars getting to unlap (actually start to unlap as those cars never actually got to unlap and join the back of the pack).

    1. Merc robbed themselves by not pitting for the right tires a few times in Abu Dhabi. Apart from that the season was longer than the last race. Merc and Hamilton just made too many mistakes.

      1. Futile to most ears here. Their season was just the single last race and overlooking the failing Mercedes strategy (and soo many more events in that season) rather convenient for their story.

        1. yes, that is exactly the case.

          The guy who from Amerika from the opening post sees it very one-sided.

          I am not attacking Jim from US, because I never mentioned his name, apparently that’s a good argument

      2. Merc did not have the opportunity to pit for new tyres… Max was behind Hamilton with a huge gap back to second. He had nothing to lose by pitting, If Hamilton had pitted, Max would have stayed out and if the rules were followed properly (as Merc would have expected) then the race would have ended under the SC and Max would have won… I am not sure which race you watched, but it clearly was not that one…

        1. Not true. Max took a big risk by pitting because he did not know how the rest of the race would unfold. Lewis chose to not take that risk.

          And Lewis should have defended better in the last lap. He left the door open not expecting Max to be there.

          Lewis lost.

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            31st October 2022, 12:47

            @petterson

            Max took a big risk by pitting because he did not know how the rest of the race would unfold.

            Clearly Red Bull knew how the race would unfold. It was the rest of the paddock and world that didn’t know.

      3. Ignore Silverstone because that is a polarizing topic, merc were only in a position to win both titles because of bottas intentionally taking out both RBR in Hungary

      4. Merc robbed themselves by not pitting for the right tires a few times in Abu Dhabi.

        This would be the team that had their driver on tyres where he pulled away from MV several times. MV was burning up tyre sets in a desperate attempt to close a gap that had run out to 18 seconds by the time Latifi parked his car in the barrier.
        After that the first opportunity for Lewis to pit for tyres was after Latifi’s Williams decided a barbecue of its innards was a good thing, which then pushed the total time for recovery and unlapping beyond the end of the race.
        That’s why Masi only allowed partial unlapping and called the safety car in a lap early – a desperate attempt to give RBR what they asked for – despite the rules

        Max was beaten hands down at Abu Dhabi, and then Masi handed him a gift, that wasn’t in his power to give. Masi is the ex-race director for a reason.

  15. Shame it’s just for one weekend. Would love to see Sky and, specifically, Mr. Kravitz continuously explain how it happened that the world champions are not speaking to them at all. Actually, I am amazed how he is able to talk and fellate Lewis Hamilton at the same time on live TV. It takes passion and dedication. Incredible journalism.

    And I don’t support Max or RBR, before you jump in. I’m just not british, so the whole charade is quite visible and obvious. And annoying, for that matter. I’m pretty certain that the same thing goes on in any national media with a driver on the grid, but the difference with Sky is that their commentary is global as a part of F1TV (not to mention syndication) and certain standarts are need to be met.

    1. I can imagine the boycott will contribute to Liberty Media evaluating the added value of Sky Sports. I would advise Red Bull to extent the boycott for the remainder of the year to put some pressure on it. In general I would say it would serve Liberty to get a more balanced accreditation in terms of nationalities. If you want to be a global sport, which they clearly seem to, get more balance in your media outlets. At some point in time this being Brittish centric must be taken out of the sport. Alonso, Schumacher, now Max have all been subject to a rather biased look & abuse and Liberty will know it undermines the value of their asset and also will shoot them in the foot on their inclusion objectives. The time has come to truly make this a global sport.

      1. Well considering how much sky will be paying liberty media it will he redbull who get told to grow up

        1. Replacing the revenue from one media partner to another is more easy than replacing four cars on the grid

          1. No it really is not!

            You are clearly not keeping up to date – there are four organisations trying to get into F1!

            It would be ridiculous and sad if the pearl clutch CH and the owning family left F1 but they would be replaced in a shot.

            It has ever been the way.

      2. Sky is a global company owned by 21st Century Fox (a US company) and Sky Ltd (Owned by an Australian) The UK subsidiary is run by a South African….

        Sky is not British Centric… The UK subsidiary is aimed (unsurprisingly) at the UK audience…

        I imagine Viaplay’s coverage is very much aimed at the Dutch audience which being a Dutch broadcaster would not be at all surprising or wrong…

        1. I am aware of their shareholder structure. I am talking about their team on the ground which is absolutely not from the US. I have never watched Viaplay but know they have a Dutch team for the Dutch market. They are not addressing a global market with that team.

      3. Alonso, Schumacher, now Max have all been subject to a rather biased look & abuse

        Alonso: party to crashgate, party to bribery within his own team(McLaren) to disadvantage his teammate (Lewis), involvement in Spygate
        Schumacher: Excluded for races and championships for deliberate crashes, forcing people off track and other items too long a list…

        and now Max.
        While driving a car that cost too much, (the breach is in the 2021 accounts folks) he needed dodgy dealings from the race director to get to the finish line first. The accounts for 2022 – let’s wait and see.

        British bias? The train line from Birmingham to London Euston goes via Milton Keynes and a little over a stone’s throw south of the platform end is a building with a sign facing the tracks announcing the location of Red Bull, across the tarmac of that road end is a building labelled Honda.
        Alpha Tauri are based over on the European mainland, RBR is based here.

    2. Luckily F1TV has its own English (language) commentators; I wouldn’t be using it if I had to endure Kravty and Crofitz

    3. Red Bull need to stop acting like spoilt children and just take it on the chin.

      They very much give off a “The Donald Trump of F1” vibe: They’re sensitive to criticism, see everything as someone else’s fault, and even when they’re in the wrong (also known as “cheating”), they complain about draconian penalties and that Sky journalists are being nasty to them.

      I know he’s not to everyone’s taste but what’s good about Kravitz is that he says what he thinks. Without people like him, F1 coverage would become an anodyne, corporate love-in. Clearly, that’s what Red Bull want.

    4. @Leftie
      Haha.
      “fellate Lewis Hamilton”
      It will be hard to not think about this next time they are all fawning over him or trying to discredit Max.

      1. trying to discredit Max.

        He has credibility to remove??

  16. We really don’t need RB whining anyway.

  17. Just stop Brit bias in media.
    F1 is international sport.

    Why it was so hard for the Brits to understand that listening them crying all year long is annoying?

    Why it was so hard for the Brits to understand that watching bias international broadcaster is ruining the experience?

    Why it was so hard for the Brits to understand that having opinion of their own in a medium that we can challenged it is different at than one opinion broadcasted it to the world?

    1. @rulemaulana, out of interest, what country are you in, and who provides your F1 coverage? I don’t watch Sky Sports UK, but it isn’t really surprising that a broadcast aimed at the UK market would focus more on UK drivers and teams, juat as I am sure Italian media give more coverage to Ferrari, for example.

      1. I’m in Jakarta. I watch on F1TV, while I love Sam Collins voice, I still prefer the dynamics of Crofty’s excitement and Brundle’s insight. I was a fan of Ted’s notebook too. I just hope they understand they were there for the whole world. If they think FIA is corrupt, just say it. Nonstop insinuation is just tiring.

        1. Me too but the second team (with Sam Will and today a American driver) is just a bit more knowledgeable then Crofty and Brundell. But i agree with you if Sky find the FIA is corrupt just say it not the constant hitting below the belt!

          1. I love F1TV commentary except when Buxton is the lead commentator. He just somehow doesn’t seem to be able to properly process what is happening on track into context. For instance, during Q1 in qualifying, some of the lower placed teams were doing an extra warm-up lap and it was clear from the times (about 8s below regular lap times) that they weren’t push laps and Buxton just didn’t seem to process that at all, even when several cars did it and then went on an actual push lap. Then later in Q3 he seemed to believe that everyone was doing two consecutive full push laps, as if that ever happens. Even when they didn’t deploy DRS, he still commentated as if they were going full beans for a second push lap.

            The guy is a decent enough character to be color commentary, but he really shouldn’t be doing play-by-play. However, when it’s Ben Edwards or Tom Gaymor combined with Palmer and Sam Collins, it’s just extremely solid commentary that really focusses on being unbiased (while often also ignoring most off track drama, so it’s actually about the sport, which I appreciate). I wouldn’t go back to Sky anytime soon, to be honest.

          2. @SjaakFoo While I agree with you about Will Buxton and his commentary, I actually tolerate it quite well coming from him, and find it rather funny.

            He has grown on me over the last year or so, after finding him incredibly annoying in Drive to Survive, with his dramatized one liners.

        2. @Ruliemaulana, shouldn’t you be complaining to F1TV and Sky about this instead of complaining on this site? If you look at what you posted originally “Why it was so hard for the Brits to understand that listening them crying all year long is annoying?”, you are being prejudiced against all British people on the basis of some you have heard on one particular channel, and painting them with an unpleasant stereotype.

      2. Sure, if it was just a British broadcast. But, it’s Formula 1’s international English broadcast, supplied by SKY. They are or are becoming blatantly, xenophobic, and that casts a shadow on the whole of F1 programming. This time, their disregard for impartiality, has caught them out, and the team’s justice was applied. Rightly so

        1. Well, you could follow RB and boycott them.

    2. Maybe it is a baseline attitude they feel superior, hence Brexit and all?

      1. Which almost half of the voters did not vote for…

        But then you are on a British F1 site moaning about the British coverage of a British TV Channel… Just watch your local broadcast which will be aimed at you and not the British public…

        1. Fair, except Liberty channels Sky (UK team) through the international feed. Maybe they should improve that if they want inclusion and global interest.

          1. Or you can complain to Liberty to change the global feed.

    3. Dies it not strike you as ironic that you are positing these comments on a British website in English?!

      1. English is the ageed upon global language and the website domain ends in .net and not .co.uk.

  18. Does anyone know what the Sky team has actually said that is disrespectful. It is hard to understand the rights and wrongs of this argument without knowing what was actually said.

    1. Just look on YouTube. The loophole, is that the comments by Ted were part of the domestic portion, of the broadcast. But still, he’s acting the part of a child, and his position demands a more adult approach to his commentary. Filling air time is not an excuse for spouting absolute garbage. There are too many cringeworthy moments beginning to appear.

      1. I just watched it. It is definitely disrespectful.

    2. don’t forget there lovely christmas video massage.
      But to be fair, watching it from outside GB, it seems a British thing? if you see how Football journalist act against the players, seems like they try everything to bring you down.

      1. True

  19. Don’t ask questions, don’t have opinions, don’t make judgements.
    Cancelled.

  20. The only team that exceeded the cost cap and subsequently won a controversial championship as a result says they are being unfairly criticised.
    What part of this is not irony?

    1. The only team that exceeded the cost cap and subsequently won a controversial championship

      Technically, they won the WDC title first and overspent the budget later that year :P

      1. By 0.37%. Congratulations to some for finding a stick

        1. Go back and check

          That was the negotiated number not what the figure started at.

          You clearly have not run a company or been responsible for the kind of figures that 0.37% overspend means potentially 10 or 15 highly skilled engineers and their families are severely impacted and out of work.

          It is not a funny or trivial thing and without getting at you – other companies who did not overspend, sent people home. Forever.

          Unless you have been in that position- do not trivialise in the way RB and to a lesser extent, the media are.

  21. At some point over the past two years, I thought Horner was a Sky shareholder or part of the crew

  22. So Red Bull spend way too much money on developing their cars in 2021. And by that getting an advantage in both 2021 and 2022 – why can Max V be annoyed? His team cheated to get the titles?

  23. It is truly entertaining all this sourness from a small corner in the world, though it is getting old by now.

    1. It’s truly entertaining seeing people try to sweep the numerous controversies of last year under the carpet, though it is getting old now.

      1. You mean that 98% of the world? You must laugh all day then :-)

  24. Wrong is wrong. Being robbed is no small matter. Cheating is no small matter. Being reminded and questioned about it is only fair. Otherwise dont cheat, dont steal. Wheres the humbleness from horner max and redbull. They show no remorse. They would do it all again.

    1. If they want they can have an article or a documentary on these things where they can support whatever opinion they want. This level of commenting, though, as if they are fan boys is not acceptable. Even Mercedes and Hamilton have moved on so I do not see what the point is actually.

  25. This weekend Lewis got boohed in Mexico. I guess next weekend Max is boohed again in Brasil. Such a shame this happens in F1. I think the media is throwing oil on the fire because it’s making money for them. I haven’t seen such polarisation since senna/prost. The Ted Kravitz notebook made me laugh because I tought he made a bit of a mockery of the whole situation. If he really feels that way and was serious than I understand that Max and RB boycot them. No need to cooperate with people who make it even more toxic

    1. I heard the booing but Perez and Max went waving the fans so that stopped very fast.

      1. @macleod

        Yes, it is amazing that the drivers respect each other and yet some of their fans do not.

  26. As a Dutch racefan for many years (I watched Niki Lauda win the last F1 race on the old Zandvoort circuit as a 12 year old kid) I watch the races via the F1 app. I can choose between the dutch commentary or Sky. Normally I choose Sky because I think it is more enjoyable and of better quality. However. I think Verstappen has a legitimate point regarding Ted Kravitz. In my opinion everybody is entitled to have and also vent his own opinion on whether Verstappen or Hamilton should have been the 2021 champion. But in the same “Notebook” Kravitz was als suggesting that Verstappens results were only because of the (Newey designed) car he drives. Personally I think that is very disrespectfull. In F1 you don’t have a chance to win the championship when you don’t have a competitive car. (Verstappen by the way is first to admit that). That has always been the case. To act as If it is is only the car that makes the drive succesfull (and repeatedly is disrespectfull against Verstappen who has constantly outdriven his teammates for the past years. Its just like saying the fact that Lewis Hamilton has only become a zeven times worldchampion because of a dominant Mercedes. Hamilton by the way is, in my opinion, the greatest driver of the modern F1 age.

    1. The British media bias is painfully obvious, unless of course you are a Merc/Hamilton fan because they are telling you everything you want to hear.

      1. They are catering for a British audience so gear their coverage to that market.

        I was in Spain earlier in the year and the whole weekend’s coverage on Spanish TV was centred around Alonso. I’m sure Mexican TV is all about Checo.

        Etc etc.

        1. and of course all the attention goes to british media.

        2. I do get that but they still need to be unbiased. It’s different for a team owner, they will fight tooth and nail for their team and I enjoyed the added drama of Horner Vs Wolff last year.
          I’m British myself but it doesn’t make me automatically a Lewis fan, yet it seems Sky Sports UK are and assume we all are too.

          1. What utter drivel. They also give plenty of coverage of all drivers and don’t forget Mercedes have 2 British drivers in their team as well as a history of winning 7 years of WCC back to back so they’re going to get more coverage than most teams as befits success in sports.

            The top teams in football have always got more TV coverage, just check out MOTD and there is always the top 5 featured heavily for 20 minutes per match and midfield teams get a 5 minute round up. It’s the nature of the beast.

            I’m a McLaren fan and like Lando and I don’t get any impression watching Sky that they’re pro Hamilton. It’s just some of you have a irrational hatred for the man for some reason (we all likely know why) that causes you to see any coverage and perceive it as biased. The guy has won 7 WDC, of course he’s going to get coverage. He also rarely drops PR blunders which makes people constantly try to twist his words to other meanings or read between the lines because he’s not stupid enough to say his mind like some other drivers.

          2. They cover lots of other drivers, I’m not disputing that. It’s the underhand comments like which Kravitz is spewing that keep the vicious circle going.

        3. They are catering for a British audience so gear their coverage to that market.

          They know full well that they are the broadcaster FOM uses for their global highlights and many other videos, and they make liberal use of that privilege to gain access to important people, and their commentators also use it to cash in by hosting various events for teams.

          It’d be much better if FOM stopped giving such a large platform to this regional English broadcaster, and instead used the reporting of their own F1TV commentators. Those guys are doing a much better job at presenting F1 to the whole world, even if they’re still disproportionately English and some bias slips in every now and again. This is also the inevitable result of English people being the least bilingual people in all of the EU; it limits their access to alternative sources and reporting.

    2. Sorry Mate, many MV fans were saying the same about LH…. its the car… Hell Alonso also said it. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion.

      1. Exactly, after 5 years of Verstappen fans and indeed Verstappen himself often saying it was down to the car, the wheel has come full circle. They’re not wrong either, you cannot win the WDC without a competitive car for the majority of races in the year. Verstappen has had the fastest car for all bar maybe 3 races this year by a significant margin. The sad part is people don’t accept that it isn’t a criticism of his talent to admit that but they’ve spent so long defining a narrative now that they can’t back down from it. Also there are some Hamilton fans that will be taking a bit of glee in prodding them saying it’s only the car after that lazy argument was being waved around since 2014.

    3. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
      31st October 2022, 17:15

      Unfortunately and already pointed out even by Verstappen himself it is the car.

      He made the claim that a few drivers in F1 could take the Merc to victory.

      As the saying goes what goes around comes around.

    4. Given the number of people, including in the media, who have said repeatedly that Hamilton’s success was all down to the car, I think it’s completely expected that Verstappen gets similar treatment.

      That said, the Sky team have been singing Verstappen’s praises all year. They may have made a few comments about the controversies of last year, but I’ve never heard them directed at Verstappen. They’ve been critical of the FIA’s handling of Abu Dhabi and the budget cap, and critical of Red Bull for breaking the cap, but Verstappen himself has had nothing but praise.

  27. Ted has become an even more bumbling fool than ever over the last couple of years. When they cut to him in the pit lane he sounds like he’s well into dimentia.

    He is disrespectful and he knows what he’s doing but best take it all with a pinch of Himalayan salt.

    1. He can be a bit childish, embarrassingly so at times.

    2. I like Ted but he can be a bit daft, sometimes cringingly so. I wish he could get over last year. F1 isn’t the only sport where the Ref makes a bad call and it alters a result.

  28. I just wish in the UK we had choice of how to (legitimately) watch F1. £672 per year for Sky whereas its $80 elsewhere for F1TV. Sky have such a monopoly over their markets that they can do what they like. So if this knocks them down a peg or two I’m all for it.

    1. @tsgoodchild that is ultimately a very good point, everyone moans about the UK feed but we’d love to have a different option ourselves for a fraction of the cost like everywhere else does. The UK pays more than anywhere in the world to watch the sport despite over half the teams being based in the UK.

  29. Would this be the constant going back to Abu-dabhi
    Sky is always has some (strong) opportunism and bias in there sporting comments.

    They should be much more sport-minded then trying to make it to be real-life Soaps.

  30. I’ve just about had enough of Red Bull and their cheap psychological tactics to censor debate and bully their critics. Verstappen did the same to Netflix when he didn’t like their portrayal of him as petulant and a bully. What Kravitz said was certainly undiplomatic but it was arguably correct. If Masi had applied the FIA rules correctly, Hamilton would have won last year. Its that simple. Meanwhile, Whinger Spice plays every cheap psych and gaslighting trick in the book. First he called overspend comments “defamatory” (despite being fully aware RB were in breach). Now he turns up at this weekends press conference wearing spectacles for the first time ever (another cheap psych trick to look more credible) and DEMANDS all critics must APOLOGISE to RB. It’s all quite pathetic. RB are a great team but people are getting sick of their hypocrisy and antics.

    1. I beg to differ. A small group is being fed by the media to keep being unhappy about the scene of events. Its maybe 1-5% of the global audience. The other 95% would like to go on and enjoy the sport and not be harassed by children that feel their candy was stolen last year and subsequently trying to find sticks to stir up things again. Its such disrespectful unsportsmanlike behavior. Accept it, move on or watch something else.

      1. 95% know that last years championship was gifted by Masi. Just cause 5% dont want to respect reality doesnt make things unhappen.

        1. Made up statistics: the majority voted verstappen as best driver of 2021 on this website; surely if 95% really thought hamilton deserved the title they’d have voted him as best driver, in reality I don’t remember precisely but at least 51% on this website believed verstappen was the best driver of 2021; this was ofc before the budget cap break saga.

      2. I beg to differ. Give people credit to talk about what they want to talk about. There is no need for any censorship. Media is not driving the issues, people are. Media is reacting to those issues.

        No matter how much the MV camp wishes, AD21 will still be spoken about by the fans.

  31. If they can be this childish over what Ted said in the broadcast – and he never accused Red Bull of wrongdoing, but rather referred to Hamilton having been robbed – can you imagine what they must have been telling the FIA behind closed doors during the CapGate deliberations?
    Ted suggesting that Max was doing well only because of the car is nothing new: for 7 years, Sky told everyone that would listen that Lewis was winning because he had the fastest car. Max fans were among the loudest in cheering that – indeed, Max himself also said it (“Put me in the same car as Lewis and I’m faster”, etc). Now the shoe’s on the other foot and RBR can’t stop whining.
    What a liability to the championship. Nearly everything negative in F1 these days has a connection to Red Bull, one way or the other: either they started it, or they committed some breach that started it, or…etc.

  32. Understandable

  33. so RB can dish it but can’t take it. what childish behavior from RB and Max.

  34. They’re right to boycott Sky for the way they talk about other teams. Croft/Kravtiz have been disparaging and rude.

    It’s mad really. It is wrong, 100% wrong to delegitimize someone’s title. It’s wrong when people bring out the “its the car” argument against Hamilton, it’s wrong when we get the “can’t win from 1st” argument on Vettel and it’s wrong here on Verstappen.

    I dunno what’s happened to F1’s fanbase over the past couple of years but it’s become an incredibly rude, unfriendly and unwelcoming place.

    1. A large part was triggered by a champions team that were an example of how to do it for 7 years and then suddenly and totally unexpected showed their true colors by starting a slender campaign against a new talent coming up, spreading lies and also bumping him off the track multiple times without taking any responsibility. I am not saying Horner wasnt subsequently just as much a clever fox, but it certainly didnt help the champions lowered themselves to this level. Especially not after having dominated for so incredibly long. You would think they would chose the high ground and act to their status and achievements and welcome some competition. I personally have never ever in my life had to adjust my opinion on some people as much as I had to last season. Sometimes I am still gutted they threw 8 years away over one season that was inevitably coming one day anyway.

      1. Yawn, only one driver was widely criticised for their driving standards last year and it was Verstappen. Once he has someone with a car capable to fight him again, you’ll see his true colours in motion again only this time he will not be the new challenger getting the free ride, he’ll be the old hand Liberty will be looking to discard.

        1. Verstappen had plenty of clean, prolonged and sometimes intense battles with Leclerc in the earlier races. Given his early DNFs, he had every reason to be forceful to reclaim points, yet all their battles were perfectly fine.

          Hamilton and Verstappen got into each others head and did stupid things last year. Both are better than they showed, and it didn’t help that the FIA didn’t clamp down on their shenanigans earlier and harder.

          1. I’ll agree that the FIA should have acted sooner but I think part of Silverstone was Hamilton refusing to back down to Verstappen’s aggressive tactics. He’d already backed out of a few clashes to keep it clean and I think he decided no longer was he going to be driven off the circuit.

      2. You’re so dramatic Mayrton. But just like you keep singing that AD is getting old, it’s a Brit-only thing and the world has moved on (all false btw), your shrieking over Mercedes is even older and more tiresome. At what point will you move on yourself?

    2. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      31st October 2022, 13:18

      @rocketpanda @mayrton sorry guys but are you seriously saying that Red Bull and Max won the championship on merit and merit alone? Cause Max can’t even say that and while Horner may say it a million times it rings as true as Ari Gold from Entourage saying it :-)

      Didn’t Red Bull file $4 million under budget? :-) I think I read that somewhere. If so, then technically the disparity was $6 million. It ended up being around $2 million over budget and then they performed some accounting voodoo to reduce it to $400k so there wouldn’t be a penalty.

      1. A thing you seem to forget when talking about merit is that red bull may have gone slightly over budget, but even with that merc was marginally the best car; verstappen brought the marginally 2nd best car to victory.

        1. Adrian Newey said Red Bull had the better car, he’d probably know.

          1. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
            31st October 2022, 17:07

            When I mentioned the Newey thing, I can’t remember now but some folk on the forums just didn’t accept it.

          2. They never will accept it, spoils the narrative.

      2. You know the last part of my comment when I wrote about the level of rudeness and toxicity that come out of people on F1 forums and twitter becoming incredibly nasty? I’m talking about people like you. You’re literally the problem.

        Trying to literally point out that putting down other driver’s titles, putting down other teams – it’s not on. It’s going too far, and you’re out here once again diving in. Why? What do you gain from this? Go touch some grass.

        1. when I wrote about the level of rudeness and toxicity that come out of people on F1 forums and twitter becoming incredibly nasty?

          It shouldn’t be you Adam stating this. You are one of the toxic ones as evidenced by all your anti-LH comments on this site.

  35. Rigged bull racing….As they will always be known from now on.

  36. Funny given how Sky often felt like the Red Bull media team as Horner is always on Sky and has for a decade now always been allowed to push the Red Bull viewpoint largely unopposed.

    He has gone on recently about other teams accusing RBR of cheating yet he in the past has multiple times been on Sky throwing all sorts of accusations at other teams. Some proved justified (Ferrari’s engine in 2019) but others did not (Mercedes DAS in 2020 which was deemed 100% legal that year).

    Also funny for Max to talk about how toxic UK fans are given how it’s largely been the Dutch fans accused of been toxic, disrespectful and such at a few races this year.

  37. It’s a real pity RB doesn’t make it permanent… I would miss anything they has to say

  38. Horner, Max and RB team members will talk to Sky again apparently. So, they only boycott Sky for 1 race. Sky F1 loves Red Bull. They have left hints of such love to Christian Horner during Mexican GP. Brundle mentioned twice that Max won 2 championships because of his abilities. Crofty was beside himself with praises to Max’s amazing talents. They need each other after all. Please Ted, do us another favour and mention the magic word again “robbed” because it has been such a boon not seeing Christian Horner’s smug face or hearing his thin voice at least 3-4 times in each race.

  39. I actually stopped watching ESPN (Sky’s broadcast) as soon as F1 made the F1TV App available on Apple TV two years ago.
    It was like listening to Fox News and the unwavering support for Trump. At SKY, it was unwavering support for Hamilton, and him never ever doing wrong and everyone else being the culprit. SKY didn’t even want to talk about all the other Brits racing unless they were forced to. Especially Brundle, Herbert and Kravitz. Simon is useless.
    So yeah.
    And sad Red Bull didn’t make this a permanent thing.

    1. As a non-Brit the Hamilton worship on the broadcast was obvious and often a bit cringe but he’s literally the most successful driver ever. I remember being Germany and watching f1 on rtl in Schumacher days and it was similar.

      I’m much more annoyed by the crying about “xenophobia” and people acting like Sky are committing hate crimes. It’s weird and super fragile.

  40. RedBull are saying that if the media don’t say nice things about them they will not talk to the media.

    Childish and shortsighted.

    First, apparently trying muzzle the free press is not a good accompaniment to the charges of cheating, whether fair or not.

    Secondly, reporters won’t like their colleagues being bullied even if they take advantage of it in the short term.

    Lastly, in the longer term they will not forget such bullying tactics were used against their colleagues in an attempt to stop them reporting freely.

  41. Clearly just can’t handle the truth which is all anyone on sky have been saying all season.

    That been that the FIA not following it’s own procedures or regulations helped gift Max a race win which in turn handed him the world championship.

    I don’t think even the most blind Max fan could argue that Max earned that Abu Dhabi win as he was slower than Lewis all day and had no answer. I also don’t see how anyone could argue that if regulations and procedures were followed correctly that Max would not have won that race. Those are just plan facts, Again Red Bull, max or his fans may not want to hear them but they are undisputable facts.

    1. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
      31st October 2022, 17:32

      But Verstappen, ORBR fans will replay the whole season back to you as to why Verstappen was better all year even though they got to AD even. Everything Hamilton did was deliberate but everything Verstappen did was just racing.

      Every article I read though seems to say the same thing that Verstappen got the 2021 WDC in controversially.

  42. I love it that most of the comments here precisely prove Max’s and RB’s point ;)

    1. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
      31st October 2022, 17:34

      Did you count them? Does that mean Verstappen fans have lost on number of comments?

    2. Which point? That we must not question their cheating.

  43. Which point? That we must not question their cheating.

  44. The Trump school of media relations

  45. Sandwhichhands
    31st October 2022, 20:58

    This is getting a bit much. RB and Horner especially can’t complain too much, they are at his manor filming him playing with his kids one week, and some light ribbing from Ted K on the weird endings to his championships is enough to boycott. Which in fairness to RB, are not their fault they are the FIAs and event organisers.

    Remember last week when Zak Brown was directly impacting the mental health of all RB staff and children were being bullied in the school yard? Maybe it’s time to park up the hyperbole and just be happy you have the trophies.

  46. Toto and Allison said the opposite.

    No designer’s gonna come out and say we made a bad car after not having the chance to compete for 7 long years.

  47. RB – the fish rots from the head.

  48. Max and Red Bull are never going to get the universal respect that they want. Look at Hamilton, he doesn’t get universal respect, because of the amount of money Mercedes put into their program and the cars that they developed. Verstappen is in the same boat plus the additional baggage of the team overspending last year (and most likely this year) and the various stewards’ decisions during the 2021 season culminating in Masi’s restart decision. I actually feel badly for them as you will never be able to brow beat and cajole respect from people. Max is a top notch driver in a car that Red Bull should be proud of because a lot of people with money still don’t produce a rocket of a car, see Stroll and Astin Martin.

  49. The driver who the Mongolian Government had to twice ask not make racist remarks (which he never apologised for), wants to talk about respect and hurtful language.

  50. Horner and RBR are just trying to deflect, this was a great week to pull a boycott. they did not want to be asked about the cost cap. Seriously I will not miss the RBR interviews, whenever Horner is talking, he is probably lying. It is time to talk to Haas, Williams anybody, it would be more entertaining

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