Max Verstappen refused to talk to Sky Sports at the Mexican Grand Prix due to what he perceives to be disrespectful coverage of his first F1 title win, saying “I’m not going to tolerate it anymore”.
The reigning two-time champion did not talk to the UK broadcaster at the Mexico City race, where he became the first driver to win 14 races in a calendar F1 season.
Verstappen is believed to have taken offence at comments made by Sky pundit Ted Kravitz throughout the season.
After the Austin race in his ‘Ted’s Notebook’ show, Kravitz mentioned that Verstappen’s 2021 title rival Lewis Hamilton had been “robbed” of the title in the controversial Abu Dhabi finale.
“It had nothing to do with this weekend, but this year it’s been a constant kind of like digging, being disrespectful, especially one particular person,” Verstappen explained after the race. “And at one point it is enough, I don’t accept it.
“You can’t live in the past, you just have to move on. At the moment social media is a very toxic place and if you are constantly being like that live on TV, you make it constantly worse, instead of trying to make it better in the world.
“You keep disrespecting me and at one point I’m not tolerating it anymore. So that’s why I decided to stop answering.”
Red Bull boss Christian Horner also did not speak to Sky Sports on Sunday.
Horner said Verstappen had been annoyed at the description of the 2021 finale.
“I think an accusation of championships being robbed is something that we don’t feel is an impartial commentary,” Horner said. “That is, we don’t feel, in any way fair or balanced.
“Max was very upset about it, and as a team, we support him fully. We were equally upset about it. As a team, we took the decision this weekend, I took the decision that we’ll have a weekend off.”