Horner: Disappointed with derogatory comments made on Sky

We reported on Sunday, that Max Verstappen was not accepting to give any interviews to Sky Sports F1 over the course of the Formula 1 race weekend in Mexico, because of Sky's Ted Kravitz said Verstappen robbed Lewis Hamilton of the race in Abu Dhabi in 2021.

However it was confirmed after the race in Mexico, where Verstappen beat Hamilton to take a record 14th win in 2022 after a masterful drive making a one-stop strategy devised by Red Bull work.

Asked about the issue with Sky in the post race press conference, Verstappen said: "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.

"And at one point it’s enough you know? 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 only worse instead of trying to make it better in the world.

"You keep being… You keep disrespecting me, and one point I’m not tolerating it anymore, so that’s why I decided to stop answering," the 2021 and 2022 F1 Champion added.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner revealed that it was a collective team and driver decision to boycott Sky Sports in Mexico after what they said about his star driver back in Austin.

"We were obviously disappointed with a series of derogatory comments that have been made on Sky," Horner said referring to what Kravitz said in Austin.

"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," Horner insisted. "Some of the commentary is excellent, but some of the pieces, there’s too much sensationalization being done. We stand together as a team."

Asked if Sky have been informed of the problem, Horner answered: "Yes. And it’s not just been Sky UK, it’s been across all of the Sky channels, Germany and Italy.

"So you know, it was just for this weekend, just to register our discontent with some of the less impartial comments that are made or some of the accusations that are sometimes made, as TV seems to be becoming more sensationalized," he explained.

When given note that Sky could access Red Bull statements from F1 TV, Horner commented: "They’ve had access to F1 TV, but there has been no direct interaction with Sky from any team member this weekend.

"Next race, service will be resumed," the Briton confirmed. "We just wanted to lay down a marker and say certain things aren't acceptable, and as a team, we stand together and we stand united as a team."

When the concept of freedom of speech was mentioned by the media, meaning Sky can say what they want, Horner said: "Well, An accusation of championships being "robbed" is something that we don’t feel is an impartial commentary. 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," Horner said referring to Verstappen's statements in the press conference.

"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," he revealed, adding that: "Red Bull are a cheap target sometimes."

It seems it was not the first time something like this happened, as the Briton revealed: "There’s been a couple of issues during the course of the year that we’ve addressed.

"As far as we’re concerned, we’ve said our piece… we’ve not said our piece. That’s it," he maintained.

Pushed to comment about reports that it's not the first time such an incident happened with Sky, Horner said: "The world that we live in is always hungry for headlines. There needs to be a responsibility again from the broadcasters not to feed those."

Sky owns the rights to F1 live coverage in UK and Ireland while providing coverage and commentary services for Walt Disney's ESPN networks Stateside.

The broadcaster has not commented on the matter yet. (Additional reporting by Agnes Carlier)