Max Verstappen refused to speak to Sky Sports activities on the Mexican Grand Prix as a consequence of what he perceives to be disrespectful protection of his first F1 title win, saying “I am not going to tolerate it anymore”.
The reigning two-time champion didn’t speak to the UK broadcaster on the Mexico Metropolis race, the place he grew to become the primary driver to win 14 races in a calendar F1 season.
Verstappen is believed to have taken offence at feedback made by Sky pundit Ted Kravitz all through the season.
After the Austin race in his ‘Ted’s Pocket book’ present, Kravitz talked about that Verstappen’s 2021 title rival Lewis Hamilton had been “robbed” of the title within the controversial Abu Dhabi finale.
“It had nothing to do with this weekend, however this yr it has been a relentless sort of like digging, being disrespectful, particularly one specific particular person,” Verstappen defined after the race. “And at one level it’s sufficient, I do not settle for it.
“You may’t stay prior to now, you simply have to maneuver on. For the time being social media is a really poisonous place and in case you are consistently being like that stay on TV, you make it consistently worse, as an alternative of making an attempt to make it higher on this planet.
“You retain disrespecting me and at one level I am not tolerating it anymore. In order that’s why I made a decision to cease answering.”
Purple Bull boss Christian Horner additionally didn’t communicate to Sky Sports activities on Sunday.
Horner stated Verstappen had been aggravated on the description of the 2021 finale.
“I believe an accusation of championships being robbed is one thing that we do not really feel is an neutral commentary,” Horner stated. “That’s, we do not really feel, in any manner honest or balanced.
“Max was very upset about it, and as a crew, we help him absolutely. We had been equally upset about it. As a crew, we took the choice this weekend, I took the choice that we’ll have a weekend off.”