Red Bull snubbed all Sky Sports interviews over the course of the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix as it made a stance against perceived bias from the broadcaster.
Neither Max Verstappen nor team-mate Sergio Perez spoke to any of the Sky teams following Qualifying or the race in what was a deliberate boycott.
Speculation suggested it related to comments made by Ted Kravtiz during his regular ‘Ted’s Notebook’ feature on Saturday evening in Mexico, in which he used the word “robbed” when talking about Lewis Hamilton and the 2021 season in which Verstappen won his first title.
However, that was not the case, with both Verstappen and Team Principal Christian Horner shedding light on what they perceive to be a season-long problem.
“Nothing to do with this weekend,” the 2022 world champion-elect explained.
“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, 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 disrespecting me and at one point I’m not tolerating it anymore, so that’s why I decided to stop answering.”
Horner shed further light on the stand-off, clarifying that the snub was only for the Mexico City weekend.
“We were obviously just disappointed with a series of derogatory comments that have been made on Sky, so we felt that, this weekend, we’d take a break,” he said.
“Some of the commentary’s excellent, but some of the pieces, there’s too much sensationalisation [sic] being done.
“It’s not just been Sky UK, it’s been across all of the Sky channels, Germany, Italy.
“It was just for this weekend. It was just to register our discontent in some of the less impartial comments that are made, or accusations that are sometimes made as TV seems to be becoming ever more sensationalised.”
Following Qualifying and the grand prix itself, drivers are compelled to speak with the media immediately post-session.
However, there is no requirement for them to speak with specific broadcasters.
They do, however, speak with Formula One’s own team, which makes available those assets for rights holders to use.
The impact of Red Bull’s boycott was therefore minimal, as it simply meant Sky did not get any original material, but was able to carry interviews from both Verstappen and Perez.
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