Max Verstappen gave a short response to any more questions about Red Bull‘s boycott of Sky Sports at the Mexican Grand Prix, hours after the team had confirmed the boycott was lifted for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Ted Kravitz said Mercedes were robbed of the 2021 drivers’ championship after the US Grand Prix, the Sky team arrived in Mexico City to find Red Bull were refusing to speak to them.
But following talks between the two parties that’s been lifted and asked about the boycott ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix, Verstappen said: “Yeah, we drew a line under it. So we just keep on going. Yeah, I mean, I’m looking forward to it.”
Explaining the boycott, Verstappen said he’d been facing ‘constant disrespect’ from Kravitz and accused him of being ‘toxic’ on TV.
He attempted to spin it as standing up to Kravitz, but the team received negative backlash for the decision.
The contention came in an episode of Ted’s Notebook, when Kravitz used the word ‘robbed’ when describing the 2021 title decider in Abu Dhabi.
Lewis Hamilton was on course to win the race before a late Nicholas Latifi crash triggered a safety car.
In an attempt to get the race restarted before the end, race director Michael Masi circumvented the rules to give a final lap showdown that handed Verstappen the title thanks to his superior tyres.
Mercedes and Hamilton were furious after the race and an investigation found Masi, who’s since been sacked, made a ‘human error’ in restarting the race without following protocol.
Since then, Red Bull have also been found guilty of a cost-cap breach for their title-winning season.
The Head of F1 for Sky Sports, Billy McGinty, visited Red Bull‘s Milton Keynes headquarters on Monday in an attempt to clear the air, though Verstappen‘s teammate Sergio Perez had already given an interview to Sky at a Las Vegas F1 event.
