Red Bull’s self-made headlines take shine off Max Verstappen’s stardust

Red Bull’s boycott of Sky Sports at the Mexican Grand Prix was unneeded at the end of a turbulent month

It’s now there in black and white: the supremacy of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull team this season is officially unmatched.

The world champion’s cruise to the chequered flag at the Mexico City Grand Prix – his 14th win of the season, Red Bull’s 16th – saw the flying Dutchman break Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel’s record for victories in a single season and, with two races to go, there’s every chance Verstappen will add to that tally and in doing so set a likely insurmountable haul for the future.

A mammoth achievement, no doubt, even if there are more grands prix than ever before. Yet for Verstappen’s triumph, the headlines afterwards were not about his record-breaking victory. Rather than all the focus being on his unflappable charge to the line, a fresh narrative was simmering.

News that Red Bull had boycotted Sky Sports in Mexico City reverberated quickly around the paddock. Seemingly a response to pit reporter Ted Kravitz’s claim in Austin that Lewis Hamilton was “robbed” of an eighth world championship in Abu Dhabi last year, Verstappen insists he felt the coverage had been “disrespectful.”

“It has been a constant kind of digging and being disrespectful, especially from one particular person,” he said. “At one point it is enough and I don’t accept it.

“You cannot live in the past and you have to move on. Social media is a very toxic place and if you are constantly being like that live on TV then you are making it worse instead of trying to make it better.

“You keep disrespecting me and at one point I will not tolerate it anymore and that is why I decided to stop answering.”

Christian Horner, bullish as ever, added that it “won’t have done Sky any harm for us to lay down a marker”.

What marker is that then? Kravitz, supremely popular with fans for his instinctive rambling and intrinsic technical knowledge of the sport, is unlikely to alter his oddly captivating approach to broadcasting.

Christian Horner (L) and Max Verstappen (R) boycotted Sky Sports in Mexico (AFP via Getty Images)

His unique “Notebook” feature – in which he walks around the paddock detailing the efforts of each team with impressive improvisation – is effective in adding intrigue and humour to even the dullest of races. Take the start of Sunday’s post-Mexico Notebook, for example, when Kravtiz’s focus on tyre strategies took place amid boisterous chanting from Mexican fans in the background.

Sky, though usually in communication with Horner immediately after the chequered flag, are unlikely to be fazed by Red Bull’s one-race boycott either. Honing in on the straw which broke the camel’s back, in Verstappen’s eyes, it is common knowledge that Hamilton was unjustly treated amid safety car and lapped cars chaos at the end of last season’s winner-takes-all finale. So much so, in fact, that it cost race director Michael Masi his job.

More pertinently, Kravitz’s quip was clearly not a snide nod in Red Bull’s direction. He was not indicating that Verstappen himself “robbed” Hamilton of an eighth world title. The Dutchman was simply the beneficiary of Masi and the FIA’s botched take on the regulations.

Ted Kravitz’s ‘robbed’ comment was not a snide nod in Red Bull’s direction (Sky Sports/YouTube)

So if you’re Verstappen and Horner, why add fuel to the fire at the end of a turbulent month? When all the focus should have been on a double world championship, this unneeded spat with Sky comes at the end of a period where Red Bull have been criticised from all angles for breaching the 2021 cost cap.

Even on Friday, after a £6m fine was issued, Horner insisted Red Bull deserved an apology from rival teams calling for harsh sanctions. This victim mentality won’t wash, though. Amid talk of interpretation and tax credits, the simple fact of the matter is this: in a field of 10 teams, only one spent over the limit in 2021.

Break the rules: deal with the consequences and inevitable scrutiny.

While some non-race issues are circumstantial – such as the sad passing of Red Bull co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz last weekend on the eve of Red Bull securing the Constructors’ Championship – others are entirely of Red Bull’s own making. The budget-cap soap opera and this fresh row with Sky does take the shine off Verstappen’s stardust.

Unnecessarily too. Because without them, all the talk would be about their irrepressible winning machine. Instead, the 2022 season is concluding with a somewhat sour taste in the mouth.