Sky Sports F1 boycott is now over

The Dutchman, and his whole Pink Bull crew, didn’t participate in any Sky media commitments over the Mexican Grand Prix weekend as the results of what it claimed was “disrespectful” reporting.

In addition to this involving Sky’s F1 channel, it included the corporate’s regional channels within the UK, Germany and Italy.

Pink Bull’s actions have been believed to have been triggered by feedback made by Sky’s pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz, who had urged after america Grand Prix that Lewis Hamilton had been “robbed” of the 2021 crown.

Talking concerning the matter in Mexico, Verstappen had mentioned: “This 12 months it has been a continuing… yeah, type of like every day being disrespectful, particularly one explicit individual. And it is sufficient, I do not settle for it.

“You’ll be able to’t reside previously. You simply have to maneuver on. Social media is a really poisonous place, and if you’re continuously being like that reside on TV, you make it solely worse as a substitute of attempting to make it higher.

“You retain disrespecting me, and at one level, I am not tolerating it anymore. That is why I made a decision to cease answering them.”

However with Pink Bull having made it clear that the boycott was about making a one-off stance, relatively than being a long-term act, issues have now returned to regular between the crew and Sky.

Christian Horner, Staff Principal, Pink Bull Racing, talks to Ted Kravitz, Sky TV

Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Verstappen duly took a query from Sky F1 commentator David Croft within the Thursday drivers’ press convention in Brazil.

Talking later concerning the state of affairs with Sky, Verstappen mentioned: “Yeah, we drew a line beneath it. So we simply carry on going.”

Pink Bull crew boss Christian Horner had mentioned after the Mexican GP that his squad was upset about any suggestion Verstappen’s maiden drivers’ crown in 2021 was tainted.

“I feel an accusation of championships being robbed is one thing that we do not really feel is an neutral commentary,” mentioned Horner. “That’s, we do not really feel, in any means truthful or balanced.

“Max was very upset about it, and as a crew, we assist him absolutely. We have 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.”