Max Verstappen decided to boycott Sky Sports in Mexico last weekend and Red Bull Racing got behind him. The trigger for all this were some statements made by pit reporter Ted Kravitz after the US Grand Prix. According to Jack Plooij, Kravitz has unfairly become the child of the bill in this matter.

Kravitz refused to put Verstappen's name in his mouth in Austin. The 48-year-old British journalist repeatedly stated that Lewis Hamilton had been robbed of the title in 2021. This totally rubbed Verstappen the wrong way. The Red Bull Racing driver, therefore, revealed in a statement: "They are constantly disrespectful towards me this year and once is enough. Social media is pretty toxic and it doesn't help when you walk around proclaiming things like this live on TV."

Doornbos gives his opinion

Red Bull will reportedly be back on all branches of Sky Sports in Brazil. In the studio of the Ziggo Sport Race Café, there is extensive coverage of the subject. Robert Doornbos states that Kravitz always has a "sharp edge, but in this case, he really went too far. Not objectively. He cited Abu Dhabi again and even accused Max of stealing the championship. That you are pro-Lewis because you are English media, that's possible. But you have to stick to the facts. That championship was won the way it was won."

Plooij, who knows Kravitz well from his days as a pit reporter in Formula 1, has a slightly different opinion. "I spoke to Ted this morning. If you listen carefully to that interview: he's walking through the paddock and he says it would be a very nice script for a film. So cuts were made to that, so everyone only gets to hear that last bit where he tells us he was 'stolen.' Not Max, but the title. So Hamilton has been robbed. He doesn't even mention the whole name Max Verstappen."

Plooij takes on Kravitz

Plooij and Kravitz have been in brief contact about the incident. "He sent an app to me: 'At no point have I ever said what Christian Horner, Jos, Raymond or anybody think I did and apparently upset about.'" Freely translated: 'At no point have I ever said what Christian Horner, Jos [Verstappen], Raymond [Vermeulen] or anybody think I did and apparently they are upset about it'.

Then again, what Plooij finds annoying is the following: "It does get hugely amplified again by those English. The English press has been bashing Red Bull and Max for a year now. I don't like that. It's a bit of a game, you know. The English are bashing Max and Red Bull, and he is now being put forward as a scapegoat. He isn't. I stick up for Ted."

Marriage Red Bull and Sky Sports

Red Bull and Sky Sports were also at loggerheads last year. The medium went quite wrong last year with a TV ad where they wished viewers a Merry Christmas. At the same time, it broadcast footage of Verstappen's crashes, including the hard-hit at Silverstone. Red Bull reacted to this with particular disappointment at the time.