Max Verstappen in feisty clash with Sky F1 reporter as accusation fired
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Max Verstappen and Ted Kravitz shared an uncomfortable interview ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix. The Dutchman accused the Sky Sports F1 reporter of ‘singling out’ Red Bull’s senior race strategy engineer, Stephen Knowles, in a question about the pit wall’s decision-making in Spain last time out.
The question stemmed from Kravitz’s curiosity over Verstappen’s collision with George Russell, which ultimately earned the reigning world champion a 10-second time penalty and three penalty points. More specifically, he quizzed the 27-year-old over the decision to hand a place back to the Mercedes man before the contact occurred. “Just a question about going forward, the negotiation with the stewards or race director on whether places should be given back, or what,” Kravitz pressed. “Since Jonathan Wheatley went, obviously you have Stephen Knowles who is doing it.
“I assume it was him who told 'GP' [Gianpiero Lambiase] to tell you to give the place back to George, which wasn’t the right call. The stewards later confirmed that. How are you working that out with him? Obviously, he’s not been in the job too long since Jonathan’s gone to Sauber. How are you working that out [so that] the same situation doesn’t happen again?”
Verstappen was unimpressed with Kravitz’s question, and fired back: “I think it’s not really nice to try and single out a person, because that’s never the case. I think we just look at it as a team, what we always can do better, and that’s also how we look at it in Barcelona. But it’s not fair to now single out one single person.”
After Verstappen’s frosty response, Kravitz attempted to manoeuvre himself out of the spotlight. “I don’t think I’m singling him out, I just named who he was,” he explained. “Jonathan Wheatley is obviously a well-known guy. I wasn’t saying it was Stephen Knowles’ fault.”
The Red Bull racer wasn’t letting him off the hook so easily, though. “But you mentioned him,” he chimed in. When Kravitz repeated his explanation, Verstappen continued to press the Brit. “So we’re talking about him, you're singling him out,” he followed up.
The conversation fizzled out in an awkward fashion, but Kravitz made sure to make his intentions clear to the Dutchman before he left the media pen. “I wasn’t asking you to do that, just to be clear,” he stated. “I was asking how you… you live and learn. Thank you, I think you answered it.”
This isn’t the first time that Verstappen and Kravitz have butted heads. At the Mexican Grand Prix in 2022, the four-time world champion refused to speak with Sky Sports F1 throughout the weekend after describing a string of comments from the reporter as “disrespectful”.
