Sky Sports F1 under fire for controversial Max Verstappen 'agenda'

Max Verstappen's Spanish Grand Prix incident has divided fans

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Tuesday 3 June 2025 17:55 Updated: 18:22

Sky Sports F1 have come under fire from fans on social media after they introduced a controversial element to their coverage of Max Verstappen’s collision into George Russell.

The four-time world champion was slammed with a 10-second time penalty and three penalty points for appearing to intentionally slam into the side of the Mercedes driver at the Spanish Grand Prix.

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Verstappen is now one penalty point away from a race ban and was demoted down to P10, leaving Barcelona with one solitary point.

However, on Sky Sports' broadcast Nico Rosberg called for the champion to be disqualified, and Sky coverage also allowed fans to scan a QR code to vote in a poll as to whether Verstappen should have been disqualified.

Sky Sports feature causes controversy with F1 fans

However, the feature on Sky’s coverage caused some complaints with several accounts claiming the broadcaster had an agenda against Verstappen.

One account accused them of having an agenda, which has since received 5.3K likes, and wrote: “Why do I get the impression that Sky Sports F1 has the biggest agenda against Charles and Max?

“We had Schiff pleading for Charles to get a penalty, a poll for if Max should be disqualified, and Brookes saying that Max’s actions take the shine off his T1 move in Imola.”

Another post with 5.9K likes, simply screenshotted the coverage with a ‘dead’ emoji in disbelief at the feature.

However, others online jumped to Sky’s defence and one user accused the fan base of being sensitive.

“What I'm learning is, every fanbase thinks Sky Sports hate them,” they wrote.

A second user praised how Rachel Brookes pushed Verstappen on the incident, and stated that on the whole Sky provided balanced coverage towards the champion.

“I’d slightly disagree here. I think the Charles thing is a bit much, but in general they treat him very well,” they wrote.

“The Max thing is totally fair from them though. Utterly horrible driving and sportsmanship, and Brookes pushed him the right amount on it.”

GPFans contacted Sky Sports F1 who declined to comment

Max Verstappen George Russell Spanish Grand Prix Sky Sports F1 Nico Rosberg