Sky Sports stars respond to F1 team 'boycott'

Sky Sports Germany stars Ralf Schumacher and Peter Hardenacke have responded to Aston Martin’s alleged F1 boycott of the broadcaster at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Before the Hungarian GP, Schumacher and Hardenacke tried to get an Aston Martin representatives on the live broadcast, but the team have been met with a firm wall by the broadcaster one-on-one.

The pair revealed their perspective during the live broadcast, where Schumacher said: “I know they’re not giving us any more interviews because they don’t like us that much at the moment.”

“We were a bit too critical of the people at Aston Martin,” Hardenacke added referencing comments his colleague had made about driver Lance Stroll.

The Canadian competes at Aston Martin alongside Fernando Alonso, with the team owned by Stroll’s father Lawrence Stroll. It has been a disappointing season for the Silverstone-based outfit and Stroll's complaints about the car over team radio at the British Grand Prix made headlines.

"This is the worst piece of s**t I've ever driven,” Stroll said, and his comments were then criticised by Schumacher.

The German suggested that he should apologise to the team and called his comments 'completely unacceptable', which the two presenters allege has led to Aston Martin boycotting them.

GPFans understand that Aston Martin have indeed limited their face-to-face interviews with Sky Sport Germany until they see an improvement in the balance of reporting.

Discussions between the parties regarding this have been ongoing in recent times, and during this period their drivers and team members are still permitted to respond to Sky during events such as press conferences and media pen interviews.

GPFans have contacted Aston Martin for comment.

Schumacher’s comments unfavoured by F1 teams

This is not the first time Schumacher’s comments have led to a disapproving response towards the broadcaster, with Christian Horner refusing to give interviews to Sky Germany because he found their coverage too negative in 2022

In 2022, Max Verstappen also boycotted Sky’s English counterpart, Sky Sports F1, after presenter Ted Kravitz claimed Lewis Hamilton had been ‘robbed’ of the 2021 world title.

On track, Aston Martin enjoyed a resurgence in form at the Hungarian GP, where they unexpectedly emerged as a competitive force in the top 10.

Alonso and Stroll earned a grid a slot of P5 and P6 respectively, and managed to convert their starting position into a points paying results of P5 and P7.

As a result, Aston Martin have lifted themselves up in the constructors’ standings where they now sit P6 and 18 points behind Williams in a huge turnaround for the team.

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