Verstappen slates "disrespectful" Sky Sports for fuelling "very toxic" social media

Sam Hall
Sunday 30 October 2022 22:58 - Updated: 09:56

Max Verstappen has accused Sky Sports F1 of being "disrespectful" and helping to fuel a "very toxic" social media.

Verstappen and Red Bull have boycotted all Sky Sports F1 - British, German and Italian stations - across the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend.

GPFans understands the final straw came during reporter Ted Kravitz's 'Notebook' feature, where he repeatedly used the word "robbed" to describe how Lewis Hamilton lost out in last year's title race to the Dutchman.

Speaking after achieving a record-breaking 14th win of the season, Verstappen was asked to explain the decision of his team.

"It had nothing to do with this weekend but this year it has been a constant digging, being disrespectful and particularly one particular person," said Verstappen.

"At one point it is enough and I don't accept it. You can't live in the past, you just have to move on."

F1's rapidly growing popularity, in part fuelled by the Netflix docu-series Drive to Survive, has seen a spike in social media interactions with the sport, teams and the drivers.

In turn, this has also sparked vile online trolls, with Nicholas Latifi and former-race director Michael Masi both receiving abuse and even death threats for their parts in last year's controversial Abu Dhabi season finale.

Verstappen believes the constant sniping, prevalent again with the cost cap saga, is only feeding the unwanted venom.

"You know at the moment that social media is a very toxic place, and if you are constantly being like that live on TV, you make it only worse," Verstappen added.

"Instead of trying to make it better in the world, you keep disrespecting me. At one point, I am not tolerating it anymore, so that's why I decided to stop answering."