Max Verstappen speaks out on British bias in F1 with ‘one-sided affair’ verdict

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.

Max Verstappen claims the majority British make-up of the press and ex-F1 driver pundits creates a bias, pointing to the reaction to his Austrian GP collision with Lando Norris.

Verstappen and Norris collided at Turn 3 in the latter stages of the Austrian Grand Prix while battling for the lead, both sustaining punctures, which proved race-ending for Norris, while Verstappen was ultimately classified P5 after receiving a 10-second penalty for causing that shunt.

Max Verstappen speaks out on British bias in F1

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

This incident remained a talking point far beyond the chequered flag in Austria, rolling over into the British Grand Prix, with Verstappen pointing to the make-up of the F1 media for this.

Claiming that “80 to 85 per cent of the press in F1 is English”, while most pundits “are British”, Verstappen believes this naturally meant that Norris got the backing after their coming together at the Red Bull Ring.

“80 to 85 per cent of the press in F1 is English, so you have quite a dominant force with that,” Verstappen told the Daily Mail.

“In the back of their minds, most would prefer their national driver to do well or in the case of an incident naturally pick the side of their countryman.

“Ex-drivers, most of them are British, so it’s a bit of a one-sided affair.”

That being said, while Verstappen says everyone is entitled to an opinion, neither positive nor negative ones have an impact on him.

“I don’t listen to whatever anyone else has to say criticising me or being positive,” Verstappen declared. “I’m here with my team and the people who are involved with my success – they’re who I listen to and speak to to judge my performances.

“Everyone can have their opinion. That’s fine. That’s not going to define how I live my life off track or how I behave on it.”

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Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com ahead of the British Grand Prix, Verstappen reaffirmed that he could not care less about any criticism, insisting that his only concern was ensuring that his friendship with Norris remains intact after initial tension following the incident.

The duo would indeed make peace.

When asked by PlanetF1.com if he deserved to be criticised after the Austria race, Verstappen replied: “I don’t give a s**t about that. I go home, I live my life.

“For me, the only thing that I care about is maintaining my relationship with Lando because we are great friends.

“After the race, I said we have to just let things cool down because emotions run high and we immediately spoke on Monday and I think we came to the conclusion that we actually really enjoyed our battle.

“But we both looked at the incident and it was such a silly little touch that had great consequences for both of us. Naturally a bit more for Lando with how the puncture then evolved.

“But we like to race hard, we’ve done this for many years, not only in Formula 1, even online racing, but we had a lot of fun together.

“These things have to carry on because that’s what we like to do and I think it’s great for Formula 1 as well.”

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