Martin Brundle has defended his fellow Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz following Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s boycott of the broadcaster.
The entire Red Bull team chose not to appear on Sky for the duration of last weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix after comments Kravitz made at the previous race in the USA upset the Dutch driver.
The famed pit-lane reporter said that Sir Lewis Hamilton had been ‘robbed’ of the 2021 title, which was won instead by Verstappen, and the now two-time champion claims that this is not the first time Kravitz has made this suggestion.
‘This year it’s been a constant… yeah, kind of like daily being disrespectful, especially one particular person. And it’s enough, I don’t accept it,’ Verstappen said of the boycott.
‘You keep disrespecting me, and at one point, I’m not tolerating it anymore. That’s why I decided to stop answering them.’
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner echoed his driver’s words labelling Kravitz’s comments as: ‘Derogatory, sensationalist and unbalanced.
‘Max was very upset about it. We were equally upset about it. I took the decision that we’ll have a weekend off. Service will be resumed in Brazil.’
Brundle, one of F1’s longest serving and most respected pundits, has now hit back at Verstappen and Red Bull, saying that boycotting Sky was not the right way to go about things.
‘For the avoidance of doubt my friend and colleague for the past 26 years Ted Kravitz has my full support,’ the former driver posted on Twitter.
‘Face to face dialogue is the only way to sort out issues and disputes in the relentless crucible of the F1 paddock. We all have opinions and different jobs to do, that’s life.’
Claims that Hamilton was robbed of the 2021 title are rather widespread and not totally unwarranted due to two high profile, controversial incidents.
Firstly, it is acknowledged that Hamilton would have pipped Verstappen to the championship had then-race director Michael Masi not incorrectly restarted the season finale in Abu Dhabi, which allowed the Red Bull racer to pass the Mercedes man on the last lap for the win.
Secondly, it was recently revealed that Red Bull had breached the budget cap for last season for which they have fined and penalised by the FIA, but the matter has thrown into question the legitimacy of their RB16B car.
MORE : Max Verstappen’s Sky Sports fallout eclipsed Red Bulls’ magic in Mexico GP
MORE : ‘A bit awkward!’ – Lewis Hamilton reacts to being ‘booed all day’ at Mexican GP
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