Kravitz’s boycott-ending Verstappen chat after 2021 Hamilton ‘robbed’ comment

Boycotted by Max Verstappen and Red Bull at the 2022 Mexican Grand Prix, Ted Kravitz had a sit-down with the driver and his team to explain that his comment that Lewis Hamilton had been robbed in 2021 had been “clipped up” and “blown up” out of proportion.

Verstappen won his first F1 Drivers’ Championship in 2021 as he went wheel-to-wheel against Lewis Hamilton who was seeking his record-breaking eighth title.

Ted Kravitz: That was not a rogue view at the time

The fight went down to the wire with Hamilton leading the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, cruising to the title, when then-FIA race director Michael Masi made the unprecedented call to restart the race after a late Safety Car before the entire field had unlapped themselves, only the cars between Hamilton and Verstappen were given the go-ahead.

It meant Verstappen, with fresher tyres, was able to make short work of passing Hamilton with the Red Bull driver claiming the victory and his first World title.

A subsequent report from the FIA put it down to “human error” with Masi acting in “good faith” but under immense pressure with both teams shouting in his ear. That result stood with Verstappen crowned the F1 2021 World Champion, and Hamilton the runner-up.

Almost a year later, Kravitz in his ‘Ted’s Notebook’ for Sky F1 made a number of statements that didn’t go down well with Verstappen and his team as he used the word “robbed” on multiple occasions.

Verstappen and Red Bull boycotted all Sky pundits in response.

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Verstappen said: “This whole year they have been firing and disrespectful, certainly one person in particular. At some point, I don’t accept it anymore. The atmosphere on social media is toxic. This way you only make it worse.”

His then-team boss Christian Horner added: “There were some derogatory comments made so we took a break from Sky for this race. Max was upset. We were upset and we made the decision to stand together as a team. It won’t have done Sky any harm for us to lay down a marker.”

But according to Kravitz, he was just saying what many were thinking.

“I think I’d expressed a commonly held viewpoint in Formula 1 that Lewis Hamilton had been robbed of an eighth world championship in Abu Dhabi. That was not a rogue view at the time,” Kravitz told the Telegraph.

“I think the misunderstanding was that elements within Red Bull felt that I was saying that they had done something wrong, which of course they did nothing wrong.

“It was the easiest strategic call of the season for them to pit under the Safety Car. They lost nothing, it was a free stop. Max drove brilliantly, won the race on fresh tyres and deserved the championship.

“I didn’t really understand where it had come from, because at no point did I say that it was anything that Red Bull had done.”

Kravitz puts it down to being “clipped up” on social media to just portray the more sensational robbed aspect of his comment.

“Because it was clipped up like that on social media and they [Red Bull] saw it, they thought I was saying that Max had robbed him of the championship, which of course, he hadn’t. But the way these things are clipped up, they hadn’t seen the original Notebook, they hadn’t seen it in context,” he added.

The pit lane reporter subsequently sat down with Verstappen, his father Jos and the Red Bull team to iron out the situation.

Verstappen and Red Bull lifted the ban at the Brazilian GP, the driver saying: “Yeah, we drew a line under it. So we just keep on going.”

Kravitz has revealed that line came after he’d spoke with the driver about to explain his side.

“Max referred to this stuff on social media, and he says: ‘Look, I don’t care. People say terrible things about me all the time. I’m doing my job and you’re doing your job. It’s not us that care, it’s the people around me that care. So then if you say or people misinterpret that you say that you think I stole a championship off Lewis – even if you didn’t say that, people think that’s what you said. You’re a voice in Formula 1… and then my mum on social media gets abuse or my sister, or Kelly, my partner… it’s them I’m looking to protect.’

“I said, Max, I absolutely get it… and it’s horrible and regretful and I’m sorry that it gets to these points. But these things get clipped up, it all gets blown up out [of proportion] and then we get to this point. So then we understood each other completely.”

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