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George Russell took a cheeky dig at Sky F1's David Croft at the Vegas GP launch party as he referred to Red Bull's boycott against the broadcaster.
The F1 Vegas GP launch party had both Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, and Sergio Perez from Red Bull, who were interviewed by David Croft of Sky F1.
Russell's exchange with Croft went as follows:
“So…are you allowed to ask Red Bull drivers questions, Crofty? Russell asked before smiling over at Perez.
“Yes,” was Croft’s reply. “I am tonight. I’ve got special permission tonight, so don’t start on me!”
Croft then asked Perez: “Are you allowed to answer?”
Perez: “They (his Red Bull team) are not here!”
The Red Bull boycott was apparently fueled by a post-race monologue from Ted Kravitz where the Sky F1 reporter said that Lewis Hamilton was 'robbed' of the title, and Max Verstappen's win was due to the Dutchman having a faster car. He said:
"Seven-time World Champion – I almost said eight-time World Champion – seven-time World Champion goes into the final race trying to be the greatest of all time, and win (the) championship. He gets robbed, comes back; his next year’s car is rubbish … doesn’t win a race all year, and then finally comes back at a track where he could win the first race all year, battling the same guy who won the race he was robbed in the previous year, and manages to finish ahead of him."
He added:
“What a script and a story that would have been. But that’s not the way the script turned out, was it? Because the guy that beat him after being robbed actually overtook him, because he’s got a quicker car, because of engineering and Formula One and design, and pretty much because of (Adrian Newey, Red Bull’s design guru) over there.”
Verstappen has already wrapped up the 2022 title.
Red Bull's Sky F1 boycott was not because of one race - Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen clarified after the Mexican GP that the Sky Sports boycott was not because of a singular comment but an accumulation of things said for over a year now. He said:
“It had nothing to do with this weekend, but this year has been a constant, kind of like digging and being disrespectful, especially from one particular person. At one point, it’s enough, I don’t accept it."
He continued:
"You can’t live in the past; you just have to move on. Social media is a very toxic place, and if you are constantly being like that on live TV; you make it only worse instead of trying to make it better in the world. You keep disrespecting me, at one point, I’m not tolerating that anymore, so that’s why I decided to stop answering."
The boycott was supposed to be for only one race, and normal service will resume from Brazil, according to team boss Christian Horner.
