Max Verstappen refused to start a press conference in Japan until a British journalist had left the room, telling the reporter in question to “get out” three times during a tense exchange.
Verstappen, 28, had just sat down for his print media duties in the Red Bull hospitality suite in Suzuka when he spotted the reporter, Giles Richards of The Guardian.
“I’m not speaking before he leaves,” said Verstappen, who was seemingly still aggrieved at a line of questioning during a news conference which followed last season’s finale in Abu Dhabi in December.
On that occasion, Richards had asked Verstappen whether he “now regretted” driving into George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix last May, an incident which cost the Dutch driver nine championship points. Verstappen ended up losing the title by just two points to McLaren’s Lando Norris.
“You forget about all the other stuff that happened in my season,” a clearly irritated Verstappen replied at the time. “The only thing that you mention is Barcelona. I knew that would come. And you are giving me a stupid grin now.”
Verstappen has seemingly been nursing the perceived slight ever since.
“Seriously?” Richards asked, when Verstappen told him to leave nearly four months after asking him the offending question.
“Yep,” Verstappen said.
“Because of the question last year? You want me to leave?” Richards asked.
Verstappen answered “yeah”, with the journalist walking towards the Dutch driver’s table to collect his Dictaphone.
Richards clarified: “It’s just the question I asked you in Abu Dhabi? About Spain?”
Verstappen replied: “Get out... get out!”
Richards remonstrated one final time: “You’re really that upset about it?”
Verstappen replied: “Get out!!”
The reporter left the hospitality suite following the exchange which lasted all of 30 seconds.
“Now, we can start,” Verstappen said with a smile.
The four-time world champion heads into this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix already 43 points off the championship leader, Russell, following a difficult start to the new season in his under-performing Red Bull.
Verstappen has been hugely critical of the new regulations, comparing the style of racing to “Mario Kart” and saying those who enjoy it “do not understand racing”.
The Dutchman spent the weekend in between China and Japan driving in a GT3 race at the Nurburgring, in preparation for a 24hr race in which he is competing at the same venue in May. Verstappen’s team won the four-hour race only to be disqualified for using too many sets of tyres.
The Dutchman was also seen testing a Nissan Z Nismo GT500 at Fuji before this weekend’s grand prix at Suzuka.
Verstappen’s clash with Richards was far from the first time the Dutch driver has crossed swords with British media – or officials. He memorably boycotted Sky Sports F1 in its entirety in Mexico in 2022, saying he was tired of being “constantly disrespected” and had “had enough”.
Verstappen’s irritation on that occasion stemmed from comments made by Sky’s pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz at the race in Austin the previous weekend, when Kravitz said Lewis Hamilton had been “robbed” of an eighth world championship in Abu Dhabi in 2021.
In Brazil in 2024, Verstappen hit out at “biased people” in the paddock following criticism of various on-track skirmishes with Norris that autumn. Verstappen did not name names, but it is understood he was referring at the very least to Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert, both of whom had been critical of his driving. In fact, it appeared Verstappen’s target was wider.
After winning that race, and all but securing the title in the process, Verstappen joked that there were not many people in his victory press conference. “I have a quick question. I mean, I appreciate all of you being here, but I don’t see any British press. Do they have to run to the airport, or they don’t know where the press conference is?”
Verstappen was right. The Sao Paulo race is one where European reporters are on an extremely tight deadline, and most of them had already filed their reports and headed for the airport. But it betrayed his feelings. “The problem in F1 is that 80 to 85 per cent of the media is British,” Verstappen said after wrapping up his fourth world title in Qatar that year. “And I did feel that some things which were written about me were not fair.”
Hill was let go by Sky Sports F1 at the end of that season, the 1996 world champion later telling Telegraph Sport that he “hoped” the farrago with Verstappen had nothing to do with it. “I would like to think not,” he says. “I hope not. I think I felt like the end was coming anyway.”
Both Herbert and Derek Warwick, meanwhile, were suspended as stewards after speaking to the media, the former permanently. Both had discussed topics including Verstappen’s driving.
It remains to be seen what will happen following this latest spat. In 2022 in Mexico, Red Bull also boycotted Sky Sports F1 in solidarity with their driver. It is not clear whether they will support him again but one would imagine not.
Richards’s question in Abu Dhabi, while potentially irritating for Verstappen at that exact moment, was hardly outrageous. Verstappen was right that last season featured plenty of ups and downs, and the final result was the sum of all of those moments.
But those points did prove extremely costly. One would hope sense prevails.