Ted Kravitz later reflected on his tense interview with Max Verstappen, which took place ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. The discussion centered on Verstappen’s recent penalty after the contentious clash with George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, a subject that clearly unsettled the F1 World Champion.
The focus keyword, Max Verstappen testy interview with Ted Kravitz, emphasizes the high tensions that marked this exchange, highlighting the friction between the driver and the broadcaster as the controversy over the penalty loomed large before the race weekend.
The Details Behind the Barcelona Collision and Subsequent Penalty
The incident at the Spanish Grand Prix involved Verstappen and Mercedes driver George Russell during the final laps at Turn 5. Earlier in the sequence, Russell took an aggressive line into Turn 1, causing Verstappen to use the escape area at Turn 2 to avoid a crash while maintaining his position on the track. Following this, Verstappen was advised via race engineer GianPiero Lambiase to relinquish his place to Russell to avoid a penalty.
However, once Verstappen allowed Russell to pass, he quickly accelerated and blocked the Mercedes driver at Turn 5, leading to contact between their cars. The FIA stewards deemed Verstappen’s move to be against the rules, issuing him a 10-second time penalty and awarding three penalty points on his Super Licence. These points brought Verstappen closer to an automatic race ban, as accumulating penalty points leads to such consequences.
Ted Kravitz’s Questioning On Team Decisions and Communication
During their interview, Kravitz asked Verstappen about the messaging from Red Bull’s sporting department, particularly regarding the role of Steven Knowles, who had recently replaced Jonathan Wheatley as the team’s rules advisor. He focused on whether the advice given to offer the position back to Russell had been correctly handled and how Verstappen planned to improve communication to avoid a similar situation.
“Since Jonathan Wheatley went, obviously you have Steven Knowles who is doing it,”
Kravitz noted.
“I assume it was him who told ‘GP’ [Lambiase] to tell you to give the place back to George, which wasn’t the right call. The stewards later confirmed that.”
“How are you working that out with him? Obviously, he’s not been in the job too long since Jonathan’s gone to Sauber. How are you working that out that same situation doesn’t happen again?”
Verstappen’s Reaction to Being Asked About Individual Responsibility
Verstappen responded by rejecting the idea of singling out any single member of the team for blame. He stressed that the incident was a collective matter and emphasized the team’s shared responsibility rather than faulting an individual.
“I think it’s not really nice to try single out a person to be honest, because that’s never the case. I think we just look at it as a team. What we always can do better, and that’s also how we look at it in Barcelona. But it’s not fair to now single out one single person.”
Kravitz clarified that he was not aiming to single anyone out but merely naming Knowles. However, Verstappen corrected him:
“Well, you named him,” Verstappen said.
Kravitz replied:
“I just named who he was. Jonathan Wheatley is obviously a well-known guy, I wasn’t saying it was Stephen Knowles’ fault.”
Continuing the back-and-forth, Verstappen reiterated:
“But you mentioned him.”
Kravitz responded by highlighting Wheatley’s prominence, saying:
“Jonathan Wheatley was a well-known guy, he was your rules guy. Now he [Knowles] is the new guy.”
Verstappen insisted:
“So we’re talking about him, you’re singling him out.”
Kravitz attempted to move the conversation along:
“OK, but he’s on the pit wall. He’s a fairly…”
Verstappen cut him off:
“I do not need to discuss that anyway here. If we ever look at things that we can do better, we do that like every other team. But I’m not going stand here in front of the camera and say who was at fault exactly.”
Kravitz said:
“I wasn’t asking…”
Verstappen concluded:
“We all live and learn.”
Kravitz ended with:
“I wasn’t asking you to do that, just to be clear. I was asking how you… live and learn. Thank you, I think you answered it.”
Ted Kravitz’s Explanation of His Approach During the Interview
Following the interview, Kravitz reflected on the interaction in his Notebook segment, sharing his perspective on the tense exchange. He acknowledged Verstappen’s lack of receptiveness and explained that his intent was to address the team’s error rather than single anyone out unfairly.
“He wasn’t in a particularly receptive mood about [the George Russell incident], so I thought I’d go with a question about the team mistake that led to that message in error to give the place back to Russell,”
Kravitz said.
He added that he tried to phrase the question in a way that aligned with Verstappen’s frustrations:
“I asked him a question that I thought was going to be on his side and understood his annoyance that set that whole fateful minute and a half off in the first place.”
Kravitz stated that by referring to Steven Knowles, the newly appointed rules man, he was seeking insight into how Red Bull planned to prevent a recurrence:
“I said to him, ‘What are you going to be doing to improve the dialogue with your rules man – a guy called Stephen Knowles, who’s taken over from Jonathan Wheatley – to make sure that doesn’t happen again?’.”
According to Kravitz, Verstappen either misunderstood or interpreted the question negatively, reacting as if Kravitz intended to blame an individual. The broadcaster explained:
“What was I meant to do? Was I meant to say an ‘unnamed team representative that deals with the rules’? I said ‘I’m just not here to say it was Stephen Knowles wasn’t it, let’s blame him’.”
“And then he just wouldn’t accept it. He just said, ‘Well, I think it’s not nice of you to do that’, at which point we ended the interview.”
History of Friction Between Red Bull and Sky F1
The challenging dynamic between Red Bull and Sky F1 predates this interview. In late 2022, Red Bull revoked media access to Sky outlets in the UK, Germany, and Italy after team principal Christian Horner criticized their coverage as unbalanced and sensationalist. This followed comments from Ted Kravitz describing Lewis Hamilton as being “robbed” of the 2021 World Championship during the Abu Dhabi finale, remarks that both the team and Verstappen found deeply unfair.
“I think an accusation of championships being robbed is something that we don’t feel is an impartial commentary,”
Horner said at the time.
He insisted the comments lacked fairness and balance, adding:
“Max was very upset about it, and as a team, we support him fully. We were equally upset about it. As a team, we took the decision this weekend, I took the decision that we’ll have a weekend off.”
Resolution and Ongoing Sensitivities in Media Relations
The dispute eventually eased after Sky representatives visited the Red Bull factory to engage in reconciliatory discussions ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix. Despite this, Verstappen acknowledged continuing frustrations with the media, attributing much of it to “one particular person,” widely interpreted as referring to Kravitz.
“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.
“You can’t live in the past. You just have to move on. You keep disrespecting me and, at one point, I’m not tolerating it anymore. That’s why I decided to stop answering them.”
Despite ongoing tensions, Verstappen confirmed the issue had been settled for the time being:
“Yeah, we drew a line under it. So we just keep on going.”
What Lies Ahead in Verstappen’s Relationship with Media and Team Communications
The interview and its fallout underline the sensitive nature of communication between drivers, teams, and media in Formula 1, especially when penalties and controversial incidents are involved. Verstappen’s reluctance to assign blame publicly indicates a preference for internal team management, while Ted Kravitz’s reflection on his questions shows the challenges broadcasters face when navigating delicate topics.
As Verstappen approaches future races with the threat of an automatic race ban looming over penalty point accumulation, how the Dutch driver and Red Bull address these communication issues could be pivotal. Meanwhile, trust and respect between media and drivers remain fragile, suggesting ongoing scrutiny and cautious engagement during interviews.
