Max Verstappen delayed the start of his media session on Thursday, due to being unhappy about the presence of a specific journalist.
The Duch driver made it clear that he would not start his media session with journalists on the ground at Suzuka, until one specific attendee had departed the Red Bull hospitality unit.
Max Verstappen halts Suzuka media session over journalist dispute
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Verstappen was making his usual Thursday media appearances when he headed to the Red Bull hospitality unit to speak with the print journalists, having completed his broadcast duties with the television crews on hand at Suzuka.
Sitting down for the scheduled 10-minute session, Verstappen spotted a journalist in the midst of the faces looking at him, and immediately said that he would not start the session until the journalist had left.
“I’m not speaking before he’s leaving,” the four-time F1 World Champion said, singling out the journalist in question.
With the journalist initially questioning whether Verstappen was serious, he hazarded a guess at why the Red Bull driver might be annoyed with him.
At last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, straight after Verstappen had just missed out on the title by two points, the journalist had asked whether he regretted the controversial moment of contact between himself and George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix – a moment that cost Verstappen valuable points in the championship.
The manner in which the question was asked appeared to annoy Verstappen, who replied, “You forget all the other stuff that happened in my season. The only thing you mention is Barcelona. I knew that would come.
“You’re giving me a stupid grin now. I don’t know. Yeah, it’s part of racing at the end. You live and learn. The championship is one of 24 rounds. I’ve also had a lot of early Christmas presents given to me in the second half, so you can also question that. ”
Having established that the question was the issue, the journalist questioned again whether Verstappen wanted him to leave, and whether the Dutch driver was upset by it, to which he replied, ” Get out”.
Upon the journalist’s departure from the hospitality unit, Verstappen relaxed and said, “Now we can start”.
While media briefings are part of each driver’s expected workload on a Thursday, only the FIA press conferences are mandatory to attend and engage with, meaning it will be entirely in Red Bull’s hands as to whether it will intervene to restore peace between Verstappen and the journalist in question.
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