Max Verstappen isn’t pulling any punches when it comes to his rocky relationship with the media, especially the British press.
The three-time F1 champion has made it crystal clear – he’ll call things exactly as he sees them.
“I say what I think and if I disagree with something, or I think someone is talking nonsense, I just say so,” Verstappen told Formula One magazine in a candid interview. “I don’t have to speak to them, they have to speak to me.”
His frustration with the media bubbled over in Singapore last season. After getting hit with a penalty for dropping an F-bomb during a Thursday press conference, Verstappen barely said a word during his post-qualifying media session.
But that was just the beginning.
The Dutch driver took a pretty obvious dig at British journalists after his win in Brazil. When he noticed none of them showed up for the press conference, he couldn’t resist taking a shot: Maybe they didn’t know where Brazil was, he suggested, or they were just in a rush to catch their flights home.
It’s not always tense between Verstappen and the press. Sometimes things are pretty smooth. But when reporters start writing what he calls “nonsense,” he’s quick to let them know he’s not happy.
“In general, you can reasonably control that,” he explained. “But if certain people write a lot of nonsense, you’re kind of done with that.”
The relationship between F1’s youngest-ever champion and the media continues to be… complicated. And from the sounds of it, Verstappen’s not planning to change his straight-talking approach anytime soon.
