The British F1 media for years have had a Lewis Hamilton obsession to the point where the Mercedes driver can do no wrong. This often juxtaposes Hamilton’s rivals as the villains of the piece which suits the narrative that Lewis is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Hamilton has been presented as the victim of a middle eastern plot to bring him down in relation to the FIA’s decision to enforce this season the ‘no jewellery’ ban for F1 drivers whilst in the cockpit, a piece of legislation that has been on the books for more than a decade.
The final race of the 2021 season saw a late safety car and a decision by race director Michael Massi to interpret the restart rules differently meant that because Mercedes had not pitted Hamilton for fresh rubber, he was overtaken on the last lap and lost the race and title to max Verstappen.
Red Bull object to Kravitz trope
Mercedes public fury and the refusal by Hamilton and team boss Toto Wolff to attend the mandated end of season FIA gala escalated matters to stratospheric proportions.
Such was the fall out, the FIA benched F1 race director Michael Massi – who later resigned – and replaced him with two rotating officials who have proven their lack of F1 experience has led to regular inconsistent and poor decisions.
The overriding narrative in the British media has been ‘Hamilton was robbed’ of his 8th F1 drivers’ championship which of course diminishes Max Verstappen and Red Bull’s achievements.
Following comments in Austin Texas where Sky F1 pundit Ted Kravitz again used the trope of Lewis being ‘robbed’, Red Bull and Max Verstappen boycotted all interviews with the broadcaster during the Mexico City GP.
Verstappen aggrieved by ‘disrespect’
When questioned over the matter, Verstappen responded, “This year it has been a constant digging, being disrespectful and particularly one particular person.”
Despite earlier this season declaring the Abu Dhabi row now closed in the following clip, Kravitz re-opened the debate at the US GP in his ‘notebook’ review of the race when discussing a potential film script for Brad Pitt’s up coming F1 movie.
Good morning to Ted Kravitz only#ThankYouTed #ThankYouTedKravitzpic.twitter.com/CIz9jaISUl
— Stefanie (@fastpitstop) October 31, 2022
While Kravitz comments were intended as jovial and a hypothetical tongue in cheek attempt to speculate on the script for Pitt’s movie, the use of the trope “robbed” clearly irritated Red Bull to the point of exasperation.
Dutch support for Kravitz
Jack Plooij, a journalist for Dutch broadcaster Ziggo Sport, has now waded into the row. He defends Krvitz comments claiming they were taken out of context.
Plooij mistakenly suggests the Sky F1 broadcasters comments were edited and therefore taken out of context.
“So cuts were made to that, so everyone only gets to hear that last bit where he tells us he was ‘robbed.’ Not Max, but the title. So Hamilton has been robbed. He doesn’t even mention the whole name Max Verstappen.”
The notebook presented by Ted Kravitz is mostly a live recording and unedited though somewhat a rambling summary of the events on track that day.
“He [Ted] sent a WhatsApp to me, [saying]: ‘At no point have I ever said what Christian Horner, Jos [Verstappen], Raymond [Vermeulen, Verstappen’s manager] or anybody thinks I did [were wrong] and are apparently upset about,’” claims Jack.
Sky F1 lose valuable ally
Yet clearly Christian et al think Kravitz was inappropriate due to their refusal to talk with Sky in Mexico.
“It does get hugely amplified again by those in England. The English press has been bashing Red Bull and Max for a year now. I don’t like that. It’s a bit of a game, you know,” adds Plooij.
“The English are bashing Max and Red Bull, and he [Ted] is now being put forward as a scapegoat. He isn’t. I stick up for Ted.”
Whether the matter will be resolved in 10 days when the F1 circus arrives in Brazil is yet to be seen. So far Sky F1 have refused to even admit the issue exists let alone comment with their views.
Christian Horner is Sky F1’s most regular and articulate pit wall team boss they call up during the track sessions over an F1 race weekend. It will be a huge loss to Sky F1 and its associated Italian and German operations were Red Bull who have clinched both F1 championships this season continue their boycott of the broadcaster’s platform.
British media bias needs to change
The Hamilton centric media bias in the UK is represented in many of the Sky F1 pundits’ opinions. Johnny Herbert appears to be in love with Lewis, whilst Jenson Button and Damon Hill present regularly as fanboys of the British racing driver.
Hamilton has been beaten consistently this season by his new young team mate and may be past his best.
It’s time the British media dropped their obsession with Lewis and recognised the present and the future is Verstappen, Russell and Lando Norris for now, with a few more names to add to the list in coming years.
READ MORE: Adrian News’s wife slams “toxic journalism”
This got the crowd going! 🙌
Perez seizes the moment at the start and gets past Russell 💪#MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/kNaUKo1AJp
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 31, 2022
Sure the British media are somewhat biased…Hamilton IS British after all. Hamilton WAS robbed of an 8th title, but not by Verstappen – he merely took advantage of the situation presented to him, nobody faults him for that. People fault Masi and the FIA for that screw up. Red Bull also cheated, they overspent, no matter which way you look at it, they benefited from that, so verstappens 2 titles are tarnished and less than they should be because of his team, not because of his lack of skill he’s a great driver. The upset is with Red Bull as a team and the FIA. Judge13 you have some of the worst F1 takes I’ve read over the last year
I can tell from your post your justafan of SkyF1 and TK in particular. You can only be robbed if you have something in the first place. Lewis never had an 8th title, he was passed in the last lap due to sloppy defending and poor tire strategy. He can get a masterclass from Checo on how to defend with old tires. How did RB cheat? they overspend and received a penalty. when MB or any other team uses more engines they get a grid penalty, cheating has nothing to do with this. I guess calling verstappens titles tarnished makes you feel better to endure the pain Lewis en MB are not top dog anymore, good luck with that.
Before I start, let me point out that I don’t care if it was Red Bull or Ferrari that was given the chance to be given the win in Abu Dhabi.
It was not Max Verstappen that won the Abu Dhabi race in 2021, but as we will all agree, Michael Masi. He changed the rules, so that Max would have an unfair advantage. Add in the overspend, how much added to the points tally for RBR, and did that help Max?
All in all, my opinion is that the 2021 F1 championship should be shared with an asterisk to show it was tied. Basically wipe out the Abu Dhabi result.
So you want to share the WDC, but every LH fan still says LH dominated FA in 2007?
Hmmmm.
Jacko 2 Nov. Forget Abu Dhabi. Bahrain 2120. Hamilton 29 times over track limits. Max goes over once after overtake on Hamilton would have had 7 points on Lewis championship done and dusted.some of you so called fans need to get of what ever you are smoking. and I haven’t mentioned Silverstone.
If we wipe out the abu Dhabi result then max wins as he had more race wins last year
Yeah, because they FIA gave him a win in Belgium. Let’s not even go there….
No bias here. Nice spin YOUR definition of robbed. And YOUR version of Max passing Lewis on the LAST lap is devoid of the decision to put Max right behind Lewis by removing cars in front of Max and not allowing any cars to pass Max. Clear according to you had no influence on the outcome. RB, the only team, going over the cap, hence by the F1 rules, CHEATED, again means nothing. Did you stop taking your meds? So many delusional statements
Lewis is the eternal F1 champion any race he has ever lost and championship he has ever lost is because some one else cheated- he simply can not be beaten fair and square- he is too good, he would win the title in n a Haas if weren’t for all the cheating by other teams. Lewis will never grow old and will win and race. Foever
Hamilton can not be beaten?? 😂😂😂. Rosberg did. Massa did but was robbed by other driver. Even Bottas did occasionally. The only reason LH wins is because 1) a superior car, 2) a semi-cheating team (6 new engines) and 3) a docile teammate that tests engines for him and let him pass.
In a lesser car LH has this season demonstrated extensively that he is no better than any other driver outside the top 3.
Apart from that, I prefer a 2021 season with all its controversies, 10 times above the 7 year, deadly boring, Mercedes desert.
Fair play,I thought this article was a joke,written by an idiot who’s knows nothing about F1.
Then you post this….you know even less that the dinlo who wrote this article…you complete Moron
If you knew anything about F1 then you would know the best teams,have the best drivers….fact.
Schumacher 7 driver titles,why?? Because he cheated to get the first one and tried it again on Villeneuve but he hit the wrong part of the Williams and took himself out.
The others were because he was in the Ferrari,which was the best car at the time and had weak teammates
Let take another German…Vettel,
4 titles….Same again,best car,weak teammate and screwed Webber to get a cheap win.
Verstappen…2 titles,
1st title,we’ll dodgey but overall he did have some bad luck and did deserve the title no matter what happened in Abu Dhabi.
2nd title,best driver in the best car with a weak teammate.
You see my point old boy…this has happened though out the history of F1 and if you and the dinlo who wrote this article knew about F1 I wouldn’t have needed to write this.
This will no doubt get deleted by the dinlo who wrote this article because he won’t like being corrected by someone who know is F1.
@Richard… your reasoning reminds strongly of a certain commenter on this site. You try another name? Again?
This article doesn’t acknowledge the real issue and just points at the media bias. Yes the press in the UK is some of the worst in the western world but whether you are British or a fan of Lewis shouldn’t matter. If you are a true sports fan fairness and integrity should be paramount. F1 has always seemed better than the likes of football and the fans up until now have had more integrity about them but sadly last season was a turning point for the sport. Every single F1 fan should be disgusted with what happened at Abu Dhabi and also now finding Red Bull broke the cost cap. Yes I am a fan of Lewis but if the tables were turned and Lewis had won that way I would still be disgusted. What makes it worse is how Max and Red Bull have never acknowledged that Lewis should have been champion last year and would have definitely if Red Bull hadn’t broken the cost cap and Masi had followed the rules. So Max deserves all the disrespect he’s getting because he’s brought it on himself by making out it was won fair and square.
I don’t know what reality you live in, but apparently you forget all the “benefits” that hamilton got from Masi and/or the stewards? that allowed him to get so close.
And if you really think 400k is such a big advantage over the rest, I can’t believe Haas hasn’t won a GP yet
Yes thejudge13 talks the most absurd anti Lewis hysteria ever. Any neutral that understands/respects the rule of sport understands Masi made a grave error in freelancing the rules of the sport to manufacture a False outcome. Any arguing otherwise clearly is not a fan of the sport, and is more a supporter of Max and Redbull than F1 or Lewis
What all the Lewis fans forget the previous race or maybe the one before, he ran vetstappen off the track and put him out losing 25 pts possibly. He got a 10 sec penalty and won the race by 15. What’s the point in that. The fai ensured it was all square for the final race, max shouldn’t have needed first in abu dabi to win. Max wasnt robbed.
The goal of the press should not be to try to play mind games with non-British racers in order to through them off their game.
If Hamilton literally walks on water like you also seem to believe he doesn’t need the help
What decided me to no longer watch F1
The upcoming number two at Mercedes is becoming another highly paid whinger.
That alongside little boy Horner .
Yes enough is enough.
How has he been consistently beat the stats results are close with Lewis ahead 11-9
Ted should have known better by staying away from igniting an old-dosed fire, what he said was just not appropriate. The title was won by Verstappen, and above all, it was not his fault that Massi interpreted the rules the way he did. It is the media that make fans become to become toxic. Before 2007 we did not have these sorts petty minded crap.
Just out of interest, why is it that British media should stop showing bias towards Britons? It’s not like no other nation does it, intact just about every nation does it, many to a far greater extent than Britain does (the USA, Dutch, French etc are all far more over the top with demonstrating national pride which manifests as bias often) so I see no problem with this at all.
The problem in that is, sky is the broadcaster for F1, the Dutch are pride,true. But never hating or basing Lewis, 2021 Silverstone outcome was an attack, the hole race 2021 and 2022 he never went so far out as with Max in that corner , he had to Win in His home race no matter what, and celebrating. Come on, and then masi, all the teams agreed not to Finish behind the safety car, specially Fer And Merc, The rule are /where any car not all the cars,
Bottom line is, Merc will never say they screw up, in strategy,, and it’s Wors that a soda factory Wins from the almighty Mercedes and Ferrari, that’s not good for stockholders 🙂
The Booing is not the Dutch army alone, it’s everywhere these days, to many Netflix Newley’s and keyboard warriors ,
Have a lovely day
Talking about bias, every single thing I’ve read from you is cometely disrespectful and bias against Hamilton and Mercedes.
Go suck Max and Christians dick some more 😂
An article written with its own bias, he was robbed
The only people that think Hamilton wasn’t robbed last year are the same people that have a problem with his skin colour
I knew it wouldn’t be long before someone played the race card. Disgusting.
I can only pity you.
In addition, I find it quite discriminatory that you so shamelessly put me in a corner that my opinion is formed purely on the basis of appearance
Who wrote this garbage? He was robbed, whoever wrote this loves the word “trope” but is happy to use the “he lost because he didn’t stop for tyres” trope. He was robbed, by a decision the race director took that contravened the rules he was there to enforce and now of course Red Bull’s overspend. Are the dutch media biased towards Verstappen just as much or if not more? Answers on a postcard. What complete drivel.
Completely biased report against Hamilton.He was robbed of the title by Massi and Verstappen was the beneficiary.It is not Hamilton who is recycling that controversial decision it is media outlets across the globe.Red Bull do not help themselves by continually being on the wrong end of regulation breaches and then play the victim card.Exactly what they are doing this time
Lol talk about being selective…allowing some cars to pass and not others was disgusting. Pretty much made it up new rules on the spot so Max could pass.
Judge your getting a lot of hate from the hamilton fanboys…
A major issue is that its not just commentary- its sky’s british contigent actively trying to haze/bully/troll other drivers to through them off their game and insert themselves into the competiton. It was even worse in 2016, the insulting disrespectful questions they asked nico was patently designed to disrupt his focus.
Given the fawning coverage of Hamilton and the sincere belief from Herbert, Hravitz et al that Hamilton is literally a god- he should need their help
Masi applied his own rules incorrectly. Knowingly. He intentionally gave the win to his good friends at Red Bull. These are facts, demonstrable in court if it came to it, and these acts took an incredible record away from a man who earned it. That’s why the British are so enduringly angry about it. British culture may be a shadow of what it used to be but one thing the British still absolutely can’t stand is unsporting behaviour. Horner only gets so angry about it because he knows Kravitz has cut to the core. It’s a colossal sporting injustice that will never be forgotten as long as motor racing exists.
I see where Red Bull are coming from. They don’t want it said on television that they “robbed” a championship whether you look at it that way or not. I haven’t listened to the whole thing but to me it seems like Red Bull is kind of bullying Sky to try to get their way. I can’t help but feel there’s other ways to go about solving this like talking to Ted instead of trying to dramatize it and boycott Sky. Seems poor from Ted and Red Bull about how this is being handled.
I believe, Ted was absolutely correct of course Mercedes & Lewis were robbed in 2021 but not necesarily Verstappens fault the fault lay with Masi. However, it will be good not to have to
listen to that whinging voice of Horner on Sky Sport.
Full disclosure, I’m a Hamilton fan. But I like to be objective and this season Verstappen has smashed it.
But what brings me to comment is not the injustices that may or may not have been done by RBR, but the hypocrisy of the author who says criticises British Media for doing to Lewis, what he’s doing to Verstappen. In fact he’s almost Hamiltonphobic. I hope he and Horner are very happy together and have many children. Long live objective reporting
I believe Ted was absolutely correct in that Mercedes & Lewis were robbed in 2021 but not necessarily Verstappens fault the fault lay with Masi who interpreted the rules to suit himself
and ultimately Red Bull. But one good thing to come out of this we won’t have to listen to
the whinging voice of Horner on Sky Sport.
My god. You hamilton fanboys are still a loooong way from peace … 😂
If the boot was on the other foot, you would be saying exactly the same (see, “lewis took out Max at Silverstone” comments for evidence
It all boils down to 1 problem, the FIA, they have been f****up the last 10-15 years. I really would support a new formula format where rules, costs, car designs are all made by the manufactures, most importantly the drivers themselves, they are the ones putting there lives at risk every time they got out on track to give us such lovely and professional races. I say lets kick the FIA out of the park, bring racing back to the drivers and the supporters.
An article full of anti Hamilton rhetoric and bias complaining about anti max and redbull bias…uh projecting much. You probably believe Horner is right for asking for an apology for breaking the rules?!
Majority of impartial fans think last seasons decider was gifted and flawed, but I’m a Mclaren fan so what would i know
Well you clearly don’t. Stating that the ‘majority of impartial fans think…Was gifted’. Did you research that? Do you have credible sources? Or do you just think so? I can imagine it feels like that in Britain but worldwide … ?
You’re talking out if your arse lad.
The way I see it is that letting them race was the correct decision. Not letting two cars ahead is a stupid technicality that is not important in the context of the situation. I can see why people think Lewis was robbed, but this is situation in which a referee prolongs the game and you lose it in the final minutes, while thinking you had it in the bag. Had Lewis won he it would not be a problem. Senna was robbed, Hill was robbed, but it does t matter. It just happens like this sometimes. Masi is still the best for the job. He let Lewis keep the position in the first laps too. I mean, that was also not technically ok, but he knew why he did it. Many things led to the final race decisions. Constant whining from both teams on the phone.
It’s always the same with red bull verstappen horner throwing there toys out of the pram because they don’t get there own way at the end the day they are nothing but CHEATS who have been caught with there hand in the cookie jar ,and I think Lewis was right a few years ago when he SAID IS IT BECAUSE I’M BLACK me thinks so .
The judge is a hamilton hater clearly evident in every post. Regardless of his 7 titles. Hamilton is one of the greatest to step inside an F1 car, he was exceptional before he entered F1. Many drivers will never be champion regardless of what they drive, Perez and botass were in the top cars. Perez isn’t good enough. Max is a very good driver. But in like for like power Lewis is better.
That redbull is a rocket, it was in 2021 and even better in 2022. But in 2021 lewis had an equal car. 2022 the car is poor, too much drag and porposing.
Who knows what breaking the cost cap did on performance, it wasn’t spent on sandwiches.
Lastly Lewis was Robbed, when that safety came out and he was allowed to pass other cars, he actually went infront of hamilton which should have been a 5sec time penalty.but massi gifted max the race due to pressure from redbull heard over the radio.
I’ll say this. Max will never win another title because cars next year will be on level leggings, if not merc I hope ferrari win.
Seems like a Max fans bias is showing here, do Dutch TV not praise Max or Mexican TV Perez, if you don’t like the coverage from Sky F1 check out the coverage on ESPN those Americans know so much about F1, super well informed.
We have always thought that F1 is far too British. It is always Hamilton this, Hamilton that. Please…. there are other nations watching the race, there are also drivers from other countries participating. Hamilton is not all that SKY claim him to be. When he started, thanks to Ron Dennis, he went into the best car at the time. When he left McClaren he went into from one winning car to another, Mercedes. Please when will you understand, in most cases, it is not the driver but the car! Oh and by the way Hamilton, ALL lives matter. Quit the politics!!!
For clarification, yes he went into a winning car, and straight up against who was considered the best of the field at the time – a 2x WDC, and matched him.
Then, from Mclaren into a NOT winning Mercedes – lets not forget that they were a leading midpack team at best, yet still one
And yes, all lives DO matter, clearly – the point is that cops dont have a record of proportionately shooting ALL people
Just wondering. Could it be the RBR don’t want to talk to media because of the penalties they received re cost cap. Seems to me that they are avoiding answering any questions on the cost cap issue but using Kravitz as the scapegoat.
A large part of their overspend was “catering”, which includes hospitality for media and guests. The cynic could suggest that by cutting off relations with the largest media agency (certainly in the European markets), would significantly reduce their hospitality bill – LOL
Quite how feeding guests and media makes the car go faster however, is beyond me
Let’s be clear here,
1) Cost Cap cheats (Red Bull)
2) Manipulating/pressurising Michael Massi on the team radio to do what they wanted him to do, which he did.
Cheating on both counts period !
Fact: Max Verstappen is a world class talent and would have won sooner or later anyway, the illegitimate 2021 win must of taste sour.
F1 & the FIA have no credibility.
For anyone to say that, saying Lewis Hamilton being robbed is disrespectful to Red bull, is an absolute turnip.
Red Bull cheated and they don’t like being called out, its that simple.
Statistically Lewis Hamilton has achieved more than any driver in F1 history. Give this man the credit he deserves for crying out loud.
The most anti LH biased web site complaining about anti MV bias!!
Hypocrites.
Maxi boy, along with Horner and Marko have been dishing it out all last year and even this against Mercedes and Hamilton. They have used Sky F1 every race to promote their brand. We have had to listen to the wind bag Horner at every race. I hope they boycott Sky forever so the true fans can enjoy the race weekends again, without it being ruined by their bile.
Even a blind man can see that Hamilton was robbed last year and anyone who saying he wasn’t then need to shake their heads. If anything sky F1 have a massive love affair with Verstappen and can’t believe I’m hearing this crap about Lewis bias. Yes Verstappen has beat Hamilton hands down this year but in a far superior car so that’s not just about who’s the best driver. If card were fully equal I’d bet the results would be very different. Less said about the OVER SPEND THEN I TAKE IT
It’s getting very gezellig in here! Boy what a lot of comments.
However I don’t like the polarization.
Come on:
– both Lewis and max are great
– both Mercedes and Red Bull willl always try to influence everything to suit their team
– both have made errors
-both have done things which were against the spirit or even the rules them selves
It’s fucking as old as this sport. Honda had a hidden fuel tank, benetton a hidden launch control, Ferrari did some shady engine stuff and Mercedes had the crazy wing story last year. Now Red Bull spent 500.000 too much and they got punished severely
So peace just peace
Amen 🙏
Regardless of whether Lewis Hamilton was robbed or not and whether he is the greatest driver ever or not, I am hugely impressed by the dignified manner in which he conducts himself and by the courage he shows in speaking out for human rights, equality and racial justice. He is head and shoulders above anyone else in the F1 world because of this, not because of his driving. That is what separates him from the rest.
I am not a Lewis fan, I am British but I like to see fairness, I find it strange that a group like the FIA are not keen to set the record straight, it could and would do them no harm, Lewis was robbed of that there is no doubt, and as it would appear that the cost cap was also an issue, what’s right is right and that’s it. Red bull have done incredibly well of that there is no doubt, as have Mercedes. The FIA needs to look at its self and understand what it wants to be. Once it has truly done that then it will be worthy. I stopped paying for this sport as I feel my money goes to something that will decide what fairness is. We sit there most Sundays watching this spectacle take place with all the millions of pounds being lavished on vehicles at the pinicle of the sport with the best drivers in the world, to find at the end that it will be made up to end how someone else wants… its not sport its a soap opera.. as I said at the beginning I’m not a Lewis fan but the title is his, no matter how you cut it
Loved the article.
Anyone who lives outside of GB can understand how pathetic the British journalism has been. It’s sad that Sky has exclusive F1 access for our countries. They sound like my 12 year old nephew when I say that their favourite actor isn’t the best. Unprofessional, biased media fueled by LH and British fans. F1 is becoming global and this needs to change.
I suppose the FIA is also biased since they admitted that Hamilton was robbed of the title last year
Funny how everyone is focus on the robbed championship bit. Ted Kravitz said a lot more in his attempt at film script writing. Overall he painted Hamilton as the hero driven by talent, whereas Verstappen’s wins in the current season were supposedly not his own, but merely on the account of Adrian Newey’s car design skills. I thought that part spoke a lot more of disrespect than repeating the silly being robbed theme. Max’ and Red Bull’s responses to that were totally warranted.