Former Formula 1 World Champion Damon Hill has claimed that Red Bull “cry” when things don’t go the team’s way despite trying to portray themselves as “hard kids.”
Many accusations have been raised in recent years regarding the alleged perception and treatment of the Milton Keynes squad within the UK.
The team’s concerns of how it is treated in Britain came to a head two weeks ago, when Max Verstappen and team boss Christian Horner were booed by the crowd at the F1 75 launch event in London.
One outlet that has suffered a large proportion of these accusations has been the UK’s F1 television broadcaster, Sky Sports, for whom Hill worked between 2012 and last year.
But Hill, speaking to The Telegraph, has rebuffed such criticism, and said that any forensic analysis of the Red Bull team and Verstappen was part of his job.
“I’m not anti-Max,” he said. “This is the point. I think Max is brilliant. I like him. I mean what’s not to like? He’s sensational. But when I felt he overstepped the mark, I said so.
“And I think Red Bull have a responsibility, their team management has a responsibility, to the sport, you know?
“If their driver goes over the limit on occasion, they have a responsibility to say ‘You can’t do that.’ And they don’t. That’s always been my issue with them.
“That they have almost given Max carte blanche and protected their driver from not sticking to the code, if you like.”
What Hill was referring to was the incidents within the 2024 season when Verstappen clashed on-track with McLaren’s Lando Norris, notably in Austrian and US Grands Prix.
“Max correctly interpreted to his advantage the rule about overtaking and being ahead at the apex on the inside. There’s nothing in the rules that says you can’t do that. And it’s exciting to see people dive down the inside.
“Except that no other driver does it. And if someone was to do it to him, he’d cry like a baby. And that’s one of my issues with them. Red Bull simply can’t accept that. No, it really is slightly disappointing, to say the least, that they like to be thought of as the hard kids on the block, but when something doesn’t go their way, they cry about it.”
Hill takes aim at ‘jingoistic’ Red Bull after accusations against Sky Sports pundits
Hill’s frank interview saw him turn the tables on Red Bull, accusing the team of an almost sectarian attitude towards those who have been critical of its practices.
This could also apply to Verstappen’s father Jos, who said in the wake of the F1 75 event, who said of his son: “I get it, because Max is the only one who fires up those Englishmen and says exactly how things are.”
But Hill dismisses such views aimed at his fellow countrymen.
“As I say, I like Max. What I don’t like is jingoism. And I don’t like the fact that it became a ‘You’re against us because we’re not British’ and all that nonsense, which was used as a way of pressuring us.
“It’s utterly unfair to suggest that there is any kind of anti-Dutch thing going on. What can you do? I thought I was there to express my opinion.
“Red Bull fight their corner very forcefully. They don’t like criticism of Max. And they didn’t like, particularly, some of the things that were said.
“On the whole they’ve always taken the view that Sky are British-centric and biased, which is really unfair I think.
“Actually I think there is a desire [the other way]. I don’t think Sky want to be accused of being biased at all. I think they want to be a fair broadcaster of the sport – credit where credit’s due and all that.
“They also do not want to be denied access to a very important figure in this sport. And I think Red Bull know that, and they apply pressure if they need to.”
Alongside Hill, Sky’s pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz was shunned by the team and Verstappen himself for a brief time in 2022, after comments made on his regular post-race programme.
Johnny Herbert has also, most recently, been the subject of such accusations, losing his role as an FIA race steward amid claims of anti-Verstappen bias in his media work.
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