Max Verstappen explained the reason behind the request for a journalist to leave during his press conference at the start of the Formula 1 Japanese GP. The driver stated that he does not want to be near anyone who does not respect him.
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One of the main news stories of the Suzuka round was the episode involving the four-time Red Bull champion and a British journalist from The Guardian. Still on Thursday, in a media session at the team’s hospitality, the Dutchman asked the professional to leave, otherwise, he would not give an interview.
The enmity between the two dates back to the 2025 Abu Dhabi GP, when the journalist questioned whether Max regretted the accident with George Russell in Spain, with the points being important in the title fight, which ended up in the hands of Lando Norris. At the time, the competitor was already irritated and now, in the first face-to-face meeting in 2026, the wound remains open.
“I received that question quite often last year, and I think I answered it more than twenty times. So when someone asks that question in the press conference after the last race and still laughs in my face, to me that shows a complete lack of respect. If you don’t respect me, why would I respect you?” he told Viaplay.
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“You only see the camera pointed at me and not at that person, who started laughing. And you could clearly see that there was bad intention behind it at that moment. That’s enough for me. I’ve been in Formula 1 long enough to know who has good intentions and who has bad intentions. If you went there and laughed at me, it’s because you clearly didn’t have good intentions,” he added.
When speaking about the episode in question, journalist Giles Richards stated that he smiled out of nervousness and that he had no intention of disrespecting Verstappen.
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