'Max Verstappen's sim-racing schedule references' and 'British-Bias allegations' a sign that F1 needs a rethink on the global broadcast partner

If you saw the F1 Hungarian GP on the Sky Sports global feed, Max Verstappen's late-night sim race and his lack of sleep are a discussion you could not have avoided. Sky F1 presenter David Croft made it a point to share with everyone watching around the world that the Red Bull driver took part in a sim race late at night, and whenever he came on the radio during the race, "he sounded like someone who did not have a good night of sleep."

The reference to Verstappen's sim race that saw him stay up until 3:00 am was first made before the race by Nico Rosberg, who compared the Dutchman's schedule with Lando Norris, who had apparently slept on time. During the race, however, the number of mentions of Max staying up late at night and hence "sounding like someone who didn't have a good night of sleep" became overbearing.

This was something quite obvious, and social media picked up on it too. Lots of fans spoke about it and some have gone on to mention that Verstappen was being unfairly targeted by the broadcast unit.

The coverage of the Hungarian GP, coupled with the commentary targeting Verstappen during the Austrian GP when he clashed with Lando Norris, raises a question. Does Formula 1 need a rethink on whether Sky Sports should be used for the global feed?

The online backlash against the commentary

The repeated insistence and regurgitation of the fact that Max Verstappen slept late at night was something that became a source of frustration for the F1 community online. Some of the fans criticized how large parts of David Croft's comments were centered around the fact that Verstappen had a sim race late at night. One user wrote,

"I was fed up of listening Max's lack of sleep. I think he may have told it 100s of time until Ted eventually called him out."

Another user mentioned how he thought this was something that had been going on since Sebastian Vettel's time at Red Bull:

"Problem is they have been doing this since Seb at Red bull it's disgusting how bias they are always have been the most important part in Sports commentary is non bias they have always been bias"

Another one questioned whether Sky Sports should be the global feed, saying,

"Sky shouldn't be the Global feed, Their bias is disgusting not to mention how many times they don't mention something very obvious that happened."

A sense that Max Verstappen was being targeted

One of the biggest issues with all of this was the fact that it gave the impression that Max Verstappen was being targeted by the broadcast team. Throughout the race, the number of times David Croft mentioned the driver's sim racing schedule was in the double digits.

Every time the driver came on the radio, it was the same thing, and every time he tried to make a move, it felt the same. By the time the weekend ended, the impression of the Red Bull driver being targeted was cemented by Sky Sports presenter Ted Kravitz.

On his post-race segment 'The Ted's Notebook', as the collision between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton was being investigated, the presenter seemed to have had made up his mind on the incident and said,

"First of all, they're calling it a racing incident, which is what Red Bull do when it's Max's fault. But everyone else is calling it Max's fault"

The two drivers in question did not seem to agree with Kravitz's view, and neither did the stewards. It was, however, another pull-back-the-curtain moment on how the broadcasting standards seem to go for a toss when certain individuals are involved.

Some alarming precedence

The unfortunate and alarming situation here is that there is precedence of certain drivers being targeted and the existence of 'British-bias' in coverage. This is something that we have also covered in the past on Sportskeeda but there has been no change. As recently as the race in Austria, where Max Verstappen and Lando Norris made contact, the Red Bull driver was villainized throughout the week leading to the next race.

At the next race, almost all of the 20 F1 drivers on the grid, including Lando Norris with whom the contact was made, termed the collision a racing incident. Not only that, Ted Kravitz's conduct was the reason behind Red Bull boycotting Sky Sports altogether at the F1 Mexican GP in 2022.

The coverage from Sky Sports in the 2021 F1 season drew a large amount of criticism, and the broadcaster also used a clip of Max Verstappen's 51G impact crash in Silverstone in a Christmas advert.

Even in the early 2000s, the "British-bias" criticism surfaced when Michael Schumacher decided not to interact with Martin Brundle along with some British publications because of what he saw as the nature of their reporting.

The criticism and the questions have continued to plague F1 broadcast for far too long now, and after what happened in the Hungarian GP, Liberty Media should look long and hard at the quality of the broadcast from Sky Sports because it is certainly not what one would call neutral.

A feed that caters to the British audience should not be broadcast globally

The reason that the Sky Sports broadcast feed has been used globally is because the English telecast was readily available for everyone in this manner. This helped F1 penetrate new markets easily, and hence everything was positive.

There is, however, a major drawback to using the Sky Sports broadcast. A British broadcast caters to the British audience. Just like the Dutch broadcast caters to the Dutch, a German broadcast caters to the German audience, etc. If we listen to the Dutch broadcasters, we would possibly hear bias towards Max Verstappen. If we listen to the German or the French broadcast, one wouldn't be surprised to hear bias towards their drivers.

The good part is that all these other broadcasts are limited to their respective countries. The British broadcast, on the other hand, is used globally. That's where the problem lies because we are using a regional broadcast to serve a global purpose. That's a project that is destined to fail.

F1 already has an alternative in place

There is already a way out in place for Liberty Media. As part of the F1TV subscription, one gets both the Sky Sports broadcast and the F1TV broadcast. At the moment if there is a global feed that has to be sent to countries where Liberty Media sells the broadcasting rights, then in that case the feed is going to be from Sky Sports.

Because of this, while a viable alternative in F1TV is available, Sky Sports' broadcast continues to be watched by the bulk of the audience. Liberty Media can either demand a better quality of broadcasting from the British broadcaster or it can simply start elevating the in-house production team to the global level.

The team of Alex Jacques, Will Buxton, Lawrence Barretto, and others is growing in their roles and doing a brilliant job. It might be time for Liberty Media to change the global broadcasting feed.