British F1 broadcaster faces backlash from fans over Red Bull upgrade misreport

British broadcaster Sky Sports F1 faced backlash from the fans on social media after they allegedly misreported details regarding the Red Bull upgrade packaged during the Belgian GP Free Practice session. The Austrian team have been on the back foot for the last few races as they have lost some ground to McLaren, who are arguably the fastest on the track in terms of performance on various circuits.

The reigning world champions introduced a radical upgrade package to further gain some distance between themselves and the Woking-based outfit at last weekend's Hungarian GP. They rolled out the RB20 with significant changes to the engine covers, floors, and other changes to Max Verstappen's car, while Sergio Perez had the same upgrades apart from the new engine cover.

The 'shoulder bulge' on the engine cover introduced to have longer air vents was removed from the three-time world champion's RB20 in favor of a more traditional cover. In contrast, the previous spec engine cover remained on Sergio Perez's car. The Austrian team had claimed they would use the upgraded specifications at high downforce tracks while using the original specs on low downforce tracks.

In a now-deleted post shared by the broadcaster on X, Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz claimed on air that Red Bull had abandoned the Hungary upgrades for the Belgian GP referring to them as 'downgrades'.

The post caught the attention of the X community post which corrected the misreport and caused an uproar on several F1 fan pages.

Prominent F1 influencer and engineer, Dr.Obbs, even called out the broadcaster for creating unnecessary 'drama' despite the planned approach for RB20 ahead of the weekend.

"...I appreciate the need to drum up drama, but these kinds of posts are why fans react the way they do to these kinds of things…," Obbs wrote.

Some fans took a harsher approach and criticized Kravitz over his reporting, stating:

"Ted Kravitz reveals he’s abandoned his remaining brain cell to avoid it getting in the way of his biased coverage of Red Bull," a fan wrote

"LOL! Ted Kravitz and Sky are horrendous. Red Bull literally announced in Hungary that the updates were circuit-specific," another fan added.

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Red Bull team boss clarifies their approach regarding the upgrade package in Hungary

While the upgrades did not work as well as Red Bull had anticipated, as Verstappen was outpaced by Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the upgrade package introduced at the Hungarian GP would be circuit-specific.

In his interview with Sky Italia, the Brit said (via Formula Passion):

"We are simply using different parts between Max and Checo, for the engine cover and everything around it. The rest is the same. We have thought of a configuration for these high-speed tracks, like Spa and Monza. Then we will come back with the same look as before in Zandvoort and Singapore, we will change depending on the circuit.”

The Milton-Keynes outfit or the British broadcaster have not made any statements on the alleged misreport as of now.