Max Verstappen bias claim rejected: 'He whines a bit'

Max Verstappen's claims of bias towards F1 media have been rejected by six-time grand prix winner Riccardo Patrese.

Verstappen has made claims of bias against British F1 media at times, with Red Bull even boycotting Sky Sports F1 in 2022 for one race after comments made about the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. 

After his stunning win in the 2024 Sao Paulo GP, Verstappen even criticised a lack of British media in the official FIA press conference, although media attendance in this session is often limited owing to the post-race media pen going on at the same time as well as team principal sessions. 

Patrese was team-mate at Williams to Nigel Mansell in 1991 and 1992, and compared Verstappen's 'whinging' to Mansell's. 

"I don’t agree with him because of his passport. If he’s Dutch, I don’t think he gave him any trouble during his career," Patrese told listofsweepstakescasinos.

"I think the fact that he’s special opens the right doors at the right moment.

"Sometimes with these rules, he doesn’t agree, but I don’t think it’s because he’s Dutch instead of English. 

"Champions usually like whinging a little bit. I know very well it’s because I had Nigel in the team that he was whinging all the time."

The article continues below. 

Verstappen's looming race ban

Verstappen enters the Austrian Grand Prix weekend still on 11 penalty points, needing just one more to trigger an automatic one-race ban for the British GP.

The world champion loses two points on the Monday following the race, but will still only drop to nine points, just three away from the threshold. 

However, Patrese does not believe that the looming threat of the ban will disrupt the "old-style" Verstappen. 

"If it happens that he loses the license, for sure he goes in his boat and relaxes for two weeks to wait for the next grand prix, I don’t think it’s a drama for him," he added.

"I think at the moment he is the only driver who sometimes does old-style fighting and driving as it was in my time. 

"I like this because sometimes he fights as he should be, and also he doesn’t like to keep his mouth closed, as at the moment everybody wants to close the mouth of the drivers. 

"You cannot say anymore about your opinion, so at the end, I think I like Verstappen because he’s the only one who is now over all this situation that there are a lot of rules, a lot of penalties, you cannot talk and so on. 

"He feels it very strongly because he’s a four-time world champion."