Two weeks on from his on-track clash with George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was involved in a heated discussion with a Sky F1 reporter in Montreal.
Verstappen made contact with Russell shortly after he was instructed to hand the position over to the Mercedes driver following an incident earlier in the race.
Red Bull opted to order Verstappen to drop behind Russell after he ran wide at Turn 1 as it pre-determined a time penalty from the stewards for gaining an advantage off the road.
The stewards ultimately decided Verstappen was forced wide and did not need to hand the spot back.
Although Red Bull wasn't to know at the time, the situation could have been avoided and in the resulting collision with Russell, Verstappen was issued a 10-second time penalty and three points on his super licence, putting him one point away from a race ban.
Speaking with Verstappen on the build-up to the Canadian Grand Prix, Sky F1 reporter Ted Kravitz noted the absence on the pit wall of Jonathan Wheatley, a long-time Red Bull employee who has since taken on the team principal role at Sauber.
Wheatley is known for his expertise on the F1 sporting regulations and was often Red Bull's go-to official for communications with the FIA.
In the interview, Kravitz was looking to dig deeper into the situation and discover how the team is working to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Verstappen, however, did not take kindly to one individual being singled out.
See the full exchange between Verstappen and Kravtiz below!
Ted Kravitz: “Just a question about going forward, the negotiation with the stewards or race director on whether places should be given back, or what. Since Jonathan Wheatley went, obviously you have Stephen Knowles who is doing it.
“I assume it was him who told 'GP' [Verstappen's race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase] to tell you to give the place back to George, which wasn’t the right call. The stewards later confirmed that.
“How are you working that out with him? Obviously, he’s not been in the job too long since Jonathan’s gone to Sauber. How are you working that out the same situation doesn’t happen again?”
Max Verstappen: “I think it’s not really nice to try and single out a person, because that’s never the case.
“I think we just look at it as a team, what we always can do better, and that’s also how we look at it in Barcelona. But it’s not fair to now single out one single person.”
TK: “I don’t think I’m singling him out, I just named who he was. Jonathan Wheatley is obviously a well-known guy, I wasn’t saying it was Stephen Knowles his fault.”
MV: “But you mentioned him.”
TK: “Jonathan Wheatley was a well-known guy, he was your rules guy. Now he [Knowles] is the new guy.”
MV: “So we’re talking about him, you're singling him out.”
TK: “OK, but he’s on the pit wall. He’s a fairly well-known person...”
MV: “I do not need to discuss that anyway here. If we ever look at things that we can do better, we do that like every other team.
“But I’m not going to stand here in front of the camera and say who was at fault exactly.”
TK: “I wasn’t asking…”
MV: “We all live and learn.”
TK: “I wasn’t asking you to do that, just to be clear. I was asking how you… you live and learn. Thank you, I think you answered it.”
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Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes and Nick Golding, as they discuss media day in Montreal ahead of this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix!
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