Max Verstappen asked a journalist to leave his Thursday media briefing at the Japanese Grand Prix, still visibly upset over a December question about an incident that could have cost him a fifth consecutive drivers’ title.
“I’m not speaking before he’s gone,” Verstappen said as he settled in to take questions in Red Bull’s hospitality area at Suzuka, telling the reporter to “get out.”
“Now we can start,” he added once the journalist had left.
The Dutch driver had previously clashed with the same reporter after the Abu Dhabi season finale, where he lost the title to McLaren’s Lando Norris by just two points.
The reporter had asked Verstappen if, in hindsight, he regretted an incident with Mercedes driver George Russell at the Spanish Grand Prix in June, for which the Dutchman was given a 10-second penalty that dropped him from fifth to 10th and cost him nine points.
“You forget all the other stuff that happened in my season. The only thing you mention is Barcelona. I knew that would come. You’re giving me a stupid grin now,” Verstappen said at the time.
“It’s part of racing at the end. You live and learn. The championship is one of 24 rounds. I’ve also had a lot of early Christmas presents given to me in the second half of the season, so you can also question that,” he added.
The rest of Verstappen’s press conference proceeded without incident. The 28-year-old appeared relaxed as he fielded questions about his recent participation in a sports car race at Germany’s Nürburgring Nordschleife and a stint in a Japanese Super GT car at the Fuji racetrack.
Verstappen, eighth in the overall standings after a sixth-place finish in Australia and a retirement in China, has had a difficult start to the season.
Frank, forthright, and fiercely competitive, he has been among the strongest critics of the sport’s new power unit rules.
“This is the reality that we are in now,” he said Thursday.
“You just have to accept that at the moment.”
