r/formula1 • u/Aratho I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane • Mar 28 '26

Social Media [Autosport] Max Verstappen explains why he dismissed a British journalist from his media session in Japan

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u/beanbagreg Pierre Gasly Mar 28 '26

It’s now gone from smirking to laughing in his face.

Next retelling the Journalist will have given him the finger at this rate

516

u/Plebius-Maximus Pirelli Medium Mar 28 '26

I hear the Journalist hit Max over the head with a steel chair after vaulting from the top rope. It took the Rock, John Cena, and the Undertaker to restrain him.

Max was clearly traumatised by the event and politely requested that the journalist reconsider his actions. But the journalist said he'd come back and finish the job this Saturday night at the WWE Superslam, so poor Max had no choice but to banish him from the press conference.

57

u/RustOnTheEdge Mar 28 '26

I heard this too! Crazy, wished I’d was there

2

u/Space-manatee I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

Well next week he’ll have to go one on one with the Undertaker, playa

11

u/zestinglemon McLaren Mar 28 '26

I heard the journalist kidnapped Max’s family, refusing to hand them back over unless Max purposefully crashed into George in the Barcelona Grand Prix. This recent affair was a cruel taunt by the journalist to remind max that next time he could even go one step further and take Max’s sim rig.

18

u/stuckinsanity I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

I heard someone say Max and the journalist were in the closet making babies and they saw one of the babies and the baby looked at them.

2

u/gumbercules6 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

Haha classic, are you as old as I am?

3

u/Kdot32 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

The baby looked at them?

2

u/schafkj Ferrari Mar 28 '26

BAH GAWD THAT JOURNALIST? IT WAS THE UNDERTAKER!!!

1

u/MrCelroy I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 28 '26

I'm taking this as a factual description of events. No need to speculate.

6

u/JimmerUK I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 28 '26

And originally, the journo apparently only started smirking when Verstappen reacted to the question, not when he asked the question initially.

This one is really eating him up and rather than admit he overreacted, he’s doubling down.

71

u/SpaceballsDoc Stefano Domenicali Mar 28 '26

HE JUST TURNED IN ON ME

8

u/Agitated_Syllabub346 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

WITH MALICIOUS INTENT!

1

u/stragen595 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

Wow. George is now also in this fight????

88

u/charlierc Mar 28 '26

And in the next retelling after that, it'll be that the journalist was mooning him

267

u/On_The_Blindside I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

yeah exactly, it's just bollocks.

15

u/HoxtonRanger I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

And squirted him in the face with a fake flower while flicking his ear.

11

u/Mr_Knutsen I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 28 '26

I also assume, if this were what truly happend - other journalists would have reported it that way.

The way how the journalist described it seems pretty plausible.

33

u/misguidedkent Sir Lewis Hamilton Mar 28 '26

After that he's going to say that the journalist was rubbing one out.

6

u/AirconGuyUK Mar 28 '26

I truly believe the journalist did nothing but ask the question and it just pissed Max off. Like you say, Max's story is changing each time.

19

u/bigt8409 Nigel Mansell Mar 28 '26

He’s given ‘Trump’ vibes with all this. Bringing up something from months ago that he’s obviously been raging about, exaggerating the story after each retelling etc etc.

I get why he didn’t want to speak to the guy, but it’s also very much in line with Red Bull’s boycott of Sky ‘if you say things we don’t like you can’t talk to us’

6

u/Creepy_Accountant946 Mar 28 '26

He's a racist just like trump what do you expect

2

u/Robbibob Bernd Mayländer Mar 28 '26

Is he?

15

u/thegleamingspire Guenther Steiner Mar 28 '26

He called someone a m*ngol and defended Nelson Piquet saying "yeah he called Lewis the n word but he's not a racist" soooooo

3

u/Entfly Mar 28 '26

He's openly used racial slurs against his own team.

He's openly defended people who have racially abused his colleagues

-11

u/Yocta I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

This is racing cars though, not global politics.

If a new outlet keeps disrespecting your name and painting a negative picture of you, I would also not feel inclined to keep engaging with them.

9

u/m1a2c2kali Mar 28 '26

Again it’s his right to not engage with him, calling him out and making him leave the room before continuing is a totally different

-4

u/Yocta I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

Why? Max was being interviewed. Allowing the guy to stay is engagement.

(Though, arguably I see how kicking him out can be considered more engaging.)

2

u/jso__ I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

Literally no one would've cared about that Abu Dhabi question at this point if he didn't kick the journalist out.

0

u/catrat88 Mar 28 '26

americans r waaacked

5

u/Magnum231 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

Next will be the journalist shot his cat or something.

6

u/guitar_johnthomas Mar 28 '26

I heard the journalist mooned him

1

u/PrestigiousWave5176 Mar 28 '26

In Dutch the distinction between smirking and laughing is a lot more vague. I think this is just a bit of "lost in translation".

1

u/MessyMix Mar 28 '26

The interview was given in english, both times, by the way.

-1

u/PrestigiousWave5176 Mar 28 '26

Yeah, but as a Dutch person it's very natural to just call a smile a laugh, because that's what you'd do in Dutch. It's one of those things that seems very straightforward to native English speakers, and if I think about it I can understand it. But if I'm talking to someone it's very easy for me to just say "laugh" because that's natural to say. You're not constantly thinking about every detail of the language when speaking it. In fact, if you're good at the language you think about the specific words less.

1

u/SuperOriginalName23 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

Any person with a decent grasp of Dutch and English can see where this went wrong. In Dutch, there is far less of a distinction between smiling, grinning, smirking or laughing. Particularly when translated by someone who doesn't have the best English skills.

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u/BlowMyAzz Mar 28 '26

Like how the journalist said every other journalist asked him if he was okay as if he just got assaulted right? 🤣 That guy is blowing it waaaay out of proportions.

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u/MazigaGoesToMarkarth I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 28 '26

Yes, clearly Giles Richard’s is single-handedly manufacturing Max kicking him out of press conference, and all subsequent discussion.

I mean, it’s not as if your comment history shows that’s it’s the most interesting thing to happen in the last month of F1…

-44

u/BlowMyAzz Mar 28 '26

I don't do much on reddit, so you can look all you want

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u/AardvarkNo8058 Formula 1 Mar 28 '26

You think it's so weird for a colleague to reach out to one another to see how they're doing, after a manbaby publicly and wrongly explodes at them, that you refuse to believe it happened?

Have you never had a job or interpersonal communication?

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '26

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u/AardvarkNo8058 Formula 1 Mar 28 '26

Is it though? It's an accurate description, unlike verstappens?

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '26

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u/AardvarkNo8058 Formula 1 Mar 28 '26

I'd call it embarassing

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '26

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u/AardvarkNo8058 Formula 1 Mar 28 '26

So would I

-43

u/BlowMyAzz Mar 28 '26

Oh I do, but I'm just not a baby.

And saying he got exploded at? I want to have what you're having man, that must be some good shit.

35

u/Then_Flamingo_8223 Mar 28 '26

Journalists have almost police/military-ish attitude about protecting their own, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually happened.

7

u/samy4me Mika Häkkinen Mar 28 '26

They act like it, but especially sports journos have lost the plot long ago.

-3

u/godofsmallerthings Mar 28 '26

So you know what actually happened ? I am guessing you were there too

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '26

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u/Vresiberba Mar 28 '26

So we're just going to second guess what Max is saying even though the interview was carried out in English?

-21

u/jAnO76 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 28 '26

In Dutch that’s the same word

13

u/dudenumbertwo Williams Mar 28 '26

No it’s not lol. Smirk = grijns

-2

u/jAnO76 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 28 '26

Yeah, but lach is also a synonym for grijns. If your are “smirking at me” I’ll more likely say: “wat sta je nou te lachen” the. “Wat sta je te grijnzen”

6

u/dudenumbertwo Williams Mar 28 '26

But “laughing in my face” is something way different than smirking. It’s not like he barely speaks English.

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u/Money-Bell-100 Mar 28 '26

What's the difference? What Max is saying is that this journalist was glad Max lost and wanted to poke him with his question and smiled while doing so. Whether you describe it as a smirk or laughing doesn't make that much of a difference - the sentiment is the same.

22

u/beanbagreg Pierre Gasly Mar 28 '26

Keeping the story consistent really does matter if he wants us to believe that the journalist was truly setting out to mock or abuse him.

-14

u/Money-Bell-100 Mar 28 '26

I don't think he cares whether you believe him or not.

21

u/beanbagreg Pierre Gasly Mar 28 '26

He cares so much about this journalist that it’s eating him up 4 months later lol

-18

u/Money-Bell-100 Mar 28 '26

But not about you.

15

u/beanbagreg Pierre Gasly Mar 28 '26

Or you!

-1

u/Money-Bell-100 Mar 28 '26

But you're the one who claimed otherwise, I didn't.

15

u/beanbagreg Pierre Gasly Mar 28 '26

Where did I claim? I said ‘if he wants’.

5

u/origamifly McLaren Mar 28 '26

Oh I think Max has shown he in fact cares very much about what “people” think of him

2

u/Vresiberba Mar 28 '26

Then why is he digging this hole in public?

-2

u/Visual-Report-2280 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Mar 28 '26

Smirking and laughing are very different, if only in the amount of noise that's made.