formula evie

‘British bias’ is the idea that British drivers and teams receive preferential treatment or favouritism in regards to media coverage and decisions made by race stewards. It’s often a hot talking point amongst F1 fans, usually at any point where Max Verstappen is involved in an incident.

That’s because the driver who likes to claim that there is British bias in F1 media is Max Verstappen. It isn’t exclusive to Verstappen, in fact in recent races there has been a lot of talk about British bias regarding Lando Norris.

The incident that I think of whenever this conversation comes up is from last season at the Mexican Grand Prix when Verstappen received criticism from British former WDC Damon Hill, who is now a Sky Sports F1 pundit. Hill said in reference to a race incident between Verstappen and Lando Norris: “It is possible to race fairly and that is something I’m not sure that Max is capable of – it’s not in his repertoire. It’s not in his philosophy. His philosophy is that ‘You’re not coming past’”.

Hill simultaneously praised other British drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell for racing fairly wheel-to-wheel with other cars. In response, Verstappen told Dutch media at the following race in Brazil that he believed he had the “wrong passport” for the F1 paddock.

On a separate incident with Norris at the previous race in Austin in which Mclaren lodged a right of review protest against a penalty received in a racing incident with Verstappen, Max said “I have the wrong passport, it is of the wrong country to be complaining.” and went on to confirm that he meant that he did not have a British passport, and therefore was not receiving the same ‘preferential’ treatment he believes that the British drivers get both from the media and the race stewards in regards to on-track penalties.

The thing that really annoys me about this is that Max Verstappen is a white European man. There have been genuine instances of racial bias in Formula 1, including against Yuki Tsunoda, Sergio Perez, and Lewis Hamilton, who continues to be the only Black driver in the history of Formula 1. Nelson Piquet, who is literally the father of Max Verstappen’s partner and the grandfather of his child, was fined and temporarily banned from the F1 paddock after using a racial slur to refer to Lewis Hamilton. How are you going to claim that you have the wrong passport when your own teammates have suffered actual racial abuse in this sport?

If British bias is real, then (regarding the media aspect), the real issue is not that drivers may or not feel victimised by the press, it is that broadcasters and publications should generally be providing unbiased coverage of sports. The opinions of commentators and pundits inform public opinion, so if a particular driver is being discussed more positively or more negatively by journalists then fans will absorb those opinions and therefore share them – regardless of whether or not the assessment was impartial or even fair.

Many Sky Sports F1 pundits have denounced claims of British bias. Karun Chandok said in 2024 that it is their job to be unbiased – “You have the Lewis fans who think you’re biased against Lewis. You have the Max fans who think you’re biased against Max. You have the Lando fans saying, why are you so biased against Lando? People are sometimes so in love with their favourite driver that objectivity goes out the window. I understand their passion – but it’s our job to be objective. I know in my conscience that I’m not biased.”. Martin Brundle also said that he doesn’t believe his commentary is biased towards the British drivers – “I’m a Brit. I’m a former British F1 driver, and we’re broadcasting primarily to a British broadcaster. Others take our feed all the way around the world. When I watch the Olympics or the World Cup or the European Cup, obviously, your commentators are fervently pro whichever country they’re from. I don’t think we do that. I like to think we’re pretty balanced. I really do.”

Now I would argue that British bias would be inevitable in a sport that has such a rich and prominent history in the UK; England is the epicentre of F1. Williams and Mclaren are the second and third oldest F1 teams and have been located at their British bases since their inception, and teams like Red Bull themselves, Mercedes, and Aston Martin have also been based in the UK for the duration of their time in F1. Other teams such as Haas and Racing Bulls have facilities in Motorsport Valley alongside their primary bases elsewhere. Of the drivers on the current grid, four out of twenty race under the British flag and there have been 163 drivers in total from the United Kingdom, making it the most represented country in F1. I feel like it’d be more surprising if there wasn’t at least a slight lean towards the Brits from a media perspective.

In my own personal view- if Verstappen doesn’t want the British media to criticise him, then he shouldn’t give them a reason to. In his early years in Formula 1, he earned himself the nickname ‘Mad Max’ due to his aggressive and controversial driving style, and has had a countless number of racing incidents and off-track clashes over his career. In Brazil 2018, he collided with Esteban Ocon on-track and pushed him after the race before being separated, and in Qatar 2024, he allegedly threatened to purposefully crash into George Russell and “put him on his head in the wall” because George fought for a grid penalty for the Dutchman after he impeded the Brit’s flying lap in Qualifying. Russell further claimed to the media in Abu Dhabi that Verstappen was a bully who nobody would stand up to because of his anger.

It is unreasonable for Verstappen to expect the British media to speak favourably of him following incidents where he is directly impacting the British driver’s races. That is obviously not going to make British media to praise his actions in the way that the media in his own country might. 

On that note, another point is that it’s natural for national outlets to be biased towards drivers from their own country. The Dutch media are biased towards Verstappen, the Italian media is biased towards Ferrari, even the French Canadian F1 broadcast has a specific graphic shown during Grands Prix to show where Lance Stroll is in the race (according to a video I saw on Tiktok). Australian media published an article about the Hungarian GP headlined in social media posts as “F1 world erupts of Aussie dudded by own team” after Lando Norris recieved a preferential strategy and won the race.

There is an undeniable link between sports and patriotism and nationalism, sport reproduces a sense of national belonging and community: people root for athletes from their own country and take pride in their achievements. It just happens that, as previously discussed, Formula 1 has a lot of history in the UK and a significant amount of media coverage comes from Britain.

On top of that, English is often considered the global lingua franca (a language that is adopted between speakers whose native languages are different) so English language interviews and broadcasts become more widespread than those in other languages – the ‘biased’ British coverage is seen by more fans worldwide than ‘biased’ coverage from other countries like Italy and the Netherlands simply because more people understand English than Italian or Dutch.

Fans often do have biases towards drivers from their own countries themselves – so it may be the case that national media outlets covering Formula 1 intentionally favour their countries’ drivers because that is what fans engaging with their content want to see. However, fan loyalties also lie outside drivers sharing their national flag – they may support drivers based on other factors, such as competing for the team that they support, driving ability, or factors external to racing such as the driver’s personality. In such cases, these fans may be more likely to claim perceived biases in media coverage because outlets do not favour the same driver they do. They therefore share different opinions when it comes to the outcome of races, incidents, decisions, and performances, and if these opinions don’t match the fan’s opinions, then fans will say the outlet is biased against their driver. As is seen on social media after literally every race, when fans get angry that a commentator is ‘against’ their driver or has a problem with them just because they pointed out a mistake the driver made.

The great thing is that fans have the freedom and ability to make their own judgements and form their own opinions of drivers, teams, and situations in the sport. Even if the media is biased, you can just have a different opinion, and that is literally fine! The genuine concern, at least to me, is whether or not stewarding is biased towards particular drivers. This article is an adapted version of an essay I wrote for my journalism degree, so the research is focused on the media perspective but I will give my own, unresearched thoughts on the stewarding. Take with a pinch of salt.

Do I think that race stewards are biased towards British drivers? Honestly, no I don’t. As I said, this is unresearched and I have no stats or anything to compare, but I actually think that certain British drivers are unfairly penalised and a certain non-British driver could get away with murder. Or throwing a towel out of his car and onto the track. Or pushing another driver off the track to gain an advantage. Or dare I even bring up AD21?

I guess the conclusion to this is that British bias isn’t a thing, in my opinion at least. The argument that most compels me is that all national outlets are biased towards drivers from their country, I think it’s a totally normal part of sport. Just because the F1 broadcast doesn’t constantly talk about how your personal favourite driver is the greatest of all time and occasionally discusses their mistakes or weaknesses doesn’t make them biased against them or a secret ‘hater’. The ‘British bias’ argument is a way for people to deflect; why admit that you or your driver isn’t completely flawless and incapable of error, when you can just blame it on somebody else?