Damon Hill “would like to think” that the drama surrounding his criticism of Max Verstappen did not influence his Sky F1 exit.

The 1996 World Champion Damon Hill – who had served as a Sky F1 pundit since the broadcaster picked up the live F1 broadcasting rights for the UK and Ireland in 2012 – would reveal following the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix that he was to depart Sky F1 at the end of the season.

Hill hopes Max Verstappen spat not Sky F1 exit influenced

Hill’s departure from Sky F1 came after a season where his stinging criticism of Verstappen had put him in the headlines, the same true for Hill’s fellow ex-Sky F1 pundit and steward Johnny Herbert, who had also been critical of Verstappen’s racing approach.

It was at the Mexican Grand Prix where Verstappen received a pair of 10-second time penalties following his battle with then title rival Lando Norris, one for forcing Norris off the track and another for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

That verdict from the stewards came a week after the Verstappen and Norris dramas in Austin, where Norris was penalised for leaving the track and gaining an advantage by returning to the track ahead of Verstappen, who had ushered them both off at Turn 12.

In addition to comparing Verstappen to the Wacky Races television cartoon villain Dick Dastardly, Hill also said on the Sky F1 podcast after the Mexican GP: “The problem that Max has is he simply refuses to concede any turf at all, to anyone, in an overtake. So that’s the situation.

“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.’”

“Some people are just a bit biased,” was Verstappen’s take on the criticism, the four-time World Champion and his father Jos speaking out in 2024 about a perceived ‘British bias’ in the F1 media.

So, does Hill believe that situation with Verstappen contributed to the end of his Sky F1 tenure?

“I would like to think not,” he said, when speaking with The Telegraph.

“I hope not.”

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Rather, Hill sensed that the writing was already on the wall for his Sky F1 career at that point.

“I think I felt like the end was coming anyway, because I was kind of pushed back all last year,” he claimed. “I was doing the less attractive races.

“And they’ve got younger, fresher names. They’ve got Jenson [Button], they’ve got Nico [Rosberg]. And that’s fair enough. I completely get it. They’re closer to the front line than I am. And it’s TV. There’s got to be a bit of eye-candy factor to it.”

Sky’s contract to broadcast F1 live in the UK and Ireland runs through until the end of the 2029 season.

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