Verstappen Kicks Out a Journalist at Suzuka: 'You Forget Everything Else That Happened in My Season'

Max Verstappen has had enough of being asked the same question. The four-time world champion ejected a journalist from his Red Bull hospitality unit in Suzuka and used the Thursday press conference to make the point publicly, accusing parts of the F1 media of fixating on a single late-season moment from his 2025 championship campaign. The incident in question is the controversial Barcelona contact between Verstappen and a rival driver during last year's title fight. Verstappen has answered for it many times. At Suzuka, when the topic was dragged up again, he refused to play along. "You forget all the other stuff that happened in my season," Verstappen told the questioner. "The only thing you mention is Barcelona. I knew that would come." The Dutchman then turned the exchange on the journalist, who was visibly trying to lighten the mood with a smile. "Are you giving me a stupid grin now?" Verstappen asked. "It's part of [the season]." The pre-event briefing turned tense quickly. Verstappen, who has built his reputation on rarely backing down from a confrontation, defended his decision to remove the journalist from the team's hospitality earlier in the week. He framed it as a question of respect rather than scrutiny. "That particular question, I think I've answered like 20 times with different people," he said. "It's not about the question. I always explained it very well about what I think happened. So for me, it was more about the way the question was asked, the laughing, and the lack of respect." The row underlines a wider tension between Verstappen and an F1 press corps that has, in his view, narrowed his entire title-winning year down to one race-defining incident in Spain. Within the Red Bull garage there has long been frustration that the championship is portrayed as having been decided by controversy rather than the results that came before it. But the timing of the outburst is telling. Red Bull's 2026 season has been a struggle, and Verstappen is being asked harder questions about his future than at any point since he signed his current contract. He has not hidden his unease with the new technical regulations, telling a separate interview earlier in the month, "I can easily leave [F1] behind." The journalist exchange is unlikely to be the last of its kind this year. Verstappen has already pushed back at the FIA on energy management rules, defended his own approach to wheel-to-wheel racing, and watched Mercedes and McLaren steam past Red Bull in the constructors' fight. Each of those issues comes with its own line of media questioning, and his patience for repeating himself is clearly thinning. What Suzuka showed is that he is no longer prepared to let the pattern slide. By calling out the question publicly — and confirming that he had ejected the journalist from his own space earlier in the week — Verstappen has drawn a line for the rest of the season. Whether the rest of the paddock follows is another matter. For now, the four-time champion's message to anyone planning a follow-up is clear. He has answered Barcelona. He is done answering Barcelona. --- *Originally published on [NewsFormula One](https://newsformula.one/article/verstappen-kicks-out-journalist-suzuka-barcelona-question-2026-press-conference). Visit for full coverage.*