The Formula 1 star who appeared to ignore Martin Brundle live on Sky Sports ahead of the United States Grand Prix has spoken out about the incident.
Last weekend, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc won the US Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas with a commanding performance as he led from start to finish.
During the closing stages of the race, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris came close as the McLaren driver was left disappointed after receiving a controversial five-second penalty for gaining an advantage off-track.
However, before the start of the race, Sky Sports pundit Brundle was brutally ignored by Williams driver Franco Colapinto.
As he approached the Argentine, Brundle said: “Hello, my name is Martin Brundle, Sky, we haven’t met, quick chat?”
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Colapinto walked past the former F1 driver, with Brundle saying: “Oh well, ‘no’ I think is the answer to that.”
The 65-year-old later said: “[I had to] go and introduce myself to Franco. He looked at me like I was trying to mug him or something. I think he thought I was trying to steal his umbrella, to be honest.”
Ahead of this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, Colapinto has reacted to the incident.
The 21-year-old said: “No, there isn’t much of a story. He never did any interview to me and it was, at least for me, not a great moment to be speaking in the camera. I was going to the national anthem and I was very late and yeah, I was focused on the race, I was focused on driving and I was just fully into that.
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“I didn’t want to speak too much, I love speaking now and when I jump out of the car, but when I am, you know, onto the racing mode, I try to be a bit more into my role and not to be giving interviews. That’s it.”
Colapinto added: “I spoke with Williams many times and I don’t have much experience on this, of having to go to the grid, then waiting there for 30 minutes, jumping out of the car, walking around the paddock and everyone wanted to make new interviews.
“And yeah, Martin [Brundle], of course, he’s been, you know, an extremely massive, mega, mega, mega driver and he left a legacy in the sport as well.”
Topics: Formula 1
Marcus Chan