Rachel Brookes has announced her departure from her role as a reporter for Sky Sports F1, days after detailing the "utterly horrendous" abuse she experienced subsequent to an interview with driver Max Verstappen. Brookes, who has been a fixture in Sky Sports' Formula One coverage for 14 years, revealed her decision on social media.
Despite leaving her reporter role, Brookes plans to maintain her involvement in Formula One and intends to attend the upcoming British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July. "After many years at Sky I am moving on to exciting new ventures and looking forward to what comes next," Brookes stated. "I have left the Sky F1 team but F1 still has my heart & so I'll still be involved in it. I'll keep you posted, in the meantime see you at Silverstone!"
The abuse stemmed from an interview with Verstappen conducted after the Spanish Grand Prix last May. During the race, Verstappen received a 10-second penalty after colliding with Mercedes driver George Russell. Following commentary from former world champion Nico Rosberg suggesting the collision might have been intentional, Brookes questioned Verstappen on camera.
"I said to Max, 'Was it deliberate?' And his response was, 'Does it matter?'" Brookes recounted on the Road to Success podcast. She then pressed, "Yeah, I think it does to the fans watching and to the kids. I want people to see how good you are, and you make it difficult when you do stuff like that."
Brookes noted that while broadcasting peers privately commended her for asking the question, which she claimed others in the media pen were too fearful to ask, the public reaction was overwhelmingly negative. "But then the fans, the social media side of it, was horrendous. I got people telling me I should never be able to have children because I'm a bad example. I got the most horrific stuff you could imagine," she said, adding that the abuse came from profiles that appeared to belong to fathers with children.
Brookes ultimately chose to disable comments on her social media platforms due to the severity of the messages. Verstappen, who had acknowledged making a "mistake" after the race, was dropped from fifth to tenth place in the Spanish Grand Prix results. He later finished the season second in the championship, losing the title by two points to Lando Norris.