F1 journalist claims he has been banned from paddock after Charles Leclerc criticism
A British journalist claims he has been banned from the F1 paddock until the end of the season.
A British journalist claims he has been banned from the Formula 1 paddock for the rest of the season over comments he made about Charles Leclerc.
Jonathan McEvoy, who has worked as the Daily Mail’s F1 correspondent for the past two decades, says he has had his media pass revoked by governing body the FIA for the last three races of the season.
According to McEvoy, this happened after he labelled Ferrari driver Leclerc a “sneaky little b******” in an opinion column about the Monegasque’s first-lap squabble with team-mate Lewis Hamilton at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
McEvoy referred to the comment about Leclerc in a follow-up piece as a “light hearted” and “joshing” column.
McEvoy also revealed details of a “tense” post-race debrief involving Hamilton, Leclerc and Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur.
The trio held further clear-the-air talks ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil, with seven-time world champion Hamilton insisting that he and Leclerc had “squashed” the incident.
The Daily Mail confirmed that McEvoy was informed by the FIA on Thursday that he would not be allowed to attend the final three races in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
McEvoy received a letter from general manager of the FIA, Alberto Villarreal, which read: ”The FIA believes that your article does not meet the professional standards expected of media representatives accredited to cover the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.”
Daily Mail head of sport Chris Dean said: “This is an unprecedented and outrageous attack on the freedom of the press.
“We are in dangerous territory when the FIA reacts in such a heavy-handed way to some mild and fair criticism of one driver.”
In a follow-up column revealing his ban, McEvoy accused Vasseur of ‘grassing’ on him to the FIA, and described the Ferrari boss as a “tubby little nobody”.
"A chuckling buffoon well out of his depth at the world's most prestigious team, he is a prickly character and I don't like him and he doesn't like me,” McEvoy added of Vasseur.
At this year's Japanese Grand Prix, The Guardian's Giles Richards was kicked out of a news conference by Red Bull driver Max Verstappen because of a row dating back to the end of 2025.
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
