British Bias? Chandhok responds: 'You can't keep everyone happy'

British Bias. A two-word phrase that has dominated the F1 media in recent weeks. British journalists and analysts are said to be targeting Verstappen, who receives more criticism for his actions on and off the track than Britons do in similar cases. Before a question was asked on the subject, Chandhok said in an exclusive interview with GPblog: "Oh, yeah. My Instagram is full of all the people telling me I'm biased."

Note: Chandhok is not saying that all the people accusing him are Dutch. "Unfortunately, in the job that we do when you're facing the public, you have the Lewis fans who think you're biased against Lewis. You have the Max fans who think you're biased against Max. You have the Lando fans saying, why are you so biased against Lando?"

"It’s weird right - people are sometimes so in love with their favourite driver that objectivity goes out the window. I understand their passion - but it’s our job to be objective."

"And in the end, I don't care. I really don't pay attention to the comments because it can consume you if you do. And most importantly - I know in my conscious that I'm not biased."

Chandhok gives his opinion: honest and sincere

To clarify, the Indian says: "I speak my opinion. If I think someone has done a great job, I say they've done a great job. If I think somebody has made a mistake or somebody deserves to be criticised, then I will do that. You learn very quickly in this sport that you can't keep everybody happy. That's okay, you have to learn to be okay with it."

In this, Formula 1 seems to reflect society, where polarisation is the order of the day. Chandhok nods in agreement. "I think so. I think everyone now has a platform and because they have a platform they all have an opinion. I think people only focus on the negative. The ones who say you are biased…they only focus on the one thing you have said that maybe they don't like. I might have said 2000 amazing things about Max or 2000 amazing things about Lewis, Lando or whoever. But if you say one bad thing about any of these drivers, their fans just focus on that. That's the video that gets posted everywhere," Chandhok knows from his own experience.

Chandhok speaks from his own (negative) experience

Chandhok cites an interview at Britain's Goodwood festival. Standing with him were Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo. Verstappen said: 'I would like to participate in the Goodwood Revival one day, maybe drive around with some older cars'. To that, Ricciardo responded that he would like to do the same. Then interviewer Chandhok asked the crowd: 'Who would like to see Max and Daniel as teammates in the RAC TT? (Which is the main race at Goodwood Revival).'

"I said the words in the RAC TT. And some people on the internet edited out that part and made my question saying, who would like to see Daniel and Max as teammates? They cut out the part where I say in the RAC TT. Suddenly it goes everywhere and all the Checo fans hate me. I was talking about a fun race in 1960s cars! It’s crazy, right?"

Chandhok stresses that he has been good friends with Perez since the Mexican raced in Formula 3 for a team called T-Sport for who Chandhok also raced earlier. "He doesn't care. We finished that interview on the balcony. We came down and I spent the next little while chatting with him. He doesn't think anything is wrong. But meanwhile, on the internet all the fans are going crazy."

"I'm giving that as one example of how the problem with the internet is people just going for clickbait and headlines and they accuse you of bias based on things without context. I’ve learned that you don't read the comments. You turn the comments off. If people really bother you, you block them. The most important thing is to be true to yourself and have faith in what you are doing."

Not too big to go back on his words

According to Chandhok, that includes daring to admit mistakes. "Also saying, 'maybe you're wrong'. There are absolutely times I say something on commentary and I go to the next race and say, 'I said this but actually now I've looked at more data, I've looked at more videos and actually what I said wasn't quite right. I've changed my opinion'."

"That's okay. You can change your opinion. But what happens is when you do that, when you are being honest and saying I thought about it and I corrected myself… people immediately jump, [and say] 'look because we cursed you on the internet you changed your opinion. You are backing down because you read the comments'. That's not true. I'm changing my opinion because I've learned and educated myself on the situation."

In the end, Chandhok is not going to be fooled by a few people on the internet. He is keen to stress that only a very small proportion react negatively on social media. "In the end, we broadcast to millions of people and a tiny percentage doesn’t like your opinion. That’s fine as long as overall your viewers at home enjoy what you're doing, enjoy your coverage, and think you're able to add information, add value and explain things to them in a way that needs to be explained, then it's good. And you know what? I love the sport. I've always loved the sport. I'm a fan of the sport. And we're all very lucky to work in an amazing sport like this and travel the world talking about a sport we love."