Rachel Brookes has confirmed she has quit her role as a reporter for Sky Sports ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, days after revealing ‘utterly horrendous’ abuse she received following an interview with Max Verstappen.
Brookes, 51, has been part of Sky Sports coverage over the past 14 years, interviewing drivers before and after races.
The reporter revealed on social media that she has now stepped away from her role.
Brookes confirmed her plan is to remain involved in Formula One and will be in attendance at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix in July despite leaving Sky.
‘After many years at Sky I am moving on to exciting new ventures and looking forward to what comes next,’ Brookes wrote.
‘I have left the Sky F1 team but F1 still has my heart & so I’ll still be involved in it.
Rachel Brookes has confirmed she has left her role as a reporter on Sky Sports F1 coverage
Brookes revealed this week she had received ‘horrific abuse’ from fans after an interview with Max Verstappen last year
‘I’ll keep you posted, in the meantime see you at Silverstone!’
Brookes, who has written the book ‘F1 Racing: Drive: The Secrets to Formula One Success’, revealed earlier this week the extent of the abuse she had received following an interview with Verstappen last year.
She had spoken to the four-time world champion after the Spanish Grand Prix last May.
Verstappen had been handed a 10-second penalty at the race having collided with Mercedes’ George Russell.
After former world champion Nico Rosberg suggested on commentary that Verstappen may have deliberately collided with his rival, Brookes put it to the Dutchman on camera.
Brookes told the Road to Success podcast: ‘I said to Max, “Was it deliberate?”. ‘And his response was, “Does it matter?”.
She then responded: ‘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 revealed on the podcast that she had been privately praised by her peers in broadcasting for asking Verstappen the question, but had been targeted by ‘horrific’ abuse from fans.
‘I got a lot of messages from people in broadcasting, in sports broadcasting, saying: “Well done for asking the question”,’ Brookes said.
Brookes had asked the Verstappen (right), whether he had deliberately collided with George Russell (left) at the Spanish Grand Prix
‘Because nobody else in that pen that day asked him that question – and even my colleagues said they wouldn’t have asked that question, because they’d have been too scared to ask it.
‘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.
‘And this is from a lot of these profiles with dads with kids with daughters and things like that, where you just look at it and think: “Take a step back. It’s a Formula 1 race. It’s sport”.
‘But the stuff I got sent was horrendous, utterly horrendous. So I just closed my comments.’
Verstappen, who had admitted he had made a ‘mistake’ post-race, ultimately dropped from fifth place to 10th at the Grand Prix.
The Dutchman would go on to miss out on the world title by just two points to Lando Norris.
