{"id":282800,"date":"2025-11-14T15:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T15:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/282800\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T15:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T15:20:13","slug":"f1-broadcaster-forced-to-apologise-over-offensive-comments-from-former-team-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/282800\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 Broadcaster Forced To Apologise Over Offensive Comments From Former Team Boss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"51\">Austrian Formula 1 broadcaster ORF has issued an apology after public backlash over comments made towards Gabriel Bortoleto and his family during its showing of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"54\">Bortoleto endured a nightmare first race weekend in front of his adoring home crowd at Interlagos that included two crashes across the sprint and the grand prix.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"57\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/onsi\/f1\/news\/gabriel-bortoleto-involved-in-scary-f1-sprint-crash-at-brazilian-grand-prix\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The first of which was a scary incident<\/a> that saw the Sauber rookie lucky to walk away uninjured, though the damage was such that he was unable to take part in Saturday afternoon&#8217;s qualifying session.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/01ka1ddzy6mrezjy17e1.jpg\" alt=\"Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber\" title=\"Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"5g\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sauber F1 Team<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5k\">His grand prix then lasted just half a lap as he was squeezed into the barriers by Lance Stroll at Bico de Pato, bringing a premature end to a difficult weekend.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5n\">Bortoleto was then pictured in the pitlane embracing his family, with at least he and his mother in tears, such was the emotion after his race-ending incident.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5q\">But it was commentary from former Toro Rosso\/AlphaTauri [now Racing Bulls] team principal Franz Tost that drew ire across social media. &#8220;He\u2019s in the learning phase. The mums don\u2019t need to look so stupid, it\u2019s completely normal,&#8221; said Tost.<\/p>\n<p>ORF issues apology<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5w\">In response to the backlash, ORF has released a statement condemning Tost&#8217;s comments.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5z\">&#8220;During the co-commentary of the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix, in the hectic start phase, when Gabriel Bortoleto&#8217;s mother and family were visible in the live broadcast after his crash, an unacceptable statement was unfortunately made, for which we sincerely apologise,&#8221; read the statement. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Some more angles on that Bortoleto crash \ud83d\ude35<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/F1Sprint?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#F1Sprint<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BrazilGP?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#BrazilGP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/TEuJioCDcw\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/TEuJioCDcw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Formula 1 (@F1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/F1\/status\/1987192218034315354?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">November 8, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"65\">&#8220;The expression and choice of words were completely inappropriate, and ORF Sport will take appropriate precautions to ensure that such an incident does not happen again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"68\">It is not the first time this decade that a European-based F1 commentator has landed in hot water over inappropriate comments during a race. In 2023, Lionel Froissart, a French-language broadcaster for Belgium&#8217;s RTBF Sport, labelled Aston Martin driver Stroll as &#8220;the autistic&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6b\">An investigation into the incident saw Froissart suspended.<\/p>\n<p>Colapinto backs Bortoleto<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6h\">Speaking after the race last Sunday, Alpine driver Franco Colapinto , who welcomed a large contingent of Argentine fans at Interlagos given the circuit&#8217;s proximity to his home nation, took aim at Stroll over the incident that took Bortoleto out of the race.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6k\">&#8220;Stroll is just always taking people out, just not looking in the mirrors, leaving no track, and he put Gabi in the wall,&#8221; said Colapinto, as per Autosport. &#8220;It&#8217;s what he does every time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-17\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6n\">The Latest Formula 1 News<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austrian Formula 1 broadcaster ORF has issued an apology after public backlash over comments made towards Gabriel Bortoleto&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-282800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}