FIA Bans F1 Journalist McEvoy for the Season Over Leclerc Insult

The FIA has banned Daily Mail Formula 1 writer Jonathan McEvoy from the paddock for the rest of the 2026 season, after he called Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc a “sneaky little bastard” in a column about the Mexico Grand Prix. McEvoy, who has covered the sport for the Daily Mail for more than two decades, will miss the final three races in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. The Daily Mail calls the ban an unprecedented attack on press freedom. McEvoy blames Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur. Ferrari says it had nothing to do with it.

What did McEvoy write about Leclerc?

He attacked Leclerc for the opening lap in Mexico City, where the Ferrari team-mates fought for the lead, ran each other off the track, and let Max Verstappen through into first place. Leclerc was handed a five-second penalty for the incident. McEvoy used the insult in the headline of his November 4 opinion column, with the word censored there but written out in the story itself, Front Office Sports reports. He has since described the line as light-hearted and joshing, Crash.net reports, and the column also revealed details of a tense post-race debrief involving Hamilton, Leclerc and Vasseur. The three held further clear-the-air talks before the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, with Hamilton insisting the pair had squashed the incident, so the column landed on a row the drivers themselves said was closed.

Why did the FIA pull his accreditation?

Because it decided the column crossed the line from criticism into personal abuse. The FIA told McEvoy on Thursday that his accreditation was withdrawn for the remainder of the season, in a letter from general manager Alberto Villarreal. “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,” the letter read, according to Crash.net. The FIA’s statement to Front Office Sports put it the same way: the November 4 article fell short of the standards of professionalism expected, and the accreditation was temporarily withdrawn. Under the 2026 guidelines, accreditation is granted at the FIA’s sole discretion and can be revoked at any time without notice, and the FIA stressed the decision affects McEvoy alone, not the Daily Mail’s right to nominate another representative. It is the same governing body that has spent the autumn admitting its own errors, from the human error that gave some cars extra power in Singapore sprint qualifying to the software failure it reviewed in public after Sepang, and it has now used the same discretion to remove a journalist.

What did the Daily Mail say in response?

It went straight for the principle. Chris Dean, the Daily Mail’s head of sport, told Front Office Sports: “This is an unprecedented and outrageous attack on the freedom of the Press. We are in dangerous territory when the FIA react in such a heavy-handed way to some mild and fair criticism of one driver.” Dean added that the ban affects McEvoy only and that the outlet would announce its coverage plans in due course. The New York Post, which also carried the story, noted the Mail seemed more frustrated by the supposed freedom-of-the-press breach than by McEvoy actually missing events, but the paper’s position is clear: a headline insult, however crude, should not cost a veteran correspondent his season.

Why is McEvoy blaming Fred Vasseur?

Because in his follow-up column on Thursday, after learning of the ban, McEvoy turned on the Ferrari team principal. He accused Vasseur of reporting him to the FIA, calling him a “tubby little nobody” and a “chuckling buffoon well out of his depth at the world’s most prestigious team”. He also wrote that FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali liked him, and that he had become “a pawn in a wider Formula One game”. Sources close to Ferrari insist none of it is true: the team played no part in the decision, which the FIA took independently, and the notification itself came from Villarreal, the FIA’s director general, as McEvoy himself acknowledged. Ferrari was unhappy with the language used against Leclerc, the sources say, but made no attempt to influence the governing body. The denial matters because McEvoy’s version points the finger at a team principal, while the paper trail points at the FIA alone.

What does McEvoy miss, and when does he get back?

The last three Grands Prix of the year: Las Vegas from November 19 to 21, Qatar from November 27 to 29, and Abu Dhabi from December 4 to 6. McEvoy says Villarreal told him the accreditation will be revoked until the end of the year and restarted at the start of next season, and Dean told Front Office Sports the Mail assumes he will be accredited again in 2027 because the ban was only for the rest of this year. He misses the run-in, but not a title fight: both championships are already decided, with Kimi Antonelli clinching his first drivers’ title at the Mexico Grand Prix and Mercedes sealing the constructors’ championship in Brazil. What he misses instead is the paddock itself, three weeks of access, interviews and colour that a correspondent of twenty years does not replace from a desk in London.

What happens next?

The Daily Mail has to say how it covers the final three races, and the wider argument about where sporting criticism ends and personal abuse begins will keep running. McEvoy’s case is not the only flashpoint between drivers and the press this season: at this year’s Japanese Grand Prix, Max Verstappen had Guardian reporter Giles Richards removed from a news conference after a row dating back to the end of 2025, Crash.net reports. ScuderiaFans also notes McEvoy’s recent columns calling the championship a “season of deadly boredom” and arguing the DNA of the sport had been dismantled, but stresses there is no confirmation the FIA weighed those when it decided the ban. For now the facts are narrow: one column, one letter, one season ended early, and a press-freedom row that will outlast the three races McEvoy misses.