An intriguing little twitter storm has occured today since the press release from Sky Sports F1 for the up and coming Formula 1 Sky coverage in 2019.
This morning, Sky Sports F1 published their press release article highlighting the new TV presenter team mentioning by name everyone but pit lane and paddock reporter Ted Kravitz.
“Sky Sports F1 coverage will reflect the changes and excitement with some new and returning faces joining the lineup. 2009 world champion Jenson Button joins the team, adding to Sky Sports’ roster of world champions alongside Damon Hill and Nico Rosberg.”
“Martin Brundle’s expert analysis and famed grid walks will be a key feature in the coverage, as well as in commentary with David Croft. Karun Chandhok who worked on Sky Sports F1 in the past returns to the fold, ready to give his insight as a former driver with years of experience in the sport together with Johnny Herbert and Paul Di Resta.”
Ted’s last tweet…
Grosjean and Magnussen unveil the new Haas colours, old car with new front wing. pic.twitter.com/RFE0osQhcp
— Ted Kravitz (@tedkravitz) February 7, 2019
In the past, Ted Kravitz has produced his ‘Teds Notebook’ piece for Sky Sports F1 during the winter testing, but was strangely absent for the first test this week in Barcelona. Couple this with the lack of mention in the press release, has caused a twitter hashtag to start: #findted.
Much speculation has been made as to his whereabouts, including the unlikely scenario that he has indeed gone missing altogether!
TJ13 has been given some gossip from a television engineer to publish however, the source is from the TV equipment suppliers Gearhouse Broadcast, a supplier for Sky TV. TJ13 was told that Ted has fallen out of favour with the new Sky F1 boss Scott Young and has not had his contract renewed.
The addition of Karun Chandhok from Channel 4 would suggest that this could be the case. The Indian ex-F1 driver turned pit lane reporter for the UK terrestrial channel would be a direct clash with Ted as his role has been more or less the same as the Sky veteran.
The 44 year old British TV presenter has had a long career on UK televisions reporting on Formula One, starting out in the 90’s Kravitz joined Chrysalis Television at the end of 1996 to work on their Grand Prix programming.
Kravitz worked with ITV since the beginning of their F1 coverage in 1997, initially as a producer, and then as a pit-lane reporter from 2002, alongside Louise Goodman. He replaced James Allen who was promoted to the post of race commentator, following the retirement of Murray Walker.
In December 2011, it was announced that Kravitz would follow Martin Brundle and others from the BBC to join BSkyB’s Sky Sports F1 coverage in 2012. As part of his new role, Kravitz hosts the channel’s weekly show, The F1 Show. For the 2012 season, he was joined by co-presenter Georgie Thompson. In 2013, following Thompson’s departure, Kravitz presents The F1 Show with Sky Sports F1’s Natalie Pinkham.
In addition to working on The F1 Show, Kravitz was also given a more prominent role in Formula 1 coverage, with Ted’s Notebook, a short segment in the show where Kravitz provides technical information from the pit lane, such as problems with cars, technical data, etc. Kravitz is also present for the Formula 1 winter testing. A nightly episode of Ted’s Notebook is shown during coverage to provide information on what each team had been doing throughout each test day.
This could be a storm in a Twitter teacup so to speak, if suddenly Ted turns up next week at Barcelona, he maybe on holiday!
NEWS UPDATE: Ted Kravitz missing? Ted finally returns to SkyF1
28th March 2019
Where’s Ted? A Twitter hashtag that has been rather popular of late since the formula 1 winter testing in Barcelona last February after the popular Sky F1 pitlane reporter appeared to be purposely missing from the TV coverage, and then also missing from the Australian Grand Prix was ‘Teds Notebook’.
The Twitter storm even brought about an online petition where around four thousand people signed up at change.org to “Keep Ted Kravitz in F1”.
After Sky F1 did confirm the absent Kravitz would be featuring in the F1 broadcast, the new Sky motorsport director Scott Young said this of his 2019 presenter lineup….: READ MORE
NEWS UPDATE, TED STAYS WITH SKY – How Ted Kravitz was nearly sacked by Sky Sports F1
26th February 2019
Last weekend saw a huge surge of protests on social media against Sky Sports F1 and unfortunately Karun Chandhok (his alleged replacement), when it was speculated that popular pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz was thought to have been sacked by the new Sky motorsports boss Scott Young.
Yesterday Sky announced that their pit-lane reporter Ted Kravitz was confirmed to join in their full lineup of presenters for the 2019 season. Much speculation and even some gossip had been emailed to TJ13 by an industry insider claiming that Ted had fallen out of favour with the new boss Scott Young.
So what happened…? READ MORE ON THIS TED KRAVITZ STORY HERE
MORE F1 – BRAWN’S FIRST FAILING: OVERTAKING NOW HARDER THAN LAST YEAR
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So after the first test in Barcelona with the new front wings, it’s a rather unfortunate thing to reveal, but actually, the issue has worsened rather than improved. Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg described the situation when comparing last years to….. READ MORE
Gearhouse Broadcast aren’t major suppliers to SKY and don’t do anything for SKYF1 – Arena and NEP do all the systems design and integration. I happen to be in that business and know producers don’t divulge info on talent contracts.
And in my opinion Chandhok is useless – both as a driver and as a commentator.
now now lets not let facts get in the way of a good yarn 😉 It seems perhaps this could indeed be a storm in a twitter teacup then?
I was at Silverstone last summer, after the race we waited around to see Ted doing his Notebook show…. there were 100’s of fans all shouting for Ted while he was doing the Notebook. The other Sky crew were miffed he was getting the attention and not them. So maybe he’s been sideline cos he was getting too big for his boots??
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Disagreed with him time to time, but otherwise very good. Croft is good at the start but otherwise needs Brundle to correct him.
All a bit of a rumour mill, so why not give it another crank …. 😉
My distilled scores for the Sky F1 presenters. Drivers first (this is about what I think they add to the broadcast – I do not care who they drove for or what they achieved):
Brundell: +5
Hill: +3
Di Resta: +1
Chandhok: +0
Sort of Herbert: Sort of -3 (sort of)
Rosberg: -5
Button: Who knows? Anything from +1 to +4 if he offers some real insight and opinion. -4 if it’s all just nipple-tweaking “hello mate” joking about. Yes, I know Brundell is a nipple-tweaker too, but I’ve factored in all the other stuff he does 🙂
Non-drivers:
Kravitz: +5
Lazenby: +3
Brookes: +2
Pinkham: +1
Slater: +0 (+1 if he could avoid doing the irritating “cheeky monkey” grin to camera at the end of every piece …).
Let’s not forget that for some (most?) of the people in the first list, this is just a vanity project and not something that they need to do to earn a crust. Tellingly, it looks like it’s the people at the bottom of that list for whom this is probably most true. So, in summary, if the stories are true I’d rather they save some of my subscription money from Chandhok, Herbert and Rosberg (maybe Button) and channel it towards people like Kravitz who actually add some value to the broadcast.
What’s interesting is that if Kravitz is out, they seem to be abandoning the more in-depth technical analysis aspect of their offering. Gary Anderson did that for – erm – Channel 4 (?) in recent years, but he was a bit too dry IMHO. Kravitz, although getting a bit silly at times, seemed to straddle the line between technical detail and layman-ship quite effectively I thought (when he applied himself and didn’t get distracted by WAGs and the like).
But hey, what do I know? I’m just a consumer …
Oh, for crying out loud! Obviously you can’t take me seriously as I misspelled Brundle several times … 🙂
Also, I missed out Croft:
Croft: +3 (+4 if combined with the right person).
+4 with Brundle (because Brundle keeps him honest)
+3 with Di Resta or Chandhok (because sometimes they go down a cul-de-sac where nobody will make a call).
I think I’ve now spelled Brundle correctly more times than I have mis-spelled it, so the mis-spellings don’t count any more …
I think most of us suspect why Chandhok was taken on……….
That is an horrific thing to imply
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