Ted Kravitz Clarifies He Has No ‘Soft Spot’ for Mercedes by Pitting in McLaren: “I Always Loved Ayrton Senna”

Sabyasachi Biswas | 31/12/2023
Ted Kravitz Clarifies He Has No ‘Soft Spot’ for Mercedes by Pitting in McLaren: “I Always Loved Ayrton Senna”

Ted Kravitz, a renowned British commentator is often regarded as an ardent supporter of Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton. However, this isn’t true as Kravitz has recently opened up to reveal that he is not a Mercedes fan, but a McLaren fan instead, and all of that because of Ayrton Senna.

Speaking about this, Kravitz clarified his loyalties on the  Sky Sports F1 podcast, “I have a soft spot for McLaren. People think I’ve got a soft spot for another team [Mercedes] it’s actually not true. If there is a team that I have a soft spot for it’s McLaren because growing up I always loved Ayrton Senna.”

Following this, he also revealed that he admired the job Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh had done on the team. Nevertheless, Kravitz’s liking for Mercedes went mainstream after the British commentator spoke on the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Kravitz, on air, spoke that Lewis Hamilton was denied his eighth world championship. This created huge controversy and led to Max Verstappen and Red Bull boycotting Sky Sports. Nevertheless, this was sorted out soon after. With this, Kravitz also poured a huge appraisal on Andrea Stella.

Andrea Stella’s work with McLaren

Andrea Stella is a renowned engineer of Formula 1. Even though he is known for his association with McLaren, he was also renowned for his work with Ferrari. Notably, Stella was a former performance engineer for Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, and Fernando Alonso.

The Italian was also with Ferrari when he worked with Valentino Rossi as the track engineer. He joined McLaren in 2015 and is head of operations. He was transferred into the performance director in 2018 and then racing director in 2019.

Then, coming into 2022, he took up the role of team principal of the Papayas. This was also a great thing to praise for Kravitz, who said that Ron Dennis would have never accepted a former Ferrari man to take charge of things at McLaren.

Nevertheless, Stella took McLaren to great heights with his team of engineers in 2023. Despite having the worst start to a Formula 1 season in 2023, Stella and his team had a remarkable comeback and are believed to be the second-best team on the grid after Red Bull.

Post Edited By: Aishwary Gaonkar
Andrea Stella Ayrton Senna Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen Ted Kravitz

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Sabyasachi Biswas

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 journalist at The SportsRush. With over one and a half decades of love for the sport and five years of experience in the field, he dreams to be a regular at the paddock when the lights go out. A Red Bull fan and F1 fan in general over the years, he enjoyed watching Felipe Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen dominate the track. Apart from F1, he's also a big-time Madridista and Federer fanatic. He was a sub-junior level footballer, won inter-district quizzes and debate competitions back in school. A travel freak throughout, he tries different cuisines and learns new cultures whenever he's away from the keyboard.

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