Ted Kravitz has been in F1 as a reporter and presenter for almost three decades now, having started with radio coverage and then moving to broadcasters like ITV and BBC. The 51-year-old has garnered quite the spotlight as a presenter for Sky Sports, as his post-race segment named ‘Ted’s Notebook’ is quite popular.
However, even a seasoned journalist like Kravitz has had to sharpen his skills and approach when interacting with particular drivers. Michael Schumacher was one who often startled the British reporter, as he demanded excellence in journalists’ craft, which might’ve been to avoid obvious questions.
Given that Schumacher was inherently a driver of champion mentality, he did not wish to spend time that did not go into improving his car or himself to produce better results. And media interactions were definitely an unproductive activity in that context.
Just like Max Verstappen in the present day, Schumacher did not take any interest in long press conferences and media interview sessions. Kravitz shed more light on this tendency of the seven-time world champion recently on the Pitlane Life Lessons podcast.
“Nobody other than [Michael] Schumacher had made me work so hard on my craft,” Kravitz said. He cited that Schumacher was cognizant of why drivers had to do the media sessions, yet expected the reporters to be concise and coherent in their line of questioning.
Kravitz summarized Schumacher’s thought process: “If I am going to do it, by gosh, you better be good and you better give me stuff to think about, that might help me as well.”
Michael Schumacher speaks about how everything came together to get a Ferrari 1-2 in the press conference at the 2006 US Grand Prix 1/2 pic.twitter.com/2Whk0F2cxU
— f1 clips (@f1clipshow) March 24, 2025
In fact, the 51-year-old revealed how even Sebastian Vettel, who considered Schumacher an idol, and Lewis Hamilton also have had similar tendencies regarding their media interactions—not entertaining irrelevant questions.
However, Schumacher’s former title rival, Fernando Alonso, has always tried to use his interactions with the media to his advantage. Kravitz mentioned how the Spaniard saw these interactions as an opportunity to express his candid opinions, as he has done to date.
“Fernando will think in terms of how can I use this opportunity to further my own ends, whatever they are. A message to the team, a destabilizing of an opponent, or just to sort of mess around and have fun,” Kravitz added about Alonso.
The two-time world champion has often engaged in mind games with his on-track rivals like Vettel, Hamilton, and Schumacher, drawing on his impeccable psychological composure. While Alonso can be expressive in anger or frustration on team radio and in interviews, too, he always has enough bandwidth not to get beaten mentally.
That is one of the major factors why the 43-year-old veteran is still racing in F1 and wants to chase more glory. Whether he accomplishes that mission or not is a discussion for later.
