Sky Sports has been the primary broadcaster of F1 for several years now, and not just in the UK. Their international feed goes to multiple countries in the world, which is why their coverage often gets more scrutiny for the alleged British bias. Regardless, the Sky Sports F1 team has been working tirelessly to produce some of the best coverage for the sport by introducing unique features and content.
One such pre-race feature is the famous grid walk by Martin Brundle. Ever since the former McLaren driver retired from F1, he has been working with broadcasters and has made the grid walk his own thing. Looking at Brundle, his colleague and presenter, Ted Kravitz, tried to take some inspiration and create his pre-race talk segment. However, it didn’t go well.
Kravitz wanted to have a segment where he doesn’t walk around and talk about the drivers and the pre-race situation, as that would clash with what Brundle does right before the race start. Instead, he came up with an idea which he named ‘Grid stand’, wherein he would be chatting with an expert while the camera pans to the drivers he is referring to.
When he actually tried the same with 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, the reception was such that he did not repeat it. Kravitz recalled how comedy podcasters, Alfie Brown and Josh Weller, who host the Dirty Air podcast, trolled him for this attempt to create a new segment for Sky.
Brown and Weller often do grid walk reviews, which consist of Brundle’s regular grid walks. “Normally, if Brundle gives terrible grid walk, they will give it a 4 or a 5, or if it’s good grid walk like last week, they’ll give him a 7 or an 8, “Kravitz said on the Pitlane Life Lessons podcast.
Martin explains how his Gridwalk REALLY works behind the scenes ️ pic.twitter.com/QwZASnwyI3
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) November 6, 2024
“They gave mine and Jacques’ grid walk [stand] a minus 7. Absolutely tore it to pieces,” he added. While it must’ve been a humiliating moment to get trolled despite being such a senior presenter in F1, Kravitz sportingly accepted the criticism, as he knew his experiment was likely to fail.
“They think I’m an idiot, which is fine by me. Because I am,” he stated. The 51-year-old also mentioned how he is a subscriber to Brown and Weller’s podcast and likes what they do.
However, Kravitz reiterated that it is his job to try and reinvent the wheel to come up with new ideas for enhancing Sky Sports’ F1 coverage, regardless of whether they work or not. If he had known that this idea would land him in hot waters with his bosses, he would not have even pitched it.
