{"id":144329,"date":"2025-09-15T06:40:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T06:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/144329\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T06:40:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T06:40:10","slug":"why-is-sky-f1s-david-croft-not-commentating-on-the-azerbaijan-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/144329\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is Sky F1&#8217;s David Croft not commentating on the Azerbaijan GP?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Veteran Sky F1 commentator David Croft will be absent from this weekend\u2019s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p>His now regular-understudy Harry Benjamin will fill Croft\u2019s role as blow-by-blow caller in Baku.<\/p>\n<p>Why isn\u2019t David Croft commentating in Azerbaijan?<\/p>\n<p>An expanded 24-event Formula 1 calendar in recent years has seen most opt to skip at least one event.<\/p>\n<p>Croft is among that number, sitting out a handful of events since the start of F1 2024.<\/p>\n<p>He was last absent at the Austrian Grand Prix in June, having also sat out the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p>Croft\u2019s absence in Azerbaijan means his F1 2025 schedule mirrors last year\u2019s when he missed the same trio of races.<\/p>\n<p>Read more on David Croft<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/nico-rosberg-david-croft-laurent-mekies-red-bull-impact-monza-versus-christian-horner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Would Red Bull\u2019s Monza breakthrough have been achieved under Christian Horner?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/david-croft-offers-risk-elimination-theory-over-christian-horner-sacking\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">David Croft offers \u2018risk\u2019 elimination theory over Christian Horner sacking<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not getting any younger,\u201d said Croft, now 55, of the decision to skip three races in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve given up and sacrificed a lot for my career. I want to give a bit of time back to my family and not be on the other side of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stepping into his place is Harry Benjamin, who has been leading the BBC\u2019s Radio 5 Live coverage of F1 since 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to landing a role in F1, Benjamin worked among its categories, including Porsche Supercup, Formula 3, and Formula 3.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s also worked as a voiceover artist following a time in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts where he trained as an actor.<\/p>\n<p>Benjamin\u2019s first foray into Sky F1 commentary came during the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix, working as part of the broadcaster\u2019s \u2018F1 Kids\u2019 initiative, which saw Sky F1 televise a special children\u2019s broadcast of the race as an alternative to the main commentary provided by David Croft and Martin Brundle.<\/p>\n<p>He stepped into the lead commentary role for the first time at last year\u2019s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen claimed a narrow victory over Lando Norris.<\/p>\n<p>Following the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Croft is slated to return in time for Singapore a week later. He\u2019ll then remain in place through the balance of six races that follow beyond for the balance of the F1 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p>Read next:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/features\/max-verstappen-nurburgring-licence-officials\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Why officials were right to make Max Verstappen sweat for Nurburgring licence<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran Sky F1 commentator David Croft will be absent from this weekend\u2019s Azerbaijan Grand Prix. His now regular-understudy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,32372,817,813,816,818,44,17165,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-144329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-david-croft","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-formula1","14":"tag-home-page","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-popular","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}