{"id":204006,"date":"2025-10-10T22:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T22:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204006\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T22:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T22:42:12","slug":"ted-kravitz-admits-he-had-an-awkward-relationship-with-one-f1-pundit-who-used-to-work-for-sky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/204006\/","title":{"rendered":"Ted Kravitz admits he had an ‘awkward’ relationship with one F1 pundit who used to work for Sky"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Follow us on Google Discover <\/a> <\/p>\n

Ted Kravitz has been part of Sky Sports\u2019 Formula 1 broadcast team ever since they acquired the rights to show the sport in 2012. And in his book, F1 Insider: Notes from the Pit Lane, he revealed that things were \u2018awkward\u2019 between him and one of the network\u2019s former pundits.<\/p>\n

Ahead of the 2017 season, Sky announced that Pat Symonds<\/a> would be joining their broadcast team. They called him one of the most \u2018highly experienced and respected technical bosses\u2019 in F1. <\/p>\n

He\u2019d worked most recently for Williams, but Symonds was best known for his role at the Enstone-based Benetton and Renault teams. He helped Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso win two world championships apiece.<\/p>\n

\"CadillacPhoto by Paddocker\/NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Symonds also started a position as F1\u2019s chief technical officer in 2017, which may have been part of the reason his time with Sky was brief. He now works for 2026 entrants Cadillac as a consultant.<\/p>\n

Ted Kravitz explains why there was tension between him and Pat Symonds<\/p>\n

Symonds has become a controversial figure due to his role in the 2008 \u2018crashgate<\/a>\u2018 scandal. A 2009 investigation found that Renault had ordered Nelson Piquet Jr to crash deliberately to trigger a safety car, helping teammate Alonso win the Singapore Grand Prix. <\/p>\n

Kravitz<\/a> \u2018trusted\u2019 Symonds, so when he was handed a five-year suspension, he felt as if he\u2019d been \u2018deceived\u2019. He understands that the Briton was feeling the \u2018pressure\u2019, with Renault\u2019s underperformance \u2013 they hadn\u2019t won any of the first 14 Grands Prix and had only managed one podium \u2013 putting jobs at risk.<\/p>\n

But this was no \u2018victimless crime\u2019. Felipe Massa has taken legal action<\/a> because the safety car, and Ferrari\u2019s botched pit stop, cost him decisive points in his title battle with Lewis Hamilton, and Piquet Jr found himself out of F1 midway through the following season.<\/p>\n

Thus, Kravitz couldn\u2019t look at Symonds the same way afterwards, even when they were colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had believed Symonds when he protested his innocence,\u201d he writes. \u201cHe\u2019d been a regular contact in the pit lane, and I trusted him. So when the truth came out, I had a keen sense of having been deceived\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not even sure Symonds would have considered what he orchestrated as such a terrible crime. Piquet wasn\u2019t risking his life in a slow-speed crash, and it was unlikely any marshals or spectators would have been hurt.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe he just saw it, to quote himself, as a bit of gamesmanship. Maybe he succumbed to that pressure at Renault and hoped at least that it would be a victimless crime.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it wasn\u2019t victimless. In the end, the victims were two Brazilian racing drivers.<\/p>\n

He later added: \u201cAlong the way [back to F1], he also spent a year on our team at Sky Sports as an expert analyst. And yes, it was awkward between him and me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ted Kravitz on Martin Brundle \u2013 he never wanted to work in TV<\/p>\n

Pit lane reporter Kravitz forms a key part of the Sky Sports team along with lead commentator David Croft and summariser Martin Brundle.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview, Kravitz revealed that Brundle didn\u2019t want to work in TV<\/a> when he started back in 1997. That\u2019s because he was focused on finding a way back into F1.<\/p>\n

That route never materialised, and Brundle has since become a legendary broadcaster. He and Kravitz worked together at ITV and the BBC before their ongoing link-up at Sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Follow us on Google Discover Ted Kravitz has been part of Sky Sports\u2019 Formula 1 broadcast team ever…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,126887,85,28589],"class_list":{"0":"post-204006","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-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-pat-symonds","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-ted-kravitz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204006","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=204006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}