{"id":287912,"date":"2025-11-16T08:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T08:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/287912\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T08:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T08:37:08","slug":"f1-insider-notes-from-the-pit-lane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/287912\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 Insider: Notes from the Pit Lane"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve been waiting for Formula 1 books by paddock pundits they\u2019ve arrived like proverbial buses: Ted Kravitz\u2019s \u201cF1 Insider\u201d joins Alex Jacques\u2019 \u201c75 Milestone Formula One Moments\u201d<\/a>, reviewed here two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Why has Kravitz chosen to produce his first book now? \u201cThere\u2019s no point writing a book after 12 years, you haven\u2019t got anything to say,\u201d he explained in a recent interview<\/a>. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to do 30 years in the business before you have something to say.\u201d That may not have been a dig at his F1 TV rival\u2019s coincidentally-timed book but it certainly sounds like one.<\/p>\n

Regardless, he has a point: Kravitz\u2019s personal account of his time in the paddock is immediately a more engaging proposition than Jacques\u2019 well-researched but somewhat random retelling of F1 history<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kravitz is almost as familiar a sight to British television viewers as Martin Brundle<\/a>, having first appeared on screen as an F1 reporter after ITV took over the UK broadcasting rights in 1997. He is a well-liked part of Sky\u2019s coverage team, partly for his eccentric style which comes across best in his unique post-race \u2018notebook\u2019 features.<\/p>\n

He is also less prone to hype and more inclined to give an unvarnished account of the paddock goings-on than those he shares the screen with. That comes across especially well in his highly readable memoir.<\/p>\n

Viewed from the perspective of 2025, his account of how he made his way into F1 broadcasting is a fascinating glimpse back into a lost, pre-social media world. However the vast majority of the book is given over to what most readers will be looking for: behind-the-scenes tales of his time covering the likes of Michael Schumacher\u2019s<\/a> Ferrari world championships, the rise of Lewis Hamilton and all the dramas along the way \u2013 Crashgate, Covid-19, Abu Dhabi \u201921 and more.<\/p>\n

These are by far the most enjoyable parts of the book, though at times you need to wade through a bit of scene-setting and background context to get there. It goes without saying that his grasp of the finer details of the races and events that shaped them is first-rate.<\/p>\n

The result is an engaging account of recent F1 history through the eyes of someone who saw it up close and was usually among the first to shove a microphone beneath nose of those involved. Any F1 fan will find plenty here to inform and entertain.<\/p>\n

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\u201cF1 Insider\u201d by Ted Kravitz<\/p>\n

Author: Ted Kravitz
Publisher: Hachette
Published: 2025
Pages: 345
Price: \u00a322
ISBN: 9781788405720<\/p>\n

Reviews
\nBrowse all Reviews<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019ve been waiting for Formula 1 books by paddock pundits they\u2019ve arrived like proverbial buses: Ted Kravitz\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-287912","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-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287912","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=287912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}