The 2024 F1 season sees a record-breaking 24 race calendar, with the first race on 2 March in Bahrain. British F1 viewers can watch every race live on Sky Sports F1 or catch the highlights on Channel 4.
This arrangement is the result of several years of evolution of F1 broadcasting rights in the UK. The BBC used to show 10 races live each season but ended its deal three years early in 2015 due to budget cuts.
Channel 4 took over from the BBC at the end of the 2018 season, but since then only the British Grand Prix has been broadcast live on free-to-air in the UK. It has been announced that TV production company Whisper will retain its F1 deal to produce the Channel 4 coverage until 2026.
Sky Sports has exclusive rights to broadcast all the F1 races live, although Channel 4 still shows the highlights from qualifying and each grand prix. Each of the 24 races will be available to watch live on Sky Sports, with the British Grand Prix also being shown live on Channel 4.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Sky Sports, Channel 4 and F1 TV commentary teams:
Sky Sports F1 commentary team
Simon Lazenby - Sky F1 lead presenter
Sky Sports F1’s coverage has been fronted by Simon Lazenby since the channel’s creation in 2012. In that time Lazenby has only missed two grands prix, including the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix and the 2020 Russian Grand Prix, which were led by Natalie Pinkham and Rachel Brookes respectively.
Lazenby joined Sky on work experience before becoming a runner, where he was eventually given a screen test. He then began presenting for Sky Sports in 2002, where he was part of the commentary team for the Rugby Union.
David Croft - Sky F1 lead commentator
David Croft - often referred to as ‘Crofty’ - is the Sky Sports F1 lead commentator and has held the position since the station started broadcasting in 2012. Prior to that Croft had commentated on F1 races for BBC Radio 5 Live, and has spent the best part of two decades commentating on darts, firstly for the BBC and more recently for Sky.
Croft’s voice has featured prominently in Codemasters official F1 game since 2010, where he has been a commentator for in-game sessions alongside Anthony Davidson, and in recent years with Natalie Pinkham. He can be heard at the start of every F1 race saying his famous “and it’s lights out and away we go” catchphrase, which he uses to allow action on track to unfold.
Ahead of the 2024 season, Croft announced that he will miss his first races since he joined the Sky team in 2012, taking a step back from three grands prix this year. Croft has already missed pre-season testing in Bahrain, but will also miss the Emilia-Romagna, Austrian and Azerbaijan races.
Martin Brundle
Martin Brundle was formerly an F1 racing driver, beginning his career in 1985 for Tyrrell. He then went on to race for Zakspeed, Williams, Brabham, Benetton, Ligier, McLaren and Jordan, before his career ended in 1996.
Although he never won a race he did come close on a number of occasions, finishing second at the Italian Grand Prix in 1992 and at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1994. In 1990 he won the Le Mans 24 Hours with Jaguar, swapping cars mid-way through the race after his own had been forced to retire.
Brundle’s commentary career began alongside the late Murray Walker at ITV in 1997, later working with James Allen from 2002 onwards. Brundle moved to the BBC when it acquired the rights to F1 coverage in the UK in 2009 and became the lead commentator for the broadcaster two years later with David Coulthard stepping into the co-commentary role.
Brundle moved to Sky Sports F1 in 2012, where he has been a co-commentator alongside David Croft ever since. Brundle is known for his pre-race grid walks, in which he interviews drivers and team principals in the frantic few minutes before the lights go out.
Ted Kravitz
Ted Kravitz has worked in F1 for over 25 years, starting out as a producer for ITV in 1997. He then became a pitlane reporter in 2002 and fulfilled the same role for the BBC between 2009 and 2011.
Kravitz was one of Sky’s headline signings when the broadcaster began covering F1 in 2012 and developed a large fanbase with his show Ted’s Notebook, in which he investigates and explains various technical aspects of F1.
Karun Chandhok
Karun Chandhok has developed a reputation as one of the most well-respected analysts working in F1, deriving his expertise from a varied racing career that included 11 grand prix starts in F1 between 2010 and 2011.
Prior to F1 he raced in British F3, GP2, A1 Grand Prix and various other series, and has since competed in Formula E, the World Endurance Championship and the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Chandhok has worked as a pitlane reporter for the BBC and Channel 4, moving to Sky Sports F1 in 2020. As well as contributing analysis, he commentated on the Russian Grand Prix that same season.
Rachel Brookes
Rachel Brookes is a reporter for Sky Sports F1, conducting interviews with drivers and other key figures. She’s a host of The F1 Show, and she stepped in for Simon Lazenby as the main presenter for Sky’s coverage of the Russian Grand Prix in 2020.
Previously Brookes worked for KISS FM, Rock FM and Power FM before moving to talkSport and Setanta Sports News. She currently works as a Sky Sports presenter for their coverage of cricket as well as Formula 1.
Natalie Pinkham
Natalie Pinkham joined Sky Sports F1 in 2012 as a pitlane reporter, having done so for BBC Radio 5 Live in 2011. In 2013 she became a host of The F1 Show, a role she has held ever since.
Pinkham became the first woman to commentate on an F1 session on British TV when she led Sky’s commentary of FP1 at the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix, alongside Karun Chandhok and Jenson Button.
Prior to F1 Pinkham’s broadcasting career saw her work at the Isle of Man TT and the 2006 FIFA World Cup, with two years spent presenting for The Poker Channel. In 2009, she co-hosted the Goodwood Festival of Speed alongside fellow motorsport broadcaster Steve Rider.
Damon Hill
Son of two-time F1 world champion Graham Hill, Damon Hill followed in his father’s footsteps in 1996 when he won the world title with Williams. Statistically one of the most successful F1 drivers ever, Hill won 22 grands prix from 115 starts and was a podium finisher 42 times over eight seasons, before calling it a day in 1999.
Hill joined Sky Sports F1 in 2012 and has been a frequent presence in a punditry role ever since.
Outside of his Formula 1 career Hill was also interested in music and after achieving his success in motor racing was able to play guitar with several musicians, including George Harrison. He also appeared on Def Leppard’s 1999 album Euphoria’s opening track “Demolition Man”.
Nico Rosberg
Nico Rosberg won the 2016 F1 world championship after a fraught title battle with then team-mate Lewis Hamilton. He shocked many after promptly retiring from F1 just days after his title victory, having accumulated 23 grand prix wins and 57 podiums during his time with Williams and Mercedes.
Rosberg is the son of 1982 Formula 1 world champion Keke Rosberg. They are the second father-son pairing, alongside Graham and Damon Hill, to have both won an F1 world championship. Rosberg has pursued a number of endeavours since retiring from F1, including as an owner of an Extreme E team. He first appeared on Sky Sports F1 as an analyst in 2018 and has also worked for broadcasters in Germany and Italy in a similar role.
Jenson Button
Jenson Button was at the centre of a fairytale story in 2009, when he became F1 world champion racing for Brawn GP - an outfit that was hastily formed at the beginning of the season when previous owner Honda announced its shock departure.
Along with his world title, Button’s 15 wins and 50 podiums rank him as one of the most successful British F1 drivers in history, and he’s one of only six drivers to date to have more than 300 grand prix starts.
Button, like Rosberg, has developed a number of interests in life after F1, continuing a successful racing career with a championship win in Super GT and taking on the Le Mans 24 Hours in a modified NASCAR. Button joined the Sky Sports F1 commentary team in 2018 and, in 2023, he also appeared in the Disney+ documentary Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story to talk about the team’s rise to success and his world championship win.
Naomi Schiff
Naomi Schiff has been a member of the Sky Sports F1 line-up since the start of the 2022 season as a presenter and analyst. She also presents a post-race weekend show for Sky Sports F1’s YouTube channel.
The Rwandan-Belgian driver was a W Series ambassador and reserve driver. She has previously raced in prototype, GT and single-seater cars across various series, winning the 2014 Clip Cup Asia championship title, 2018 KTM X-bow battle GT4 championship and finishing runner-up in the 2018 ADAC Nurburgring 24 Hours.
Bernie Collins
Bernie Collins was a new addition to the Sky Sports for 2023 and brought her expertise in strategy and engineering to her commentary. She is the former head of race strategy for Aston Martin, but began her career as a trainee with McLaren in 2009.
Three years later she became a performance engineer, before working full time with Jenson Button in 2014. Collins then joined Force India in 2015 where she became the senior strategy engineer for Nico Hulkenberg. She also helped the team claim a podium with Sergio Perez at the 2015 Russian Grand Prix and later helped the team claim fourth in the 2016 constructors’ championship.
Collins made her on-screen debut for Sky Sports at the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Craig Slater
Craig Slater currently provides F1 news reports for Sky Sports, with his interviews also featuring on Sky Sports F1’s coverage on race weekends. He previously interviewed drivers for Paddock Uncut and has been with Sky since 2002.
Anthony Davidson
Anthony Davidson made two appearances for Minardi in F1 in 2002 but retired from both grands prix. After spending much of the next three seasons as a test driver, he secured a full-time drive with Super Aguri in 2007. However, he failed to score any points and early in 2008, the team pulled out of F1 due to financial difficulties.
Davidson has been far more successful away from F1, winning the World Endurance Championship with Toyota in 2014 and collecting 10 WEC victories across five full seasons racing in LMP1. The Briton joined the Sky Sports F1 team in 2012, and filled in for Paul Di Resta in the commentary box when the Scot made his one-off appearance for Williams in Hungary in 2017.
Danica Patrick
Danica Patrick will return for occasional appearances with the Sky Sports F1 line-up in 2024 as a pundit and analyst of predominantly the American races. The former IndyCar and NASCAR driver moved to the UK in the late 1990s to pursue her racing career, and spent seven seasons in IndyCar between 2005-11, highlighted by becoming the first female winner in the series when she took victory at the 2008 Indy Japan 300.
Channel 4 F1 commentary team
Steve Jones
Steve Jones has fronted Channel 4’s F1 coverage since 2016. Jones rose to fame on Channel 4’s weekend programme T4 between 2003 and 2010, and has hosted numerous entertainment shows for the BBC, ITV, Sky1 and others. Born in Wales, Jones began his career as a model and has also dabbled in acting.
Alex Jacques
Alex Jacques has been Channel 4’s chief F1 commentator since 2021, replacing Ben Edwards in the role after the veteran decided to step down at the end of 2022. Jacques is already an established figure in the motorsport community having commentated on F2, F3 and Esports in recent years, in addition to working for BBC Radio 5 Live.
"As an avid Formula 1 fan since the age of nine, I know how much the broadcast means for everyone's weekend," he said when his appointment was announced. "It will be hugely exciting to share races with so many fans and join a team which commands such respect in F1 and TV circles alike. I can't wait to get started in 2021."
David Coulthard
David Coulthard is one of the most recognisable F1 figures in the world, having raced for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull in a 15-year F1 career that brought him 13 grand prix victories and 62 podiums between 1994 and 2008. Since then he has worked as a commentator and pundit, starting out at the BBC before moving to Channel 4 in 2016.
Along with sports broadcaster Jake Humphrey, Coulthard is a co-founder of Whisper Films, the production company that produces Channel 4’s F1 coverage. Alongside his punditry he is Channel 4’s co-commentator, and occasionally conducts post-race interviews in the aftermath of the podium ceremony.
Mark Webber
Mark Webber is another former driver turned pundit. His F1 career included nine race wins and 42 podiums, narrowly missing out on the world title in 2010. He moved to the World Endurance Championship with Porsche in 2014, where he became world champion in the following season.
His media career began with Channel 4 in 2016, and he’s been a regular on British screens ever since. Webber has also worked for Channel 10 in his native Australia, and since 2020 has mentored McLaren driver Oscar Piastri.
Billy Monger
Billy Monger is a 24-year-old racing driver who became a household name when an accident in a British F4 race at Donington in 2017 resulted in both of his legs being partially amputated. Although still racing single-seaters and with an ambition to compete in F1 one day, Monger began a broadcasting career with Channel 4 in 2019, providing in-depth analysis in his role within the team. More recently, Monger completed a 140-mile triathlon to raise money for Red Nose Day. The challenge was broadcast on BBC One in the UK in March 2021.
Lee McKenzie
Lee McKenzie is a journalist and broadcaster who has covered a variety of sports and events in her career, including the Olympics, Wimbledon, the Six Nations and horse racing. In 2009 she became an F1 pitlane reporter for the BBC, moving to Channel 4 when the BBC dropped the broadcasting rights in 2016. She has also presented highlights of the World Endurance Championship for Channel 4, and was the main host of W Series in its inaugural season in 2019.
Eddie Jordan
Eddie Jordan made his name in F1 as owner and team boss of Jordan Grand Prix. The team entered F1 in 1991 and gave Michael Schumacher his debut that same season, later winning its first grand prix with Damon Hill at Spa in 1998.
Since selling up in 2005, Jordan’s media career has included F1 punditry for the BBC and Channel 4. He also enjoyed a stint as a presenter of Top Gear. A sporadic member of the Channel 4 team, his role is similar to that of David Coulthard and Mark Webber, providing insight, opinion and conducting interviews with key figures in F1.
F1 TV commentary team
Will Buxton
Will Buxton joined the Formula One Group in 2018 as its first digital presenter. He hosts a number of features on F1 TV and the F1 YouTube Channel including Weekend Warm-Up, which he brought over from his previous role at NBC Sports.
Buxton’s career began in 2010 when he joined Speed - a motorsport channel owned by Fox Sports - where he was a pit-lane reporter until 2012. He then moved to NBC Sports for the 2013 season, as well as joining the broadcast team for IndyCar Series races.
He has also appeared in all five seasons of the hit Netflix documentary Formula 1: Drive to Survive, sharing his commentary on the corresponding F1 season.
Laura Winter
Laura Winter is a sports presenter and commentator working in Formula 1, as well as rugby and cycling. She is set to do her second full year of commentary for F1 TV after making her Formula One debut at the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix.
Winter is a former rower and has been the Henley Royal Regatta reporter for BT Sport since 2017. She also presents British Cycling’s road and cyclocross coverage for Eurosport, BBC and ITV4.
Lawrence Barretto
Lawrence Barretto joined the F1 TV team in 2022 as a presenter after previously working as a writer for the company's website. He is also a reporter for Channel 4’s Formula 1 coverage and has previously worked at Autosport and BBC Sport.
