Book review: Ted Kravitz’s paddock tales make us all F1 insiders

Of late, there’s been a steady trickle of hardbacks promising to take you inside the world of contemporary Formula 1. Here’s another, and the most engaging of the lot.

Sky F1 pitlane reporter Ted Kravitz is at first glance the ‘F1 Insider’ referred to in the title – although as it turns out, it’s actually you, the reader, that Ted is talking about. Twenty-four years since he first stepped in front of the camera, Kravitz maintains an earnest but genuine desire to make us all F1 insiders, via the insights he gleans in pits and paddocks around the world. It’s no exaggeration to describe his approach to TV reporting as vocational – even if Sky F1 colleague and ex-F1 driver Anthony Davidson reckons he’s holding down “a made-up job”.

As Kravitz tells us, his path to F1 reporter started from an out-of-the-blue childhood fascination with F1, via a degree in politics and then an early career in radio (he wrote breakfast news bulletins at Capital Radio). It’s fitting that the trigger for his entry into F1 should be James Allen, his pitlane reporter predecessor. But at first Kravitz served behind the camera, as a junior researcher for ITV after the commercial channel took over the UK F1 broadcasting rights from the BBC in 1997. Graduation to commentary box spotter for Murray Walker and Martin Brundle are remembered as halcyon years, before he finally picked up a mic himself when Murray retired at the end of 2001. Allen filled those unfillable shoes and Ted took the roving role.

From what he openly admits is a privileged vantage point, Kravitz has since experienced firsthand the good and bad of F1, and it’s beyond time for him to recap those moments in a memoir. His first priority has always been to say what he sees, and that’s repeated here as Kravitz recounts cringe-inducing moments such as Austria 2002 and Indianapolis 2005, along with the infamous ‘gates’ (spy and crash). Peppering the history with his own personal memories elevates the story-telling.

Kravitz is popular with avid F1 watchers (who can afford a Sky subscription), particularly for Ted’s Notebook: a live-to-camera monologue he offers after qualifying and each race to explore the stories only briefly mentioned in the main coverage. The informal, chatty format has spanned three broadcasters, but Kravitz takes no credit for the concept. Conceived first as a written column for ITV F1’s website by its editor Simon Strang, it morphed into a video blog under the moniker From the Pitlane during the years when the BBC claimed back F1. When Kravitz then transferred to Sky in 2011, the idea was expanded and reverted to its original Notebook title. It’s become something of an F1 institution, and the same can be said for Kravitz himself.

An enthusiast first, Kravitz the professional takes his ‘non-job’ (but evidently not himself) all too seriously, and both points shine through this enjoyable book. His BBC stint was his shortest, but even at Murdoch’s brash Sky, Kravitz retains the essence of the dutiful public service broadcaster.

F1 Insider: Notes from the Pit Lane
Ted Kravitz
Cassell, £22
ISBN 9781788405706