Sky Sports' David Croft Responds After 'British Bias' Criticism From Newey

Tuesday, 17 September 2024 at 21:00

F1 commentator David Croft shared his view after Adrian Newey criticized Sky Sports for having "nationalistic" coverage despite huge international viewing.

Aston Martin's future managing technical partner Adrian Newey criticized Sky Sports in one of his latest interviews, as he brought up an example, including Max Verstappen.

The 65-year-old said he is seeing "demonization" for Verstappen, similar to what he has seen with Sebastian Vettel in the past, which he believed might have been caused by the British media. He said on the High-Performance podcast:

There's this sort of demonization for both of them [Verstappen and Vettel] suffered at times, which I think is very unfair, and maybe that's also a little bit of the British media.

"Sky have a huge influence around the world. Their viewing is truly international, but their coverage is quite nationalistic, that I say, and that can have nuance."

The triple World Champion also addressed this topic earlier this year after the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix (where he had a collision with Lando Norris).

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Verstappen didn't point the finger at anyone, but he explained that the majority of the press in F1 is English and that naturally, most people prefer their national driver in the back of their minds, which is why many (including himself) feel there is a bias towards British drivers.

Sky Sports's lead commentator, David Croft, who has been in his role since 2012, has recently issued a response, underlining that he does his best to remain impartial. He told Speedcafe:

"I try to be as impartial as I can. It's really difficult to prove whether you're impartial or not because we all watch with a bias."

"We all watch with our own bias and our own perceptions of a comment or a statement that somebody makes. And when you're trying sometimes to be neutral, someone will perceive that in a completely different way."

"Do I get more excited when a British driver wins? Possibly, you might think so, I don't know because I'm in that moment."

"Do I get more excited when it's been a thrilling race? Yes. Do I get more excited when there's a great story to go with it? Yes. Do I get excited whoever wins? I try to."

According to figures from motorsportbroadcasting.com, Sky Sports recorded an average of 1.22 million viewers during each race weekend in 2020. Do you think English broadcasters like Sky Sports should try harder to remain impartial with such a level of reach?