Sky Sports has decided to keep the controversial Ted Kravitz on its books and has instead sacked Johnny Herbert and Paul di Resta from its team of presenters for the upcoming F1 season.
This decision was communicated to the duo ahead of the public announcement, with Herbert taking to Instagram and saying, “Going to miss this team.”
This was met with a response from Sky Sports employee Natalie Pinkham, who said, “Johnny, love you forever ever.”
A Sky Sports spokesperson confirmed this news to Planet F1.
“Johnny has been an integral part of our Formula 1 team since the very first season on Sky Sports in 2012. We will miss his humour and big personality and thank him for his energy and enthusiasm over the last 11 years. Everyone wishes him all the best for the future,” the source said.
Herbert has previously been involved in F1 as a driver from 1989 to 2000, and featured for seven teams during his time.
He started off on his media career following the end of his racing days and perhaps his most notable moment came when he announced that Max Verstappen was the 2022 world champion.
Sky Sports is responsible for providing F1 coverage to a large part of the world, having initially acquired rights to broadcast the sport in 2012.
Many fans may have expected stricter action to be taken against Ted Kravitz, who openly claimed that Hamilton had been “robbed” of a world championship, alluding to the Abu Dhabi finale of 2021.
This led to Verstappen completely boycotting Sky, claiming that they were painting a narrative to make him appear like the villain.
Things did finally get resolved between Red Bull and Sky Sports, but one would have expected Kravitz to be one of the names discarded owing to how serious the situation became last year.