Sky Sports has confirmed its broadcast team for the 2026 Formula 1 season, and the absence of former NASCAR and IndyCar driver Danica Patrick has been picked up by fans.
Joining lead commentator David Croft will be Simon Lazenby, Natalie Pinkham, Ted Kravitz, Rachel Brookes and Craig Slater as presenters and reporters.
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Martin Brundle, Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Jacques Villeneuve, Naomi Schiff, Bernie Collins, Karun Chandhok, Jamie Chadwick and Anthony Davidson have been confirmed as experts and analysts. Harry Benjamin will also continue to stand in for Croft at a handful of races.
Patrick had previously joined the broadcast team, mainly for the races in the United States and the Canadian Grand Prix. But after often dividing fan opinion, she is noticeably absent from the broadcaster’s on-screen line-up.
Why has Danica Patrick divided opinion?
Aside from her public political views and the controversial topics she discusses on her Pretty Intense podcast, Patrick upset a lot of fans after she told a young female fan, who dreamed of joining F1 in some capacity, that the championship is “masculine”.
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“I think that the nature of the sport is masculine. It’s aggressive,” she said at the time, live on Sky Sports F1. “You have to, you know, handle the car – not only just the car because that’s skill, but the mindset that it takes to be really good is something that’s not normal in a feminine mind, a female mind.”
Danica Patrick, Sky F1
Danica Patrick, Sky F1
Patrick was also asked on a separate occasion for her thoughts on the importance of the W Series, the F1 Academy and the goal of introducing a female driver to F1.
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“Well, you’re assuming I want that, you’re assuming that is important to me, and it’s not,” she said.
“It’s always an interesting stance I have on it. I think that what makes the sport really popular is great racing – you can have half the field out there women and have it be follow the leader, and it’s not going to be interesting to watch.
“Good racing, and that’s what we have so much of these days in Formula 1, I mean pretty much everything other than Max is a toss-up for who’s going to be second, third, fourth, fifth that weekend, and so that’s what makes it really appealing.
“And so I think, as someone who obviously was a girl, you’ve just got to come up like normal.”
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