Book Review: F1 Insider by Ted Kravitz

To all F1-nut readers, I realise it’s been a while since the last post as I’ve been taking a few months break from doing any work on this website.  It’s been getting harder to find time to write reviews, weed out tons of daily spam, website template upgrade issues that are no longer supported and funding from google ads is declining with search and AI bots using the website content but bypassing ad links – it’s now becoming more exhaustion than fun. I’m planning to take stock in the new year to workout if I continue with this site or retire it.

In the meantime, I’ll try to post the backlog of short review posts.

The first one is Ted Kravitz’ new book “F1 Insider”. Many F1 fans will recognise Ted from SkyF1 broadcast team and his “Ted’s notebook” post-race team summaries. Ted was of course part of the former BBC & ITV F1 broadcast teams.

His new book traverses his F1 career as a F1 journalist starting in the late 90’s through to 2025 and is structured into 22 chapters that basically follow this timeline but occasionally jumps around. There are chapters dedicated to individuals like Murray Walker, Martin Brundle, Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and others that delve into the technical challenges behind the camera as a F1 reporter. Other chapters cover some of the sport’s more infamous moments like Villeneuve Schumacher clash in Jerez 97, Schumi Monaco qualifying in 2006, Alonso-Hamilton tensions 2007, 2020 Australian GP COVID cancellation and the controversial end to 2021 Abu Dhabi GP.

This book is a good read although newer F1 fans may find the 90s and Schumacher events less interesting and no much in the way of new insider content covering the newer drivers and personalties on the grid. Kravitz’ book is probably more of nostalgic look back at F1 rather than a book version of his “Ted’s notebook” segment.

Suitable for: Sky/BBC F1 fans

Year:2025

Publisher: Cassell/Octopus Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-78840-571

Pages: 345