Danica Patrick faces fresh backlash after Sky F1 pundit announces exit

Editor 16 Nov 2024 11:00 AM

Danica Patrick on Sky F1. Austin October 2021.

Former IndyCar and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick on punditry with Sky F1. United States GP October 2021.

Damon Hill’s departure from Sky F1’s presenter line-up has triggered a wave of disbelief as Danica Patrick remains involved.

1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill has moved on from the Sky F1 broadcasting team after 13 years as a pundit, with the Brit confirming the news via a surprise social media post earlier this week.

Damon Hill departs for “new challenges”

Taking to social media, Hill wrote: “Its been a fantastic 13 years with Sky Sports F1 but all good things come to an end. I will miss the most impressive bunch of professionals it has ever been my pleasure to have worked with. Looking forward to new challenges.”

It’s not yet confirmed whether Hill was let go from the presenting squad or whether he departed on his own terms. In late 2022, three-time F1 Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert was dropped from the line-up and later revealed it had not been his decision.

Hill raced in Formula 1 between 1992 and ’99, winning 22 Grands Prix and the 1996 Drivers’ Championship. As a beloved figurehead of British motorsport, Hill was approached to join the Sky F1 line-up shortly after the channel took over the UK broadcasting rights and has been an active pundit for the broadcaster ever since.

A well-liked pundit, Hill has nonetheless been involved in recent bias accusations as the tail end of the F1 2024 championship saw Max Verstappen and Lando Norris battle for glory, including stating that he doesn’t believe “fair racing to be part of Verstappen’s repertoire”.

Some of Hill’s criticisms of Verstappen resulted in the Dutch driver responding, unimpressed, by saying “I don’t listen to those individuals. I just do my own thing.

“I’m a three-time World Champion. I think I know what I’m doing.

“Honestly like, I have my opinions. I don’t need to share them.”

Damon Hill departure triggers fresh Danica Patrick criticism

With Hill leaving the Sky F1 presenting panel, some F1 fans have been questioning why there has been no such announcement made for Danica Patrick, the former IndyCar and NASCAR driver, who has courted controversy during her broadcasting career as a pundit, with her controversial opinions on certain topics.

Patrick has also courted controversy in the motorsport world for stating, on the Sky F1’s children’s broadcast, that the nature of Formula 1 is “masculine”, and that being good at it isn’t compatible with a “female mind”.

“I think that the nature of the sport is masculine. It’s aggressive,” she said.

“You have to 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.”

Formula 1 is a sport that aims to become carbon net zero by 2030 as sustainability has become a key hot topic for all the teams and the F1 organisation as a whole. Despite this, Patrick has also hosted climate change denier guests on her podcast ‘Pretty Intense’, at odds with the views of leading F1 luminaries like Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel who advocate for the need for climate protection.

Patrick’s continuing involvement in the Sky F1 line-up has been constantly questioned by F1 fans online but kicked up a gear following the announcement of Hill’s departure. Here is a selection of comments, taken from X and Bluesky, in the past 24 hours.

“Sky Sports is a joke, Danica Patrick is still employed by them but Damon Hill gets let go?” questioned one.

“I swear to god, if they’re letting the great Damon Hill go but retaining that horrible lizard people believing Danica Patrick…I’m going to lose my f’n mind!!” said another.

“Sky Sports F1 losing of Damon Hill and retaining Danica Patrick is absolute madness,” Paul McGarraghy said on X.

“Hill, the 1996 Formula 1 World Champion, with 115 Grand Prix starts, 22 race wins, 42 podiums, 20 pole positions & 19 fastest laps vs. Danica Patrick with 0 F1 entries. Make it make sense.”

A user named Michael Klinck wrote: “Damon Hill leaving the Sky Sports F1 team, while keeping Danica Patrick is a bit of a head-scratcher. Sky F1 has to keep her for the U.S. audience, and the 3 races in the U.S. I’d rather hear Hill‘s commentary and old stories, rather than Danica‘s repetitive analysis.”

Jordan105 wrote: “Getting rid of Damon Hill but not Danica Patrick. Who is running Sky Sports F1 as they are clearly clueless?”

Hill leaving Sky has sparked a lot of comments about Danica, and while I’m not a fan of her or her analysis on the sport, there’s a lot of people pointing at her political views as grounds for not being a presenter, and that’s just wrong

You don’t have to agree with her, and…

— Clapped 🚀 (@F1Clapped) November 15, 2024