Rachel Brookes has confirmed her departure from Sky Sports’ Formula 1 coverage, bringing to an end a tenure that spanned more than a decade.
Brookes first joined Sky’s F1 broadcast team in 2012, going on to provide live coverage from the paddock, pitlane and media pen across countless Grand Prix weekends.
In a statement issued on social media, Brookes said: “After many years at Sky I am moving on to exciting new ventures and looking forward to what comes next. I have left the Sky F1 team but F1 still has my heart & so I’ll still be involved in it. I’ll keep you posted, in the meantime see you at Silverstone!”
The mention of Silverstone will come as welcome news to fans, suggesting her next chapter in F1 1 could begin as soon as the British Grand Prix — one of the calendar’s most anticipated events.
While the specifics of her future ventures remain under wraps, Brookes’ insistence that “F1 still has my heart” and her promise of continued involvement in the sport will provide some comfort to fans who have followed her work across grands prix weekends for over a decade.
Sky Sports F1 has yet to comment on Brookes’ departure or outline how the team’s on-screen lineup will be structured going forward.
Online abuse after Verstappen/Russell incident
Brookes recently spoke out on the barrage of online abuse she suffered after confronting Max Verstappen about his incident with George Russell at the Spanish GP last year.
In an interview on the Road To Success podcast, Brookes recalled that her intention was to speak to Verstappen “as a fan”, after listening to Nico Rosberg’s take on the incident.
“Nico Rosberg was on our programme that weekend.
“He’d implied he thought it was deliberate. This is what our pundits were saying. Nico, as a Formula 1 driver and a world champion, said it looked deliberate.
“So I’m in the pen, and there is no one better than a Formula 1 world champion to tell me what could have happened in that moment.
“I’m not making a summary myself here, I’m literally relaying what our world champion on the team thinks.
“I said to Max: ‘Was it deliberate?’
“His response was: “Does it matter?’
“And I said to him, ‘Well, I think it does,’ because in that moment I’m a fan watching at home.
“The reason I said that was because in Imola, just before, he had pulled off that incredible move at the start of the race.
“He had our commentators and our pundits open-mouthed at how fantastic his move was at the start of the race.
“That is what Max does, and Max can do. So to me, when he did what he did with George, it took some of the shine off, which is what I said to him.
“And I hate that, because he’s incredible, and he has those little moments that give people cause to criticise him, and it really frustrated me as a fan that had happened.”
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