Ted’s Notebook is one of the best parts of Sky Sports’ weekend coverage, with Ted Kravitz going on a walk around the paddock after sessions and races to discuss various talking points from the weekend.
Kravitz has however come under fire for a number of comments that he has made on the show, with Red Bull even boycotting Sky Sports at last season’s Mexican Grand Prix after the pundit claimed that Max Verstappen ‘robbed’ Lewis Hamilton of an eighth world championship.
Speaking on the Bahrain Grand Prix’s edition of Ted’s Notebook, Kravitz has used the show for good this time to highlight a recent incident with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.
The Finnish driver has recently admitted that during his early F1 career he was very close to suffering from an eating disorder, such was his desire to succeed in Formula 1.
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Bottas admitted that he used to live off of steamed broccoli in order to achieve the most competitive weight possible, putting his health at risk in the process.
“Now I want to spend a little bit of time just to tell you about something stupid and insensitive I did not knowingly with Valtteri Bottas on Thursday,” said Kravitz.
“So I saw him, I hadn’t seen him during testing and he’s lost a bit of weight around his jaw and I was quite surprised. I said ‘Oh wow you look so slim, as my mum would say you should eat some more food, you look slim’. He was like ‘no, I’m slim and I’m healthy’. When he said healthy, I thought… strange thing to say.
“And I was made aware of an interview he did earlier this year which I hadn’t seen, where he was talking in the past – I think it was 2014 – when he’d had close to what he described, close to an eating disorder. When he had dieted so much that he was unhealthy and losing weight.”
Kravitz has been praised for addressing the issue publicly rather than apologising in person and has also praised he Finn for speaking out about his issue.
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“I felt so terrible about joking about him slimming down, that I have since talked to his team and when I see him I’ll clear it up, saying I had no idea he was close to an eating disorder, and apologise for any offence that I’ve done,” continued Kravitz.
“To have the bravery to come out and talk about what in the past was pretty much close to an eating disorder in terms of getting his weight down to what they needed for the car, I thought was really impressive and good for Valtteri for speaking out about it.”
The public and private apology puts Kravitz in a very good light, having used his airtime to raise awareness about a very important issue.