I was absolutely shocked this morning to hear the news that Jake Humphrey is leaving BBC's F1 team. Jake who is currently in Singapore to present live coverage of this weekend's race live on the BBC has hosted the BBC F1 coverage since the corporation won the right's to cover Formula One in 2009 from ITV.
However from this season onwards the national broadcaster lost it's exclusive deal to show Formula One live in the United Kingdom and have been forced to share the coverage with Sky Sports. The Beeb were hit very hard by the news that Sky would be taking all live races this year. As a result BBC Sport lost key personnel to Sky as Martin Brundle, Ted Kravitz, Natalie Pickham, Anthony Davidson and David Croft all moved across to Sky.
Jake, who started his career with the BBC in Children's TV has been with the corporation for ten years and is heading to BT as the telecommunications has won the right's to host premiership footbal next season so Jake will be the host of their coverage. He and his his wife Harriott are expecting their first child later this year.
Jake literally leaves very big shoes to fill haha, however I believe that Lee McKenzie, The Beeb's pitlane reporter will take over as the host of the BBC's F1 coverage. It certainly makes sense as she has an awful lot of experience presenting the F1 show when Jake has been unavailable and so in my opinion the best person for the job.
Lee has been involved in Formula One for many years and her father Bob is a very well known F1 writer.
The BBC have done a fantastic job with the team they have in place this year considering the money that Sky have put into their coverage.
They have decimated Sky in the rating's for the races that they both shown live.
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