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BBC's Formula 1 team

Martin BrundleDavid CoulthardEddie JordanJake HumphreyJonathan LegardLee McKenzieTed KravitzMurray Walker

The BBC has put together a top-notch team to guide you through the 2009 Formula 1 season.

Jake Humphrey presents our TV coverage, alongside 13-time Grand Prix winner David Coulthard and former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan. Commentary will come from Jonathan Legard and award-winning broadcaster Martin Brundle.

The 5 live commentary team is led by David Croft alongside new signing Formula One driver Anthony Davidson and pit lane reporter Holly Samos.

And respected F1 journalist Andrew Benson leads our web team.

Click on the above photos or scroll down for profiles of our presenters.

MARTIN BRUNDLE

Martin Brundle

Martin Brundle is the BBC's expert analyst in the commentary box. In a long and successful career as a racing driver, Brundle competed in 158 Grands Prix, with a best result of second for McLaren at the 1994 Monaco Grand Prix. He was World Sportscar Champion in 1988 driving for Jaguar, with whom he won the famous Le Mans 24 Hours in 1990.

After quitting F1 at the end of 1996, Brundle moved into broadcasting, joining Murray Walker in the commentary box as ITV took over as the UK's broadcaster in 1997, and continuing alongside James Allen following Walker's retirement in 2002.

Brundle has won the Royal Television Society's Television Sports Award for best Sports Pundit in 1998, 1999, 2005 and 2006.

DAVID COULTHARD

David Coulthard

David Coulthard joins the BBC as an F1 pundit after a 16-year career as a Grand Prix driver in which he won 13 races and finished a best of second in the world championship to Michael Schumacher in 2001.

The Scot began his F1 career at Williams following the death of Ayrton Senna in 1994 and moved to McLaren in 1996 - the start of a 10-year spell that made him the longest serving driver in the team's history.

After leaving McLaren at the end of 2004, he joined Red Bull, scoring the team's first podium at Monaco in 2006.

Coulthard scored 535 points in his F1 career - putting him, at the start of the 2009 season, fifth on the all-time list behind multiple world champions Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Fernando Alonso.

EDDIE JORDAN

Eddie Jordan

Eddie Jordan ran the Jordan F1 team from 1991 until selling it in 2004. In that time, he established a reputation as one of the sport's most maverick senior figures, with as many connections in the world of entertainment as in F1.

Jordan was a racing driver in Formula Atlantic and Formula Three in the 1970s, before setting up his own teams first in F3, then Formula 3000 and finally F1.

Jordan famously gave Michael Schumacher his F1 debut in 1991, before he was poached by Benetton, and the team's most successful period in a roller-coaster career was 1998-99. Damon Hill gave Jordan their first victory in Belgium in 1998, before German Heinz-Harald Frentzen won two races and mounted an unlikely - and ultimately unsuccessful - title challenge the following year.

Despite being renowned for his wheeler-dealing, Jordan faced an increasingly difficult struggle to survive as major car manufacturers came to dominate F1 in the early years of the 21st Century, and eventually sold his team to the Midland Group in 2004. After a succession of owners, it is now racing in the guise of Force India.

JAKE HUMPHREY

Jake Humphrey

Jake will be the main presenter for the BBC's F1 coverage.

He has worked for the BBC for eight years, starting out at CBBC before moving into sport, where he has worked for the last three years.

He has covered the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Euro 2008, the 2007 Fifa Women's World Cup, fronted the BBC's American football coverage, and was the BBC's host for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations.

Jake was also a co-host of the 2008 Sports Personality of the Year and has also presented Match of the Day, Football Focus and Final Score.

He started his career at Anglia Television, before hosting the live daily sports show TWI and then moving on to Children's BBC, where he spent six years.

JONATHAN LEGARD

Jonathan Legard

Jonathan Legard is the BBC's Formula One commentator.

He was 5 Live's motor racing correspondent from 1997 until 2004, providing live commentary of every F1 Grand Prix as well as news coverage for the network, before becoming the BBC's football correspondent.

Jonathan joined BBC Sport in 1990 and has covered two Olympic Games, two Ryder Cups, the 2006 World Cup, Euro 96 and the 1994 Commonwealth Games.

He has also been 5 Live's sports news correspondent, and has presented a variety of news programmes on the network, as well as the award-winning Sportsweek show.

LEE McKENZIE

Lee McKenzie

Lee has covered most sports, specialising in motor racing and rugby, in a career that has spanned both journalism and broadcasting.

She has worked for the BBC, ITV and Sky Sports, and has also competed as a co-driver in several rounds of the World Rally Championship.

TED KRAVITZ

Ted Kravitz

Ted joins the BBC F1 team after working for ITV throughout its time as the UK's F1 broadcaster.

Starting as a producer, he became a pit lane reporter in 2002, a role he continues with the BBC for the 2009 season.

MURRAY WALKER

Murray Walker

Murray Walker became a broadcasting legend during 50 years of commentating on F1 for the BBC.

Murray was the BBC's F1 commentator from 1948 until 1996, and continued in the same role for ITV until retiring in 2001.

He became a household name for his exuberant commentary style, which was famously described by critic Clive James as "like his trousers are on fire".

He was also famous for his infectious, and obvious, enthusiasm for his subject, and earned the nickname Muddly Talker for mis-speaking entertainingly in the heat of the moment.

Among his more famous utterances were: "I'll stop the startwatch", "you can cut the tension with a cricket stump", "excuse me while I interrupt myself" and, perhaps most famously of all, "unless I'm very much mistaken… and, yes, I am very much mistaken".

Murray will be a regular feature on the BBC Sport website in 2009, sharing his views of the weekend's racing and taking part in interactive sessions with F1 fans.

MARK HUGHES

Mark Hughes is the BBC's commentary box producer - a role that involves analysing races and pointing out important matters the commentators may have missed. He is a widely-respected F1 journalist, the F1 editor of Autosport magazine and has written several books on the sport.

ANDREW BENSON

Andrew Benson has been covering Formula One for 15 years.

He was Autosport magazine's Grand Prix editor from 1996-2000 and a regular contributor to the Guardian newspaper from 1997-2000, and has contributed to a number of magazines and books.

Andrew joined BBC Sport's website in September 2000 as one of its senior journalists. He has continued to specialise in F1, and has now attended more than 100 Grands Prix as a reporter.

Read Andrew's blog

DAVID CROFT

David Croft is a commentator for BBC Radio 5 Live and he leads the station's F1 commentary team which he joined at the start of the 2006 season.

A key member of the 5 Live reporting and presenting team, David has worked for the station for 10 years, during which time he has presented Sport on 5, covered the 2002 Football World Cup, 2004 Olympic Games, World Championship boxing and the 2007 Superbowl.

ANTHONY DAVIDSON

Anthony Davidson joins the 5 live F1 commentary team full time for the 2009 season, following stints as a guest commentator on 5 live for the British and European Grands Prix in the 2008 season.

Anthony's driving career began with kart racing at the age of eight. He worked his way up through the series, before making his F1 debut for BAR Honda in 2001.

In November 2006, Anthony signed with the Super Aguri F1 Team and became race driver for the 2007 and 2008 F1 Championships.

The Super Aguri F1 Team was forced to withdraw from the 2008 F1 Championship because of financial problems. Anthony returned to action testing for the Honda F1 Racing Team, and has since continued to work on various testing and development projects in F1.

HOLLY SAMOS

Holly Samos is the pit-lane reporter on BBC Radio 5 Live's F1 team. A versatile and accomplished reporter, producer and presenter, she has wide-ranging experience across a variety of genres.

Holly has always been a petrol-head and jumped at the chance to join the 5 Live F1 team at the start of the 2006 season has reported from all but one Grand Prix since.

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see also
F1 on the BBC in 2009
24 Feb 09 |  Formula 1


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