Popular Sky Sports presenter to miss Belgian Grand Prix as return date confirmed

A popular Sky Sports presenter will not provide coverage during this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.

The 10th race of the season will take place at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, located near the forests and rolling hills of the Ardennes region.

The unique circuit is the longest on the calendar, which lends itself to overtaking. This is why McLaren decided to take a penalty for exceeding the permitted number of engine parts, meaning Lando Norris will start 10 places down the grid.

Fast corners and a combination of long straights will likely provide an entertaining spectacle, with drivers often suggesting the circuit is one of the most enjoyable to race on.

As ever, the world’s media will be fixated on all the action throughout the race weekend, with Sky Sports’ Martin Brundle expected to chat to A-listers on the grid shortly before Sunday’s Grand Prix.

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However, his Sky Sports colleague Ted Kravitz, who heads up the Ted’s Notebook segment on race days, has confirmed he will not be providing coverage of the Belgian race.

“It’s the Belgian Grand Prix on the 17th, 18th and 19th of July. I am not doing that,” Kravitz said at Silverstone earlier in July.

Referring to the British Grand Prix’s ‘A Night at the Darts’, he joked: “I think I am still going to be out training how to play darts with Luke Littler."

Littler, Michael van Gerwen, Luke Humphries and Fallon Sherrock took part in a competition at Silverstone’s BOXPARK trackside fan park.

Kravitz also confirmed he would return ahead of the 11th race of the season in Hungary.

He added: “The Notebook will return for the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest in a couple of weeks’ time.”

Martin Brundle gives Max Verstappen future prediction

Kravitz’s Sky Sports colleague Brundle offered his thoughts on Max Verstappen’s Red Bull future ahead of the Belgian GP weekend.

The Red Bull driver is under contract until 2028 but has a clause in his current deal, which would allow him to leave and join a team in 2027 should he choose to.

However, Brundle believes the four-time world champion could yet stay at Red Bull.

"Max obviously has a contract if he wants to stay at Red Bull," he said.

"I'm not sure there are too many other places for him to go. The driver line-ups are largely settled at McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari, and they're the other three top teams. Max is at the fourth, Red Bull.

"So I'm sure they've been looking around behind the scenes because that's the manager's job: to find other opportunities and work out what's going on in the market.

"There's a lot of talk about whether they [Red Bull] might spring Oscar Piastri away from McLaren and do a swap, but that's a lot more complex than it sounds. It's very easy to make that headline.

"I think Max has also learned the hard way that whatever he says will, and can, be taken to mean something else. And, of course, if he doesn't say anything, the same thing happens. So they clearly don't want to speak about it at the moment.

"In a way, it's private business. It always amazes me how many big meetings and deals are done in the paddock. You'd think they would do that away from a Formula 1 race weekend, but that's not how it goes.

"So my gut feeling is that Max will stay at Red Bull next year. A sabbatical? I don't think it's out of the question either."