Sky Sports presenter Natalie Pinkham has heaped praise on former Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone for his decisive action after a photographer took an upskirt photo of her. She was working at a Grand Prix when a snapper caught the moment a gust of wind blew up her skirt, revealing her underwear.
Appearing on the Style DNA podcast, Pinkham revealed how she found out that the photo in question was due to be published in the next day’s edition of The Sun newspaper. And when she told Ecclestone, still in charge of F1 at the time, about what had happened, he used his significant influence to rectify the situation.
“You’ve got to be comfortable in the pit lane, it’s got to be practical but you also show a bit of your own sense of style,” she said, discussing her approach to her attire while broadcasting for Sky Sports. “I love waistcoats with wider trousers. I love that, but I know some people don’t, a lot of men don’t, but we don’t dress for men. ‘Get your pins out,’ like, no thanks!”
When asked how windy it can be sometimes at a race, Pinkham then used her story from the South Korean Grand Prix one year as an illustration. She said: ” You know what, this is a great story about Bernie Ecclestone, because I didn’t know this picture was out there, but basically there was a gust of wind, a snapper got the shot, and I found out about it when it was about to go in The Sun.
“I told Bernie Ecclestone about this, and he phoned the cameraman, the photographer, and said, ‘If that goes to print, your pass won’t work at the next Grand Prix. You don’t stitch Natalie up like that’.
“And I was like, ‘Wow, he’s a feminist!’ Because, you know, obviously Bernie loved the grid girls and everything else but actually, he’s got two daughters, he’s got a lovely wife and so, actually, he’s all for sticking up for girls in the moment.”
Pinkham has been a regular feature of Sky’s F1 coverage ever since the broadcaster won the rights to show the sport in the UK in 2012. She regularly interviews drivers and reports from the media pen, but has in recent years also been one of the main hosts of the live coverage, sharing that responsibility with colleages Rachel Brookes and Simon Lazenby.
Ecclestone, now 94, controlled the commercial rights to the F1 World Championship until 2017 when he was removed as chief executive following the buyout by American investment firm Liberty Media the previous year. He remained as chairman emeritus and an adviser to the board but his term expired in January 2020.