Naomi Schiff didn’t so much wander into TV as she did ease off the brake at just the right time. The former W Series racer has become a fixture on Sky Sports F1 since 2022, the cool head in the media pen who can untangle a driver’s radio rant or a strategy mess without reaching for clichés or a grid of graphics.
Her route wasn’t straightforward. Born in Antwerp in 1994 to a Belgian father and a Rwandan mother, Schiff grew up in Johannesburg and, like so many, fell for motorsport via a birthday-party kart. She won at club level, went national, then represented South Africa at the World Karting Championships. Single-seaters followed with South African Formula Volkswagen, then a left turn into GT4 with Reiter Engineering as a junior factory driver after winning the Clio Cup China Series. The results column rarely lit up, but the miles mattered.
W Series put her on the wider radar. Selected for the inaugural 2019 season with Hitech GP, Schiff scored points and, importantly, a platform. She later took on a diversity and inclusion role with the series, a sign of how comfortable she’d become front-of-house. When 2020’s calendar vanished to the pandemic and 2021 didn’t bring a return to the grid, broadcasting filled the space.
Mercedes handed Schiff a prominent gig co-hosting the W13 launch alongside Natalie Pinkham, and Sky snapped her up for Any Driven Monday before shuffling her into live paddock duty. By the time Sky refreshed its roster after 2022, she was a full-timer. The on-air style? Calm, clear, and empathetic to the racers’ point of view without stepping back from calling it as she sees it.
Schiff’s honesty about her own path helped, too. “I didn’t ever think they would consider me as a pundit because I’ve obviously never driven an F1 car,” she said of that first Sky call. “But I was so delighted when they suggested it… I might not be able to talk about the absolute minutiae of when you do this in this car, but I can definitely speak about why a driver has chosen to do something, how they might be feeling in a moment.” That reads like a mission statement—and it’s what viewers hear on Sundays.
Of course, social media being what it is, the rise came with a target on her back. In 2022 a snide tweet tried to question her credentials; Schiff yawned it off publicly and the paddock rallied. Lewis Hamilton—today flying Ferrari red in 2025—amplified his support, calling her “totally qualified” and “a great asset.” Sebastian Vettel, never one to waste words, branded the pile-on “absolutely disgusting.” It mattered. Not because Schiff needed defending—she didn’t—but because those voices reframed the conversation around representation and merit where too often the debate goes nowhere.
What’s kept her there is the work. She’s the sort of broadcaster who asks the question drivers actually want to answer, and she can flip from parc fermé emotion to technical nuance without the tone getting whiplash. Her sit-down long-form with Hamilton in early 2022 was a standout, a reminder that the very best TV in this sport is still two people talking, unhurried.
Away from the grid, life has moved as fast as the calendar. Schiff married long-term partner Alexandre Dedieu in September 2024, and in July 2025 the pair announced they’re expecting their first child—“Been keeping the tiniest little secret,” as the caption put it. Don’t be surprised if the Sky rota shifts later this year; do expect that paddock to give her the kind of ovation usually reserved for a hometown pole.
There’s a through-line to all of this. Schiff’s story works because she never pretended to be something she’s not. She’s a racer who’s done the airports and the late-night briefing rooms, who’s wrestled a GT4 car on the wrong side of grip, who understands why a driver will defend badly into Turn 1 after a bad out-lap and can explain it in plain English. In a 2025 season stacked with plotlines and a grid that’s evolved yet again, that clarity is invaluable.
If you want the behind-the-scenes bits—early call times, rain delays, the chaos inside a media pen when a penalty drops—her social feeds are worth a follow:
– X: https://twitter.com/NaomiSchiff
– Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naomischiff/
– Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naomischiffracing
The short version? Naomi Schiff earned her spot. The long version is why you tune in.
