Sky Sports F1 reporter triggered 'crisis meeting' after grand prix incident

A Sky Sports reporter has revealed that their actions triggered a 'crisis meeting' after an incident at an F1 grand prix.

Craig Slater covers F1 for Sky Sports News and also attends race weekends throughout the season to interview drivers.

Despite his paddock presence and reporting on some of the sports' biggest pieces of breaking news, Slater is perhaps most well known for his viral moment at the 2022 Miami Grand Prix.

2022 marked the inaugural year for the event and was greeted with a mixed reception due to the fact that the F1 calendar already had the US GP taking place at COTA.

But the Miami GP was billed as an entirely different kind of race. Set at the Miami International Autodrome, the one of a kind circuit is located at the Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins NFL team.

So, when Slater introduced Sky viewers to some of the quirks of the new paddock ahead of the first event three years ago, he opted to go for a dip in the Miami GP's fake harbour.

Slater: 'I got in a lot of trouble for that!'

The moment gained traction online and prompted fans to issue further concerns about the over the top nature of the event, worried it may take away from the racing.

The Miami GP has proved a commercial success however and now, Slater has reflected on the infamous fake marina moment, revealing the thought process behind it and the trouble he caused.

"I got in a lot of trouble for that I have to say," the reporter revealed, speaking in a Q&A session for Sky Sports ahead of this year's US GP.

"I hadn't intended to jump into the water. I knew it was a thing because people had planted images of themselves on images of the fake marina.

"I jumped in and the camera panned off and in that moment I thought,' I wonder if I can do a bit of a backstroke on the fake, plastic lagoon' and actually it worked quite nicely, I got a bit of traction as I was sort of moving myself.

"But there were apparently crisis meetings called with the Miami Dolphins management, they weren't pretty happy."

Slater then clarified that his light hearted joke was not meant to be taken so seriously, adding: "Although they took it in good part when I subsequently saw them and there were a lot of phone calls. I felt really sorry for the people that were marketing the event because they thought I was poking fun at it.

"This really is a world class event, they do such a good job, it was meant to be a bit of innocent fun and it was totally spur of the moment."

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