Will Buxton

Will Buxton (born 14 February 1981) is a British Formula One digital presenter and reporter who works for Liberty Media.

Will Buxton
Buxton in 2014
Born (1981-02-14) 14 February 1981
Portsmouth, England[1]
NationalityBritish
Alma materUniversity of Leeds
OccupationDigital presenter
Journalist
Sports commentator
Author
Years active2002–present
EmployerLiberty Media

Early career

Whilst at university Buxton started writing for GrandPrix.com. In 2002 he joined the Official Formula 1 Magazine, and was a staff writer there until it closed in February 2004, when he went on to freelance work.

Buxton was offered the role of press officer for the inaugural GP2 Series of 2005, and was later promoted to Director of Communications. In 2008 Buxton became editor of the GPWeek virtual magazine, and in 2009 he started providing live commentary for the GP2 Series and GP2 Asia Series for Formula One Group.[1]

Formula 1

In 2010, Buxton joined Speed, a motorsports channel which was owned by Fox Sports, as Formula 1 pit-lane reporter, until they lost the rights to broadcast F1 at the end of 2012.[2] In 2013, the broadcasting rights for Formula 1 went to NBC Sports, where Buxton resumed his role as pit-lane reporter, as well as later joining NBC's broadcast team for Indycar races, until 2017.

In a Sky Sports F1 interview in December 2017 Buxton supported the changes Liberty Media had made whilst running Formula 1, despite these changes having lost him his job at NBC Sports.[3]

Buxton returned to Formula 1 in an official capacity in 2018, becoming Formula One Group's first Digital Presenter.[4] He hosts a number of features on their official YouTube channel, including Paddock Pass, a feature he carried over from NBC.[1]

In 2019 and 2020, Buxton appeared in Netflix's documentary series Formula 1: Drive to Survive based on the 2018 and 2019 Formula 1 seasons giving his opinions on the events covered in the series.

Buxton was forced to miss his usual F1 digital presentation duties at the 2020 Russian Grand Prix and the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix after testing positive for SARS-2 coronavirus. Lawrence Barretto stood in for him during this period.

Book

In 2019, Buxton released his first book, titled: My Greatest Defeat: Stories of Hardship and Hope from Motor Racing's Finest Heroes, featuring illustrations from Giuseppe Camuncoli.[5]

Racing record

Buxton took part in the 2014 Florida Winter Series, racing a car set aside for members of the press, alongside future Formula 1 drivers Max Verstappen, Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi.[6]

Season Series Team Races Wins Poles FLaps Podiums Points Position
2014 Florida Winter Series N/A 3 0 0 0 0 N/A N/A

Personal life

Buxton was born in Portsmouth, but grew up in Malvern, Worcestershire. He attended King's School, Worcester where he was a chorister at Worcester Cathedral under Donald Hunt. He went on to study at Lord Wandsworth College and Sixth Form College, Farnborough in Hampshire before studying Politics at the University of Leeds.[1]

In 2018 Buxton announced he was engaged to Victoria Helyar, who worked in marketing for Racing Point F1 Team.

References

  1. "About Will Buxton". Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  2. Gordon, Claire (12 October 2012). "Sports Reporter Will Buxton Fired Over Twitter". AOL.com. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  3. McAssey, Pat (14 December 2017). "Despite Losing NBC Job, Will Buxton Supports Liberty's Vision For F1". New England Sports Network. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  4. Nelson, David (19 March 2018). "Will Buxton joins Formula 1's in-house team". Motorsport Broadcasting. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  5. "My Greatest Defeat: Stories of hardship and hope from motor racing's finest heroes". Retrieved 13 June 2019.
  6. "Forix: Login". forix.com. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
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