“Already bored of the Taylor Swift jokes”: F1 fans call out the Sky commentary team for repeatedly using Pop Star’s references

F1 is back after a very long three-week break and will resume with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend. But it's a different format compared to past races.

Baku will host its first-ever sprint weekend. Due to a revised schedule that includes a sprint race on Saturday and a second qualifying session the same day for the sprint, there is only one practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

But the biggest news this week was rumors involving Fernando Alonso and 12-time Grammy winner Taylor Swift. While both Alonso and Swift reportedly claimed to have broken up with their partners in the same week, renowned gossip websites like DeuxMoi picked up on the rumor.

While it was just a pointless rumor. The F1 SkySports commentator had a few Taylor Swift-related puns during the live coverage of the FP1 session. Sky commentators David Crofty and Karun Chandok pulled out a few puns on air. Although it was just was fun, F1 fans called out the commentator for their behavior on social media.

David Crofty even mentioned that he looked up all the greatest hits of Taylor Swift for the references.

Needless to say, both F1 and Taylor Swift fans were not impressed by the references. In response to rumors that he is dating Taylor Swift, Fernando Alonso smiled.

In an interview before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, a reporter probed Alonso on the rumors, and Alonso chuckled when the reporter made comparisons to Swift's songs.

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"That will be difficult", Sainz comments of F1's new format for the weekend

The schedule for this weekend's first sprint race of the 2023 season in Baku has been changed, with a single free practice session on Friday followed by qualifying for the Grand Prix on Sunday.

Sainz said:

"That will be difficult, especially waking up in the morning and going straight into Q1. I need to do a good warm-up, maybe a cold shower, make sure I'm really woken up for pushing flat-out in one of these cars on the straight first thing in the morning."

Saturday now includes a shorter sprint qualifying shootout for the afternoon sprint race, which means drivers will be plunged immediately into competitive action without a practice session to warm up.

According to Sainz, throwing the drivers right into the deep end on Saturday morning would be a tremendous task. Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso believes Saturdays will now be more "stressful," but he believes F1 drivers and spectators will "have to embrace" the new format for the weekend.