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Ted Kravitz ended the live Sky Sports coverage of the United States Grand Prix by announcing his absence from the next race. Formula 1 makes the short trip south for the Mexico City Grand Prix next weekend, but Sky favourite Kravitz will instead be jetting home.

With 24 races held per season now in F1, the annual calendar puts enormous strain on everyone who regularly travels to F1 events. And that includes those who cover the sport for British broadcaster Sky Sports who have implemented a rotating pool of pundits and reporters to help avoid burnout.

Kravitz is one of the core members of the broadcaster's coverage and is present more often than most of his colleagues. But he too takes some races off over the course of a season and confirmed in his sign-off at the end of his Ted's Notebook show late on Sunday that he would be departing Austin for home, rather than heading on to Mexico.

He said: "For us, the next stop is the Mexican Grand Prix in Mexico City on the 24th, 25th and 26th of October. I won't be there, it's my last race not on site this year. So the Notebook will return at the Brazilian Grand Prix at the beginning of November. But join Simon and everyone for the Mexican Grand Prix next weekend."

While Kravitz's hinted that lead presenter Simon Lazenby will again lead Sky's coverage in Mexico next weekend, the rest of the broadcaster's on-screen team for that race is not yet known. But lead commentator David Croft will definitely be in attendance having already missed the three events he planned to skip this year.

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Whoever will be joining Lazenby and Croft will be discussing an increasingly heated drivers' title battle which has now truly expanded to a three-way fight. For so long it looked like a straight duel between championship leader Oscar Piastri and McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, but a perfect weekend in Austin has seen Max Verstappen re-enter contention.

Verstappen won the Sprint and the main Grand Prix to score 33 points, while both McLaren drivers crashed in the shorter race. Norris was second in Sunday's main event to limit the damage but Piastri could manage only fifth and lost 23 points to Verstappen over the course of the weekend.

The Dutchman is now only 40 points off the lead with five rounds still to go, two of which feature more Sprints. And he has the momentum behind him, having won three of the five Grands Prix held since the summer break while McLaren no longer look like the all-conquering force they once were earlier in the year.