Steve Rider Profile

Steve Rider's arrival to present the GP Legends series means that Sky Sports F1 will have one of the country's most familiar, experienced and versatile sports broadcasters on board. His CV is, to say the least, impressive. Having started out as a newspaper reporter in his native south-east London, Steve has covered everything from the University Boat Race to the Olympic Games to rugby league for both the BBC and ITV. Rising to prominence in the 1980s as a presenter of the BBC's iconic Grandstand and Sportsnight programmes, Rider has, in more recent years, fronted ITV's football and BTCC coverage and did the same during the 2011 Rugby World Cup. However, his unruffled approach has arguably become most synonymous down the years with golf and motorsport. Steve first presented golf in the early days of Channel 4 but it was his move to the BBC that led him to the majors - and a pre-eminence for those tuning in on a Sunday night every April to watch the unfolding dramas at Augusta National. But his face became just as familiar to fans of a more frenetic form of action at much the same time - and in many different categories. Inevitably, though, it was F1 that drew the lion's share of attention and Rider was on hand at the start of the 1990s when the BBC ramped up its live coverage of qualifying and races. He performed the same role for ITV between 2006 and 2008 but Steve's first exposure to F1 actually came when working for Anglia Television back in 1978 - the year that Mario Andretti and Norfolk-based Lotus won the drivers' and constructors' titles.