The Formula 1 season is over, Max Verstappen can call himself world champion for the second time and the traveling F1 circus is packed again for a while. For Stéphane Kox from Eindhoven, this now means rest and refueling. She reported last year as a pit reporter for Viaplay. “It was a super-intensive but very special year.”
Stéphane Kox is no stranger to motorsport. She has been racing herself for years and narrowly missed out on a seat in Formula W. This year she walked around the pit lane as a reporter for the first time and experienced Formula 1 up close. “From everything I’ve seen from motorsport, Formula 1 is just a bit bigger, higher, more beautiful, better,” she summarizes her experience of the past season in the Omroep Brabant sports program De Zuidtribune.
“It’s a privilege to be able to walk around the paddock.”
“Formula 1 is a real and shielded world, it’s a privilege if you can walk around in the paddock. I really realized how special it was that I could get so close, get so close to those guys too.” Stéphane looks back.
And she was not only among them, she also got all the drivers in front of her microphone. “In the beginning you have to get to know the boys, of course. They only see the same faces all season and then suddenly I am among them.” But she was soon taken seriously. “If you show twice that you understand the game, then they respect that. There was acceptance quite quickly.”
“Toto Wolff asked: you race yourself, don’t you?”
And the fact that Stéphane also likes to get behind the wheel of a racing car could be appreciated. “I thought they didn’t know I race,” she says. See you there in Australia, the third race of the season, Toto Wolff (the Mercedes team manager, ed.) walked up and asked: ‘you race yourself, don’t you?’ I started stuttering all over,” she laughs. “Apparently it’s spreading fast. Maybe I’ve built up credits with it.”
With 22 race weekends under his belt this season, Stéphane has traveled all over the world. Still, the most beautiful experience was the race here on the Zandvoort circuit, she thinks. “That was really unforgettable. It was a marathon week for us. We made so many hours of live television, I never thought I could do that. It was a very big party on all fronts.”
“I never thought I would drive a Formula 1 car.”
And the F1 races may be over, this season will have a dessert for Stéphane. She is the best driving pit reporter in the world. In the kart race of the ‘media championship’ she came first. The prize: testing in an Alpine Formula 1 car. That will happen in May next year. “I never thought I would ever drive a Formula 1 car. It really is a dream come true,” she beams.
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