Sky Sports presenter Natalie Pinkham was left mortified after she accidentally said ‘bum’ in front of Fernando Alonso.

Pinkman was at the British Grand Prix to get the reaction to the record-breaking Lewis Hamilton win when she ended up in a quick chat with Alonso.

The Spaniard had finished in eighth place behind his Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll and a few seconds in front of Alex Albon – who he had a bit of a battle with throughout the Silverstone track. Pinkman told the F1 Nation podcast how she ended up mixing up a few words that left her blushing in front of the 42-year-old athlete.

Pinkman said: “Talking of bosoms, I made a bit of a faux pas in the pen today. I said to Fernando ‘How was it with the contact with Albon’ and he said ‘Did I have contact with Albon?’.

“I said ‘Yes, you didn’t feel it?’ and he said ‘No’ – then I went ‘It was just a little kiss on the bum’! I meant to say rear, but I said bum, I didn’t mean to say bum!

“And then he did this weird little thing with his bum and I went bright red because I realised I’d said bum live on air.”

Former F1 driver Alex Wurz also appeared on the podcast to discuss Sergio Perez’s struggles as part of the Red Bull team with Max Verstappen. The former McLaren driver admitted that he felt that the “cloud” of Verstappen was hanging over Perez and this is why he may be struggling with his racing.

Wurz said: “I would almost think if Checo would simply go to a different team then maybe he would get a chance and he would come back as a very strong driver who on a good day is able to win a Formula One race.

Sergio Perez of Mexico and Oracle Red Bull Racing looks on after spinning out during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Great Britain at Silverstone Circuit on July 06, 2024 in Northampton, England.
Perez crashed out during the qualifying race – and one former F1 driver has claimed he should switch sides 
Image:
Peter Fox – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

“But with this I don’t know what it is in English, but the cloud of Verstappen hanging over him, there is no oxygen for him to breathe, to refresh his brain. There is no life elixir there to kickstart the trust in yourself. And this is really, really difficult to be with such a strong teammate – a reality I can only describe as the moment he [Verstappen] walks into the room, he takes the oxygen of this room and consumes it all.

“He is so performance driven, the team is so behind Max, and he [Perez] is more and more on the back-foot – but he’s fundamentally not a bad driver, he’s won races.”

Perez languished in 17th place at the British Grand Prix while his Red Bull counterpart Verstappen took his starting position of 4th and turned it into second by the end of the race. Perez started from the pit line after he beached his car during qualifiers and ended up down the bottom of the pack as Hamilton won his record ninth Silverstone title.