Steve Matchett (born December 23, 1962 in England) is currently a commentator for American TV network Speed Channel on its various Formula One programs. Notably, he hosts live Formula One practice sessions and races with David Hobbs and Bob Varsha.
Alongside his live F1 duties Matchett also presents a pre-recorded show on Speed Channel called Debrief, reviewing the events of the preceding week's grand prix.
He is a columnist for the Speed Channel website and presents a series of web-based video 'chalk-talk' features in which, with photographs and telestrator, he explains F1 engineering and technical matters.
He was a regular contributor and columnist to F1 Racing magazine from 1996 to 2008. He was Technical Editor of the magazine from 1998 to 2008 (resigning his editorship when Matt Bishop resigned as Editor-in-Chief).
He has also published a semi-autobiographical trilogy based around his years in the F1 pit lane.
Employed by Nigel Stepney, Matchett worked as a race mechanic with the Benetton F1 team from February 1, 1990 through February 13, 1998. During this period Michael Schumacher won the Drivers' Championship in both 1994 and 1995 before leaving the team, moving to Ferrari the following year; while Matchett and his team won the Constructors' Championship in 1995.Throughout his time with Benetton he worked with many key drivers and personalities of the era. Michael Schumacher; Nelson Piquet; Riccardo Patrese; Martin Brundle; Johnny Herbert; Gerhard Berger and Jean Alesi all drove F1 cars prepared by Matchett.
Herbert and Matchett both claimed their maiden Formula One wins in the 1995 British Grand Prix, a race perhaps made most famous for the fact that Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill crashed out of the race while battling for the lead. Although Matchett had by this time experienced many wins as part of the Benetton team, the win at Silverstone was significant as it was the first Benetton victory secured by a Matchett prepared car. Ten years later, in his closing remarks of the relevant episode of Formula 1 Decade Matchett described his feelings during the closing laps of that landmark race, and how much the win had meant to him. Said Matchett: Herbert and Matchett would team up for another Formula One win in at the 1995 Italian Grand Prix held at Monza, another race in which Schumacher and Hill crashed out together. His career as a mechanic was brought to an end by a back injury sustained while operating the rear jack on a car during a pre-race practice session (from which he has since recovered).
Throughout his Benetton career Matchett formed a close working relationship with both Stepney and Ross Brawn who was then technical director of Benetton. Brawn and Matchett remained on amicable terms even after Brawn's move to Ferrari at the end of 1996 and Matchett's own move into television four years later. During the Speed Channel Formula One broadcasts Matchett often cites conversations he has had with Brawn - and indeed other leading F1 engineers - by way of explaining to his viewers the pressing technical issues of the day.
He made his television debut for Speedvision in 2000 filling in as a substitute commentator during the Canadian GP weekend. He joined the crew for two more races in 2000, then joined Speedvision's F1 broadcast crew full time in 2001. In late 2001 Speedvision was acquired by Fox Television, rebranded as Speed Channel and relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. Matchett made the switch to Charlotte and has remained loyal to the network from then to the present day.
His broadcasting niche is one of giving priority to the teams' involvement, rather than to any specific driver. During the Speed Channel shows he has often stated that the Constructors Championship is of greater significance to him than the Drivers Championship. At the end of each race show David Hobbs reads out the driver points; Matchett always reads out the team points.Unlike his co-announcers, Matchett's unique approach is to talk of the races from the perspective of the competing teams (the engineer's view) rather than the driver's perspective. He describes the track's challenges to the various GP teams and describes how the mechanics prepare the 'set up' of the race cars to try and win the race.He is also credited with having a 'good eye' and is known for his ability to notice minor changes that the mechanics have made to the cars and for his ability to spot mechanical problems on the cars even while they are running on the circuit. In addition to his duties calling the racing action, Matchett also calculates, typically with unnerving accuracy, exactly when the cars will be visiting the pits for fuel and tires. Matchett is Speed Channel's telestrator man: he uses his Benetton race team experience (of working on F1 cars) to explain technical complexities in an easy-to-understand way.
From 2003 to 2005 Matchett also hosted Speed Channel's Formula 1 Decade.
On April 2, 2004, the show had the daunting task of airing the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, showing the crash that claimed the life of 3-time World Drivers' Champion and 41-time Grand Prix race winner Ayrton Senna. Matchett, a mechanic for Benetton-Ford that weekend, made these remarks at the beginning of the broadcast:
(*)-There had already been two serious accidents in the days before Senna's, one on April 29 during Friday practice that nearly killed Rubens Barrichello, and one on April 30 during Saturday qualifying that killed Roland Ratzenberger.
Since 2007, Matchett has hosted an annual series of technical features for SPEED called RPM - Racing Per Matchett in which he interviews key members of the Renault F1, Red Bull Racing and McLaren F1 teams, explaining to the viewers different features of modern race car design and ultra-exotic technology.
In January 2008 he also hosted the first visit to America by BMW Sauber's popular Pit Lane Park Formula One show, supporting the prestigious Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. He also emceed the four-day event alongside Mark Goodman of Sirius Satellite Radio, one of MTV's original VJs. Graham Rahal son of Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal drove a BMW Sauber F1.06 car in a series of demonstration runs during the event.
In 2009 Matchett presented a thirty-minute show for Speed Channel called Always Ferrari, in which he visited the famous Italian marque's Maranello factory, toured the road car restoration division, the Formula 1 racing headquarters and there interviewed F1 team members including drivers Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen.
Website:Matchett's website The Writings of Steve Matchett focuses on his books. It is not a Formula 1 news site, and he makes a point of stressing the differences between his work as a writer and his role as a television broadcaster. This seems important to him.
Twitter:Matchett's Twitter account is @MrSteveMatchett.In keeping with his website philosophy, do not expect an awful lot of F1 chatter from him via Twitter. Typically his posts are random thoughts on Life. In his posts he has described his Twitter account as being like an online diary: a place where he can share private thoughts with those that might care to read them. He does interact with his Twitter followers; has organized trivia quizzes (mainly movie related) and giveaway competitions, in which his followers are presented (mainly) with racing memorabilia.
Matchett is currently restoring a home in the Cognac region of France.
According to his Twitter account, his favorite song is the acoustic version of Watching the Wheels that appears on the Acoustic . The studio-mixed multi-track version is track number eight on the John Lennon/Yoko Ono album Double Fantasy.
His three favourite books are:
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
In The Chariot Makers he describes himself reading Three Men in a Boat, his favorite book, when he is joined by characters from that book. Those characters become characters in Chariot Makers.
