Lee McKenzie is a journalist and presenter who is a reporter and deputy presenter for Channel 4's F1 coverage and also the main presenter of the channel's highlights of the World Endurance Championship. McKenzie also works on a variety of sports on the BBC including tennis, rugby and equestrian and McKenzie has also worked as a presenter for the BBC's F1 coverage, Sky Sports and Sky Sports News. The daughter of Bob McKenzie, a fellow sport and motorsport journalist, McKenzie has worked mainly in motorsport and rugby.
Broadcasting career
McKenzie has presented for ITV, and also launched the horse racing channel At the Races. McKenzie has also presented Lookaround for Border Television, and covered many high-profile stories including the Lockerbie Trial. McKenzie has been a journalist since she was 15 years old. In 2007, McKenzie won the Jim Clark Memorial Award for contributions to motorsport. McKenzie competed in several rounds of the World Rally Championship in 2004, and the Norwegian Mountain rally in 2005. McKenzie has hosted several programmes, including three seasons of Sky Sports' A1 Grand Prix coverage, as well as the world feed coverage. A lifelong motorsport and "any sports" fan, McKenzie has presented several programmes on ITV, Channel 4 as well as Sky Sports, including the live Sunday afternoon show Speed Sunday and the British Superbike Championship. In 2006, McKenzie travelled over – five times round the world – covering both the Formula One and the A1 Grand Prix. McKenzie has covered most major sports events from the Rugby World Cup to Wimbledon and the Derby, from Netball, Grand Prix and Football. McKenzie has presented for At the Races, covering horse racing for Sky Sports, and presenting the 6 o'clock news. McKenzie covered many big news stories including the Lockerbie trial. McKenzie starred in a TV advert for Nokia, presenting award ceremonies including Formula One and other events. McKenzie presented for the SonyPlayStation, the F1 Regent Street display in front of 300,000 people and was asked by Nigel Mansell and Carl Fogarty to host the launch of their magazine for whom she was the on-track editor and columnist.
BBC
From 2009 to 2015, McKenzie was a pit lane reporter on the BBC's Formula One Coverage. She was the main presenter of Inside F1 for BBC News and McKenzie was the lead presenter for the BBC's F1 programme at the Japanese Grand Prix weekend in October 2010 whilst Jake Humphrey presented the Commonwealth Games and presented the Canadian, German and Hungarian Grands Prix in 2012 whilst Jake Humphrey was presenting Euro 2012 and the 2012 Olympic Games. This was the first time a woman had taken on the main anchor role in F1 on British TV. She was also reported to be on the BBC's shortlist of possible anchors to replace departing host Jake Humphrey for their F1 coverage across the 2013 season. In December 2012 it was announced Suzi Perry would take over the role. She started as a presenter on BBC Inspire in April 2014. Since the BBC lost the F1 rights to Channel 4 she has continued to work for the corporation presenting and reporting on the Commonwealth Games, the Olympics, the Winter Olympics, Wimbledon, The Olympia Horse Show, Equestrian, the 6 Nations, the Women's 6 Nations Championships and the Rugby Union Autumn Internationals.
Channel 4
On 8 March 2016, it was announced that McKenzie would be joining Channel 4's F1 coverage following BBC's decision to no longer broadcast live F1 on TV. She continues to report on races in the same role she used to have on the BBC and presents F1 Meets.. as well as practice sessions. It was announced she would be the presenter for the channel's highlights of the FIA World Endurance Championship after they gained the rights with immediate effect in June 2016. McKenzie was announced as the channel's main anchor and reporter for the Paralympics Breakfast show for Rio. McKenzie missed the Austrian, British and Hungarian GP in 2017 as she was part of Channel's 4 UEFA Women's Euro 2017 and 2017 World Para Athletics Championships presenting teams. McKenzie also presented highlights from the winter Paralympic games from London as well as being one of the main presenters of the Winter Paralympics Today and Winter Paralympics Highlights. In 2018 McKenzie co-presented the Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. She also became Channel 4's main presenter for Rugby Union and Wales mid-year Internationals, European Rugby Champions Cup
Racing career
McKenzie competes as an international co-driver in the World Rally Championship. McKenzie started after a challenge by ITV to train and become a World Rally Championship co-driver in just three months, and saw her qualifying for an international licence, right through until she won her class at Wales Rally GB. Since then McKenzie has competed in the Norwegian Rally Championship, arguably the toughest national championship in the world, for the X-Power MG ZR. McKenzie owns and runs a driver management company, that looks after drivers from GP2 to World Rally.
