The
first Formula 1 race Popov witnessed was in 1988 in
Belgium: his grandfather worked there in the Trade Mission of the USSR. He started his journalist career in 1991 at the age of 17 for the newspaper
Sport Express. As he later confessed, he was dissatisfied with quality of Formula 1 coverage in the Soviet media, and he decided to contact Sport Express editors if he could offer any help. To his surprise, he was appointed as an editor himself. Later he wrote several books and many articles, including those for magazines
Formula +,
Autosport,
Grand Prix,
F1Life, the newspaper
Soviet Sport. He began race commentary in 1992 on the TV channel
Russia 1, then-RTR. In the same year he became a member of the company
Samipa (Monaco), which owned the television rights to broadcast
Formula 1 races in the former USSR. Then he moved to Monaco where he did the production of
Chrono TV program. At that time, he was commenting CART and NASCAR races on the French TV channel
AB Moteurs. Since 1996, he resumed working on Russian television. Popov was nominated for
TEFI award in 2000, but lost it to
Vladimir Maslachenko. In 2005, 2009 and 2011-2012, Popov led channel
Russia 2 program
Grand Prix with Alexey Popov. From February 2007 to May 2013 he was the permanent presenter of the
Week of sports, led it in turn with
Dmitry Guberniev. From November 2015 to March 2022 he worked for
Match TV channel. Since 2024, he owns a sport bar called
Lights Out () named after his own catch-phrase. During the F1 races, he comments them with his spouse Natalia Fabrichnova for the visitors of his bar but also streams his commentary box over the Internet. Popov is often called
The Russian voice of Formula 1. Alongside Formula One, he has been a commentator of various racing series like
GP2/Formula 2,
A1 Grand Prix etc. He speaks many European languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, English and others, in varying degrees. While in Formula 1 paddock, he has made friends with many F1 drivers, mostly French-speaking, like
Alain Prost,
Jean Alesi, and
Olivier Panis whom he calls one of his best friends. Aside from motorsports, Popov also commentates
rugby union matches. == Personal life ==