F1 Fanatic

After watching the highlights on the BBC I am reasonably happy with what they have done so far..
Firstly..It started off brilliantly with them doing that Bob Dylan song..just pure genious..I dont think sky would do anything like that..it was just a perfect start..
Also it was good to hear DC’s views and it was nice that they were still in the pitlane to kind of build up the atmosphere..
Jake talking to Button while they were playing pool was great aswell..there is much more chemistry I feel between say the BBC lads to the drivers than sky..Lazenby driving with Hamilton didnt really flow and it all seemed a bit forced..
But there was a lot cut out of the qualifying..Q1 went from 20 minutes down to 11 in less than a minute so I do feel there was maybe a bit too much pre-qualifying build up..
I also don’t think that Ben Edwards was that great either with DC in commentary..he didnt really connect with me especially in Q3..he didnt really make it exciting especially when the chequred flag came out at the end of Q3..Button crossed the line and it took him ages to say he was second..the same with the other drivers in the end..maybe it will take time for the both of them to gel together..
No Eddie was dissapointing aswell..:[
Yeah so im pleased enough with the start they’ve made in my opinion..looking forward to the race tomorrow..:)

Ive always been under the impression that Jenson enjoys being with the BBC guys, probably with most people actually but esspecially with the BBC. Your right, it did look natural and carefree, easy perhaps. In comparison, I got the impression with Lazenby seeing Hamilton that he was one of a number of Jurno’s & TV people that were there as it was very short as a feature.

The Dylon start didnt suprise me, the past 3 years has been filled with stuff that we can only see the BBC daring to do, the Indian dancing stuff last year being an excellent example. Its a shame that its only highlight form coverage, I keep thinking of it as being “F1, Bite-size”.

Given the cards they have been dealt with in terms of the rights, I was pleasantly surprised by the show, although I do think it felt a bit unbalanced with the amount of build up compared to the actual racing. I think they did well with the highlights though; most of the qualifying cut out was probably time in which there was little to no action on the track. To people who want more highlights, I don’t think they will be able to show much more without breaking the agreement with Sky on how much they can show. Ben Edwards is good for me; Gary Anderson on the other hand makes me really miss Ted Kravitz but we still have to see how he does during the race.

Awful editing, like they couldn’t wait to get it over with.

Ben Edwards was pretty uninspiring and I’m not sure where he gets his reputation from. Him and DC together was like white noise.

I thought it was very good. I liked the commentary; I thought the two worked well together. Nice pre-session show though I just hope there is more race footage tomorrow. Overall though it was very good.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by the highlights show.

Firstly I liked the introduction bit with the song and that it looked as if links between bits showing them in the pit lane were shot ‘live’. By that I mean the pre qualy section was actually shot just before qualy started and they included the piece to camera were some guy walked in front of DC staring up in the sky at a plane that flew over and drowned out the end of the link.

I think the build up section was just about right, but I think features with a single driver should be left for the build up to the sessions they show live when they’ve got more time to fill.

The actual highlights were edited well. Only the red flag period and the first part of q1 appeared to be left out, which I can cope with. I think Ben Edwards and DC will work well, Ben should be able to provide a better narrative then MB did, just so long as in the future he learns not to talk as much. I liked his BTCC commentary so hopefully his f1 commentary can be just as good.

I think Gary Anderson could provide some excellent pieces in the future. On the radio he came across well I thought, but I think he looked very uncomfortable doing his race strategy piece at the end of the show in front of the camera. Hopefully he’ll get better with time.

Finally I really hope that the race show follows the qualy show in only having a short build up (15-20 mins) as knowing that time is being wasted when we could be watching the action really annoys me. I also hope that we get to see most of the race and only have to lose safety car times and a few laps mid race.

Watching the BBC’s highlights programme after I got up early to see the race live on Sky. David Coulthard and Ben Edwards feel a better team than David Croft and Martin. Sky made little to no strategic comments or notice Vettel stayed on soft tyres at his first stop versus McLaren moving onto mediums. And where was Natalie interviewing Schumacher when he got to the paddock?

The `Skypad`is an appalling name and is very disjointed from the rest of the post race show. I thought Sky were going to be much more in depth, but it was left massively wanting and not as good as the BBC delivers. Based on what we’ve seen this weekend, I’ll certainly be watching the BBC when they’re both showing the same live race.

And congratulations Jenson – always makes it better waking up early to watch a race when he wins.

I was extremely disappointed with both the BBC radio and TV commentary teams. After a good job in practise and qualifying, James Allen spent the race talking so fast I couldn’t catch the words and Jaime mumbled so much I had no idea what he was saying either. The TV crew just didn’t work for me at any point of the weekend – Ben spent half the race shouting at such volumes none of the words were decipherable and David rarely got a chance to get a word in edgeways (though when he did, he had useful and interesting things to say). If the Sky thread is any indicator, I’d have been no better served had I been in a position to pay. This meant that despite 3 different commentary options being available, none were listenable.

It looks very likely that I won’t be able to watch any F1 races at all under the current commentary arrangements from now on. (Friday and Saturday are another matter – Radio 5 Live worked well then).