F1 Fanatic

I’ll be up in time to watch the start of Sky’s coverage at 4:30, I would like to see how they do. If there was anything I could do to change Sky’s coverage it would be to get rid of GT (thus saving money flying her, her makeup and that bloody Sky Pad around the world). Then Ant could be down in the pit lane and paddock with Simon and Martin when Damon isn’t there (I think he’s only doing half the races?). Finally I’d send the whole Sky F1 team to the pub for a jolly in the hope they would feel more comfortable with each other on screen.

Going to watch the sky stream someone posted elsewhere (VipBox) for the pre-show and then switch to SpeedTV for the live race coverage. I will keep the laptop on streaming the audio of the SkyF1 commentary, and my damned TV muted. What an awkward way to watch F1. And all because I cant seem to find a nice HD live stream! Kidding, I am lucky as an American to get to hear the Skyf1 commentary through the vipbox.

Basically, the duo of Crofty and Brundle is a win. Crofty was out of his MIND during qualifying. So exciting. It was 3am watching here in the states, I had been up all day at work and then all evening watching FP3 and Quali and it was really special to get to hear Crofty and Brundle together, as before I was always torn between listening to 5 Live radio coverage during the race or the actual broadcast.

Hoping the pre-race show is a cracker. Except I have to watch it in like 160×90 pixels streaming online :(

Damon has done very little TV work to date, so he will improve.
He also isn’t doing every race is he, so I imagine Ant will take up that role on the weekends he isn’t there.
As for GT – yeah, a little unnecessary, but she’s highly rated by Sky and I’m sure she’ll be come good over the season.
I would happily swap Simon for Jake, but again, I’m sure he’ll improve as his knowledge of the sport improves and he gels with MB in particular.

No complaints about the graphics – they’ve clearly worked on making it look like the world feed graphics for a tidier feel. Re: the skypad – BBC did try getting MB to do something similar on a large screen TV in the forum.

Biggest + for me is the extra use of Brundle and Kravitz and the pairing of Brundle and Croft for commentary – that would have been my choice when the BBC dropped Legard.

As someone who watches cricket/football on Sky, I’m actually really impressed at just how few adverts they’ve added in. Was expecting the gaps between quali sessions and the formation laps to be prime ad break opportunity but once there’s action on track they’re letting it go. Sure, it’s not the BBC with no adverts but it’s not gamebreaking.

is it just me or have sky not said a single thing about the last lap in their post race coverage?

Indeed, post-race coverage was pretty poor in general. If they want something to work on then they’re miles behind the BBC on that front. Bit like F1 in general though really, let’s see where they are in 6 races time and see if they do manage to get it working.

I’m still not sold on the sky coverage, Im finding Simon Lazenby quite irritating, but then again I thought the same of Jake Humphrey when the BBC first gain coverage and he soon grew on me.
Damon Hill, I just find him incrediby boring and he just doesn’t seem to add any in depth analysis.
Anthony Davidson seem’s to show potential, despite his still relatively small role.

On the other hand, I’m pleased that Ted Kravitz seems to have a slightly bigger role then with the BBC and would like to see more of him in the coming races. The commentary line up on Croft and Brundle is absolutely superb and I cannot fault it.

All sky need is to improve their coverage is replace Simon with Jake, Damon Hill with Coulthard and bring in Eddie to add to the mix (Probably not the safest opinion to express on the forum, but I always rather liked him)
Better still… Bring it back to the BBC.

edit. Final Note, Post race coverage was crap… Not sure if I can get away with using the S word

It would have been nice to see more analysis after the race, I also would have liked to see the last lap again. Hopefully during the season Sky will do more analysis post race.

we don’t have to pay for that!

If I got a penny for every time I heard that :P