F1 Fanatic

If you watch other sports, such as basketball, NASCAR, etc. you will know that good lead commentary is seamless. You don’t notice it – it complements the images being viewed and as a viewer you don’t even have to think about it. Brundle is so awkward that is detracts from the viewing experience – it is like running nails down a chalkboard.

The BBC commentary today was a complete train wreck.

It could be worse. Although the Australians are deferring to the BBC more and more (I suspect they’ve been given a much-needed kick in the pants), they still insist on referring to Scuderia Toro Rosso as “Scood-ah-ree-ah Toro Rosso” instead of “Skoo-dare-ee-ah Toro Rosso”.

> I didnt notice the commentary. Its seamless to me. Must only be you. The commentary is great

I will find the transcript when I get a moment. When Red Bull made their first pit stops it took more than a minute for Brundell to complete and entire sentence or to string 3-4 words together that made sense. He seems to change what he is talking about mid-sentence far too often.

There are also the errors, and then the cliché’s.

U MAD?

As has been said, it wasn’t a great performance, hell, even Kravitz managed to get a fact wrong. I would still rather have this team than some shoehorned football comentator though. All motorsports commentators make mistakes, at least with Brundle and Coulthard we have two people that have experience and knowledge (even if their memory does throw a joker occasionally).

I do think this weekend’s was their worst one yet. But that’s still miles and miles better than anything that’s gone before. Including Murray Walker.

And that’s saying something. Because I think the only reason they have struggled as much as they have been, is not because of their respective promotions, but because the amount of information they have to constantly process just to keep on top of who is where on the track fighting for what position has increased so much this year. We have had monsoon races that weren’t as crazy as the tamest of the dry races we’ve had this year.

Yes, they do make mistakes. But I think they are doing a really good job despite of them.

And actually, I think they would do a better job as well if the FOM would give control over the video feeds to a TV station. I don’t even care which one. But a TV station would to me seem to be better placed to decide what shots and angles better tell the story of what’s going on at any given time. Perhaps make it a TV station from a country that doesn’t have drivers on the grid, just to make sure there’s no accusations of unfair selection.

A case of an embarrassment of riches methinks. I’ve been relegated to watching whatever online streams I can find this year and this was the first time I had a BBC feed for the duration of the race – what an utter pleasure. Sure they may not be perfect, but, man, try to watch a race with some local commentators in various countries and it can really be downright painful. Brundle and and Coulthard may be not be the most TV-savvy guys out there, but they certainly both know what they’re talking about. And give them the better part of a season to really gel and find their rythm, too.