| Author | Message | ||
| Andy Klueber (Adk)
New member Username: Adk Post Number: 15 Registered: 1-2003 |
It's still going on has a matter of fact this winter they'll be running their final again this winter for the second year. Has for who will be next American in F1 there are three driver's who pretty close. Those being Townsend Bell, AJ Allmendinger, and Ryan Hunter Reay. Townsend Bell for his first year in F3000 did pretty good for not knowing the tracks finishing in the top ten in points and the guy who run's the team he runs for has said that Townsend sould be the running for the championship next year and he's already done a test for BAR. And I kind of agree with him you can't really tell about anyone from the States running in Europe for the first year since they are just learning the tracks. Ryan has done pretty good when compared to the other Reynard runners and running with a first year team (American Spirit) in CART. Reynard is just not has good has the Lola the Reynard has a smaller sweet spot than he Lola especially on the rougher tracks CART runs on to be fast there. The real question is will American Spirit stay with Reynards and hope that CART help's out in making the Reynards has competitive has the Lola. Or will the team switch to the Lola next to be on a better footing next year. AJ on the other hand is the guy I think everyone should watching the guy has done everything F1 teams look for. The key thing is being really dominate in the two pro series he's run in so far. Barber Dodge where he won like seven races and was pretty much faster than everyone else he ran against last year in winning the Championship. And in the Altantic's he was king of the hill again winning seven times and qualifing in either the first or second rows most of the year. Has a matter of fact AJ could have ran in the Red Bull deal this year. But cause of the first contract Red Bull had for the winning driver's. Wasn't really any good to start out with for the driver's they picked if you signed to Red Bull they basically owned your right's and told where and who you drove for while the driver's made very little money while driving for Red Bull. The thing to watch for next year is how AJ does in CART next year for his team RuSport. They are planning to run in CART next year with either a one car or two car team for AJ. If AJ show's well in CART he could get a call from an F1 team in the near future. But for any of these guy's the real question is will they get a real shot at one of the better team's in F1 and given a fair chance with them. Yours, Andy K. | ||
| Schumi (Schumi)
Junior Member Username: Schumi Post Number: 130 Registered: 6-2002 |
The Red Bull driver search found four US drivers who are all in Europe competing in F3000 and Formula Renault etc. Grant Maimen is one of the four. It is a great program that may lead to a US F1 driver - let's support it. | ||
| Andy Falsetta (Tuttebenne)
Member Username: Tuttebenne Post Number: 293 Registered: 3-2003 |
Andy, Yeah, what ever happened to the much ballyhoo'd Reb Bull driver's search? No drivers? Too much Bull?  | ||
| Andy Klueber (Adk)
New member Username: Adk Post Number: 14 Registered: 1-2003 |
Andy Falsetta is right about the first year running of the USGP on ABC. They basically had their IRL crew coverig the race. Of Bob "Dean" Jenkins, Jason Presily (Who called Jean Alesi the Tiger Woods of F1 durng the pre-race actives) (sp?) Eddie Cheever and Danny Sullivan doing a thing for Red Bull or the American F1 driver search. So basically it was terrible. Yours, Andy K. | ||
| Darrell Pardy (Dpardyferrari)
New member Username: Dpardyferrari Post Number: 30 Registered: 8-2002 |
What I find annoying about SPEED is how often they are wrong about the facts. I mean these guys are suppose to be experts and former drivers yet I seem to know more about the race and the season than they do. Last weekend I watched the Italian GP in Canada on the ITV feed. Much, much better. But, I do appreciate SPEED's commitment to F1 and I will tolerate their announcers because the alternative is ..... | ||
| Jay Grande (Jay)
Intermediate Member Username: Jay Post Number: 1498 Registered: 10-2001 |
I can't stand SPEEDS commentators! I find them boring and not at all knowledgable about F1. I listen and watch ITV's Martin Brundle. He used to be paired up with the great Murray Walker but he retired last season. | ||
| Andreas Forrer (Tifosi12)
Intermediate Member Username: Tifosi12 Post Number: 2184 Registered: 10-2002 |
Ralfy cost Michael already one championship (Nuerburgring). I guess he doesn't want to make that mistake again. Yes, it is ultimately annoying when you spot something and they don't and two laps later they start talking about it. OTOH that has its good sides too: Mention it while watching and your friends and family will be utterly impressed when they hear the confirmation from the commentators... However my most hated all time offense are people like DeBrouhl trying to fill time by using driver's first and last name plus the car's name and engine supplier "Ayrton Senna in his McLaren Honda". As opposed to just say 'Senna'. De Brouhl actually isn't that bad. I heard worse offenders over the years. Even in Europe, where they're supposedly should know this stuff. Sigh. | ||
| Andy Falsetta (Tuttebenne)
Member Username: Tuttebenne Post Number: 276 Registered: 3-2003 |
Andreas, How many times have you noticed something taking place in a race broadcast and then the commentators notice it two laps later? It doesn't build their credibility does it? The most recent example was in Hungary three weeks ago when Ralf Schumacher locked up his wheels behind MS and ran off the road at the second corner. DeBruhl said that Ralf "ran too deep into the corner" and either Hobbs or Matchett agreed (I don't remember whom). Did you see it? If not, look close at the tape, because what really happened was that Ralf was going to hit his brother up the arse. That's why he locked the wheel and that's why he went off the road. This wasn't a minor event. From a championship standpoint, this could have ended MS's chances this season. But our boys in the studio didn't see it! | ||
| Andy Falsetta (Tuttebenne)
Member Username: Tuttebenne Post Number: 275 Registered: 3-2003 |
Aaron, yes I agree. Any auto racing coverage done by ABC is garbage. Its always been that way. I'm old enough to remember when they used to do 20 minutes of coverage on the Monaco GP. That was supposed to be their race coverage! Then they coined the phrase "up close and personal" when doing driver biographies that took up one third of the broadcast coverage of the Indy 500. Now they have idiots like Jason Priestly doing pit commentary on something they know nothing about. What's next? | ||
| Aaron Williams (Aawil)
Member Username: Aawil Post Number: 323 Registered: 8-2002 |
I liked Posey he was alright.I liked his teases at the beginning of the races. The worst commentary I've seen was ABC's F1 coverage last year. To me it was sooo annoying. I watched speed's coverage the next week just to hear waht they had to say.It's all subjective to what you like I guess. | ||
| Andreas Forrer (Tifosi12)
Intermediate Member Username: Tifosi12 Post Number: 2170 Registered: 10-2002 |
I realize that there are different ways of installing your brakes and that different drivers and cars use them differently. Still I think the Speed commentators are trying artificially to make a hoham race more interesting by bringing in a lot of speculation. They got all their fuel strategy speculations wrong in the Monza race, so picked another bone, the brakes this time. I bet at Indy it will be something else. Perhaps the tires, who knows. Or the weather. Let's think about this for a moment: These guys sit somewhere in a TV booth in the US watching OUR feed and are now speculating about things. Not quite the inside scoop you would expect. That's why I can clearly do without all that hyped drama. *IF* they had somebody in the pits who feeds them real information (like they do in some of the European stations like RTL or ITV), that'd be different. But these clowns see a shot of concerned faces in the Ferrari pit and cook up a whole story. Who knows why the Ferrari guys looked like this? They might have seen some engine temps on their telemetry or God knows what. But because Monza is hard on the brakes, it had to be a brake problem. That is simplistic, trivial and IMHO just plain stupid. Other than that I'm a happy camper with the broadcast. Actually thankful they bring us all the races at all. Just stop fishing around. You're clueless and so are we. | ||
| Andy Falsetta (Tuttebenne)
Member Username: Tuttebenne Post Number: 274 Registered: 3-2003 |
To put this into perspective, you have to re-run the first US-GP at Indy. I think the commentator was Bob Jenkins and they had some other roundy round specialist. Now THEY were the worst. They didn't even know the names of the drivers! Posey was tolerable but he tried too hard to make F1 broadcasting an artform. Apparently his boss figured that out before he did. John Watson is intelligent, successful and capable but I can't help thinking he has a stick up his butt when I hear him speak. Maybe its just me. On the brake subject, I find it hard to believe they are all the same. But if they are, its a matter of how they are used. Jon mentioned driver techniques as one dimension of the differences, and brake bias adjustment is another. But take a look at the front ends of F1 cars when the wheels are off and you will see that they all are different from the perspective of shrouds, ducting and caliper mounting. I recall some races last year where the Williams cars were spewing dark clouds of brake dust just like MS was and always thought about how unhealthy it must be for the following driver to be breathing in all that carbon dust for an hour and a half. Anyway, its good to see all this diversity. Now does anyone remember the old ESPN broadcasts when John Bisignanno (sp?) use to do the commentating? Any thoughts? | ||
| Warren Dodge (Spiderman)
New member Username: Spiderman Post Number: 47 Registered: 11-2001 |
The commentators are the worst I have ever seen. They are so pro-jpm. Sam Posey did an excellent job and was not biased. And the need for a british commentator need not be there. Paul Page could never do F1. The only one worse than him is the local IMS guy. He sucks enough to warrant a seat next to hobbs. | ||
| Anka (Mechanka)
Junior Member Username: Mechanka Post Number: 72 Registered: 4-2003 |
I like to make it official - I HATE HOBBS!!!! don't even know what he says or talks about half the time | ||
| Steve Magnusson (91tr)
Intermediate Member Username: 91tr Post Number: 2116 Registered: 1-2001 |
I wish they'd let John Watson do a race every now and then (either play-by-play or colorman). I still recall one on his true (but brutal) observations: "one point five seconds...might as well be one point five years!" | ||
| Robert Faber (F129b)
Junior Member Username: F129b Post Number: 51 Registered: 8-2003 |
OK, so consensus is that Hobbs is good. I will still watch. My objections are that he really really stretches for jokes, constantly interrupts Matchett and continues to amuse himself with the "Fred" Alonso stuff. How about some straight-up driver insight more in the Scott Pruett style. | ||
| David P. Smith (Dave330gtc)
Junior Member Username: Dave330gtc Post Number: 162 Registered: 3-2002 |
I think Rick DeBruhl is better this year than last but is still not my favorite. It doesn't seem like F-1 is his sport. David Hobbs is very interesting to listen to. I thought Steve Matchett was way too biased towards Montoya last week. Peter Windsor is interesting. I miss Derek Daly. When he was on with David Hobbs they had a good rapport and really could get excited together. I have always liked Sam Posey but he was pretty dry. Old race drivers have the best insight to what is going on. By far the worst I have ever heard was Charlie Jones on Fox. I think he had never heard of F-1 before trying to broadcast. He did not know the cars, the drivers, or the rules. It was terrible and really angered me that they would stick him on the air. | ||
| Jon P. Kofod (95f355c)
Member Username: 95f355c Post Number: 992 Registered: 8-2001 |
I have watched F1 on ESPN, Fox and Speed over the years and have generally liked most of the commentators. My favorite team was Matchett, Hobbs, Posey and Varsha. Posey is a nice guy but he just didn't fit in with Hobbs and seemed out of place. I have always liked Varsha and Hobbs and Matchett adds all the technical stuff which is what F1 is about. Rick DeBrouhl is aweful. His jokes/comments sound like a college kid and his exhuberance seems overstated much like Paul Page with Cart and IRL. DeBrouhl is getting better but I though Leigh Diffy who filled in once this year was much better. I also liked the old team on Fox that rebroadcast the Speedvision races on tape delay. Mike Joy (now with NASCAR) and Derek Bell made a good team. Of course Murray Walker was the MAN, but we never got his broadcasts over here. I have never heard Brundle (since we don't get ITV) but from reading his articles in various motorracing mags I think he would be excellent as well. The thing that got me was the comments about Montoya needing to rip off some really quick laps after Michael went in for his first pit stop. Actually it's a reasonable comment. No one implied that MS was holding up JPM. However when you are on a strategy of pitting second you have the advantage of being on a light fuel load when your adversary is in the pits. Unless the pit stop order reverses on the next stop (JPM pits first) JPM needs to run off quick laps and not get stuck in traffic. I don't think they were implying that JPM needed to step it up a notch but that he couldn't afford to let up or get caught in traffic. Also from a racing perspective you sometimes drive harder with a faster car in front and once that car pits it's easier to let up. All in all the commentary isn't that bad. Yeah some of the speculation is overdone but hey that is what makes it interesting. As for the brakes, consider that both cars are on different tires and different drivers brake differently. Some like Senna (brake only in a straight line and are brutal on the brakes..very late and hard) while others like Schumacher love to trail brake and get off the brakes after turn in. Then there are people like Jenson Button who have longer but smoother braking zones and are not as hard on the brakes. All this makes a difference on the wear on the brakes so while the brakes might all have the same dimensions they are not all facing the same brake problems. I rewatched the race on Speed tonight and there was an inordinate amount of brake dust off MS's car that wasn't seen on JPM's car. Also noticed that the Ferrari guys in the pit were worried about something. Regards, Jon P. Kofod 1995 F355 Challenge #23 www.flatoutracing.net | ||
| Frederick Thomas (Fred)
Member Username: Fred Post Number: 798 Registered: 2-2001 |
I think the comment about making fast laps while the other guys was in the pits makes perfect sense. Schumacher does it all of the time. I think what they mean is that the guy who has stayed out longer can get in a few more laps on a super light load of fuel since the car is almost empty and stretch out a few more seconds. It is a strategy that Schumacher does all of the time and he is good at it. As far as the brakes, yes they are all the same but the cars don't all handle the same so it seems to me they would use the brakes different. At one point they pointed out how Schumacher switched over and was shifting the car manualy so as to let the engine help slow the car down and lighten the load on the brakes. Not saying I am right on all of this. Just my take on it. | ||
| Andreas Forrer (Tifosi12)
Intermediate Member Username: Tifosi12 Post Number: 2137 Registered: 10-2002 |
John, you're quite right. They made the same stupid comment about MS, when JPM pitted. MS was already leading, so how on earth could he be going any faster? | ||
| John Ashburne (Jashburne)
Junior Member Username: Jashburne Post Number: 67 Registered: 9-2002 |
The thing that got me was the comments about Montoya needing to rip off some really quick laps after Michael went in for his first pit stop. Come on, guys, Montoya was not being held up by Michael and in fact was falling farther behind by 0.2-0.4 sec/lap. He already was going as fast as he could, so suggesting that he pick up the pace was ridiculous. | ||
| Andreas Forrer (Tifosi12)
Intermediate Member Username: Tifosi12 Post Number: 2133 Registered: 10-2002 |
Today's race confirmed my point: All that pointless speculation about brake wear. Just to create some artificial suspense. As they said themselves in the end: Everybody has the same breaks, so they all face about the same issues. | ||
| Lawrence Coppari (Lawrence)
Member Username: Lawrence Post Number: 771 Registered: 4-2002 |
I like Hobbs. He knows what he is talking about. Just think about what it would be like with Paul Page.... | ||
| Mark Collins (Markcollins)
Member Username: Markcollins Post Number: 339 Registered: 7-2002 |
Shame you guys don;t get the UK feed, Martin Brundle is brilliant although the other guy is pretty cr*p, Then again perhaps we expect too much after Murray Walker! | ||
| Robert Faber (F129b)
New member Username: F129b Post Number: 43 Registered: 8-2003 |
BTW, what is up with Hobb's incessantly plugging BMW? | ||
| Bob Campen (Bob308gts)
Member Username: Bob308gts Post Number: 773 Registered: 9-2001 |
Without Hobbs it would not be the same, yes some of his comments/jokes are corny, but he does know for the most part what he is talking about. Had him as the guest speaker at the BMW dinner a few years ago, and he was very entertaining. | ||
| Andreas Forrer (Tifosi12)
Intermediate Member Username: Tifosi12 Post Number: 2127 Registered: 10-2002 |
I'm a 100% with Andy. DeBrouhl out the door please. I adore Matchet and like Hobbs. Varsha was ok. All in all not a bad commentary and I won't complain. My only comment is, stop the ridiculous speculation guys! I guess they do it in order to keep the dumber audience on their toes: The race is set and all is in the works and somebody speculates about a puff of smoke or a fuel strategy or something to create some artificial suspense. I don't believe they believe in what they say when they speculate, but probably the station makes them do that. Because all three of them do it. | ||
| Aaron Williams (Aawil)
Member Username: Aawil Post Number: 320 Registered: 8-2002 |
I don't think it would be the same without Hobbs myself. I wish Varsha would come back though. | ||
| Andy Falsetta (Tuttebenne)
Member Username: Tuttebenne Post Number: 267 Registered: 3-2003 |
I can understand how his humor might not be what you like. He's not the traditional commentator. But that's why I prefer to hear him over most others. He's accomplished a lot and adds a different dimension to the broadcast. Of all the F1 broadcasters in recent years, Bob Varsha, Steve Matchett and Derek Bell are the others I prefer. But DeBrouhl I can do without. He doesn't convey a sense of having been interested in the sport for very long. Just my $0.02 | ||
| Robert Faber (F129b)
New member Username: F129b Post Number: 41 Registered: 8-2003 |
Does anyone else find David Hobbs much more annoying this year as I do? I'm not one to be very critical of the racing broadcasters, hell I actually even liked Paul Page on CART with all his exuberance. I do respect that Hobbs is a former F1 driver, but he seems to want to dominate the commentary with his often feeble humor/color. I can only guffaw at about 1 in 8 of his "jokes". I think he wishes he could turn off Matchett and DeBrouhl's mics and just amuse himself with his own blather. |