Leigh Diffey

I agree, and this is true of almost every televised sport. The fact is that most of these guys are in love with the sound of their own voices. They never heard of STFU.

 

The only thing I find annoying...actually incredibly annoying...is when Hobbs does his "whuhhhh" sound when someone gets squirrelly on the track. It just makes me cringe every time. I'm fine with the rest.

They're all better than the one guy from MotoGP that sounds like he's from the back woods of West Virginia. He annoys the **** outta me.

 

He did bobsleigh and maybe some other sliding sports. You would have thought every single run was record shattering and some great triumph over adversity. It was horrible (not that the rest of the coverage was any better).



Mark

 

Exactly.

I would very much like to have Varsha back.

 

I'm still thrilled that we have F1 live in the states at all.
Matchette and Hobbs do color well enough and whoever sits between them is responsible for filling the gaps with blather. No one's going to shine in that job.

 

I was really disappointed when it was announced that Diffey would round out the team for the F1 races. Like many others, his high pitched screed for any on track moves distracts badly from absorbing what is taking place. I just get irritated every time this happens. Which is guaranteed at the start and end of every race.

 

Beevus and Butthead would be preferable.

 

Yeah but Beavis and Butthead are awesome.

 

I would agree with this^. Varsha seemed disconnected and not that interested, repeated the same things week to week.

 

Wow, didn't realize so many didn't like him.

 

Varsha never did a thing for me....pedantic in a poorly informed way.

 

When did the Aussies take over TV in the states?
Every two bit infomercial hypester needs an antipodal twang.

I blame Crocdile Dundee.

 

Diffey is the f'ing worst
Screaming Aussie Fatboy
Way too much fake drama
And stop saying Felipe Masser

Varsha better x1000. Articulate, mature and did his job--report the facts and let the color commentators (Hobbs, Matchett) do the rest

Bill

 

I am bored with all three. Hobbs stopped being funny 3 years back - same jokes. No clear understanding of the current era of driving. MAtchett is good for practice sessions but should shut up during the race. Diffey v/s Varsha - rock and hard place - Diffey is too excitable and while knowledgeable about racing doesn't contribute much to the telecast. Varsha is marginally better than Diffey but boring.

Why don't they get the retired Dario Franchitti to replace Hobbs? Maybe Eddie Cheever as well?

 

I felt Varsha was great. As stated, he supplied the straight-edge viewpoint while Hobbs and Matchet provide the colored commentary. Boring, perhaps, but informative and balanced. Diffey is OK, but overly-excitable. I love Hobbs' throw-back, and slightly out-dated, view of the sport. It adds an aura of nostalgia to the broadcast. Matchet is spot-on in his role as well.

Years ago, with Hobbs, Matchet and Varsha, I felt it must have been difficult for someone unfamiliar with the sport to follow-along (speed vision, then speed broadcasts). The "major network" broadcasts were always dumbed-down for just this reason. It seems that they have decided to continue this dumbed-down style of broadcast on a regular basis-which is where Diffey shines.

Perhaps Eddie Jordan would be the perfect replacement for Diffey. He could bring an informed, entertaining, and somewhat aristocratic viewpoint to the broadcast - while maintaining authentic "expert" opinion.

 

I've met Bob Varsha on several occasions and have found him to be charming and very knowledgeable about F1.

I still say that everyone who complains about current F1 television coverage is spoiled; many of those of us who are old enough to remember the bad old days of NO coverage at all (save for ABC's edited and tape-delayed coverage of Monaco) really don't care who is calling the races.

(There were times in the past when I didn't find out who won a particular Grand Prix until Road & Track arrived in the mail - three months later!)

 

If I was watching V8 Supercars or the Sandhurst 1000, I could tolerate his accent...comes with the territory.

But I CAN'T stand his accent when he adds extra syllables to mono-syllabic words like year (yee-ah) and here (hee-ah). He sounds uneducated for a professional broadcaster outside of OZ.

It would be like listening to a news anchor from Mississippi on a Boston TV station.

During the Spanish GP last week, I changed the channel to Univision, preferring to listen to the race in Spanish than endure more Diffey. Same video feed as NBC's. They have a female announcer with a real pleasant voice. Don't know what the heck they were saying, but at least I could understand the radio transmissions.

 

He's an annoying little **** .... but then I was taught to only say nice things about people

Keep him , we don't want him back !!

 

Varsha > Diffey

Neither one is very good, but I can't stand Diffey's fake drama

 

I'd take Varsha back in a heartbeat!

Diffey needs to GO!

John

 

I can tolerate Diffey but would prefer Varsha.

My greatest fear in getting rid of Diffey is that they will bring in Costas.

 

Heck NO! What Costas knows about F1 you could stick up a crows -ss and it would still fly!

 

I am in total agreement. Most of the time I don't even notice Diffey. I suppose I subconsciously tune him and the other talking heads out while watching. In my youth I remember seeing the occasional delayed broadcast of Moncao and such on "the Wide World of Sports" and I was so glued to the cars and action on track; even then I tuned out the commentators. When Speed Channel started covering quali and races live I was in heaven. Now, I am grateful to have live HD broadcasting regardless of the background noise. Ughh....to clarify....I am referring to the commentator's voices in this case.....not the sound of the cars....which is another story. On second thought, perhaps Bernie thought that Diffey would sound so annoying that we would not notice the fartcan sounds of the current cars. Cunning little bassturd is he!

 

THIS!

I remember only seeing (maybe) the Monaco race (delayed) on ABC Wide World of Sports and then once Speedvision came along each year it would come down to the first race of the season whether or not they had completed the contract. At least we have full coverage of the races now. I don't care who provides commentary although I do like having Steve Matchett involved. Hobbs is fine as the race driver on the broadcast team and, even though I personally prefer Varsha over Diffey... either is fine.

 

Costas is the biggest windbag in tv sports. Besides, he doesn't get up early enough to do F1.