I have been following this for 50+ years, and recently the commentators are making it difficult to enjoy what racing is taking place. On F1 TV Pro the commentary team is hard to take. Cliche filled speeches and way too much hype. Buxton makes up new ways to pronounce words in English. He seems desperate to be a celebrity, witness his outfit today on the grid in Mexico. Collins speaks a language I am not fa mil iar with, stress on syllables like I have never heard before and expressions / descriptions that are silly (sticky uppy bits). This is technical analysis? Lawrence Barretto is a cartoon character. The various drivers can be informative. Mostly back markers who add some color. The women are a whole different group. Can anybody say that any of them are their first choice to go to for insight? Imagine the accomplished drivers thoughts when they have to engage with this crew. The pay drivers and never have beens are just happy that somebody wants to talk to them. The teams have PR people and speech coaches that can explain to the drivers, for many of whom English is not their first language, that every sentence does not have to contain "yeah". This would be a challenge, similar to having a Kardashian not use "like". Drive to Survive is a different level of pain. Does anybody have a solution to this problem other than watching races with the sound muted?
Muted. I have the sound on until the DRS is activated. Normally the leader is going to run away unless tire strategy/accident or rain. This season its been predictable with Max so fast. I might turn sound on after the race for a few min of feedback from driver or others. Thats the best way. What you are missing is fake hype about a race, even with 20 laps left is decided.
If I could construct an F1 commentary superteam (within the realms of reality) it would consist of: Main Commentary team: Martin Brundle majority of races, Button the races Martin can't make it (Martin does around 3/4 of races last couple of years, I suspect health issues), otherwise Marc Priestly (Ex Kimi mechanic). Karun Chandhok Jolyon Palmer Rest/Analysis Natalie Pinkman on Friday team and pitlane report rest of the weekend (she's very easy to listen to) Craig Scarborough technical analysis Peter Windsor friday/saturday/sunday post event analysis (he already does this on youtube but still) I'd forcibly volunteer Crofty, kravitz, herbert, Hill, lazenby and Buxton to be test pilots for Kim Jong Un's moon programme. Destination not neccessarily important, so long they're strapped to a bad-korea made rocket I'm happy.
Buxton is meh, but occasionally they have Benjamin Edwards, plus Joylon Palmer is good. I'll take the F1TV feed over the horrible Sky feed any day. Both have a Mercedes bias, but F1TV at least don't actively attack drivers they don't personally care for like the Sky feed does. Crofty and his screaming with Kravitz and his need to be the story, makes them impossible for me to listen to. I miss the US feed on SPEED and later NBC. Varsha, Hobbs, Matchett and Windsor were fantastic.
Anthony Davidson should also feature somewhere! I've never known him to be opinionated. Very mechanically astute and good at asking questions that spur interesting answers from the drivers
I agree. Hobbs Matchett Windsor. With the crappy yellow graphic on the left of screen. Tag Heuer timing I believe?
I don't think he's interested in doing a reasonable amount of races every season. He's happy to do the occasional one it seems like. AD is pretty decent as well, agree.
Writing some books and enjoying retirement. I know some people will say I'm nuts, but James Allen was a fine replacement for Walker. I thought he and Brundle made a good team. ESPN was too lazy and cheap to get their own team together. They'd rather just pay Sky instead of paying the chump change it would've taken to keep the US F1 broadcasting crew, and that was a damn shame. Killed the voices of my Sunday childhood.
It is a shame that we don' have a broadcast channel that simply has the sound of the race without any commentary whatsoever.
I'm ok with PDR really. Obviously both PDR and AD work for Mercedes but aren't overly bias which is quite impressive. True, but Ted is only talking every now and then, not constantly like that fat head crofty and the jokes only he himself laughs at.
Martin Brundle on the main broadcast for races, no doubt. I don't hate Crofty as the other guy, they need just a talker alongside a techy/race driver guy. James Allen had a similar annoyance but fitting presence. Having 2 guys that actually know what they are talking about might actually hurt the race commentary. Finding a guy that has good chemistry with Martin is the important thing. For quali and practices: Jenson Button, Nico Rosberg, Paul Di Resta are all great. Particularly Nico, he is extremely insightful with modern F1 cars. top 3 driver post quali/race interviews: David Coulthard, Jenson Button, Martin Brundle. All good. Skypad: Karun Chandhok and Anthony Davidson are both great. Pre and post race commentary: Simon Lazenby is quite good at directing the conversation. Nico is A++ with his no BS and willingness to ask anyone and everyone difficult questions. Jenson and PdR are also very good. Naomi Schiff isn't too bad as a side role. Rachel Brooks is fantastic in the Pen with the drivers. -------------------------------------- Ted Kravitz can hit the bricks. Replace him with Karun would probably be fitting. Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert can also take their snobby biased opinions elsewhere.
Well, I guess I'm out. My TV supplier moved the F1 channels to the pay side of things. So within 5 races, I went from commercial free F1 coverage to zip. Crap.
Yep, and I had the pleasure of chatting with Varsha several years back at Road Atlanta on a random weekend. Nice bloke. Miss Hobbsie and Matchett, too. I'd be happy to have them back. The only regular commentator I pay much attention to today is Brundle, who is very good during the broadcast, although not terribly effective during his attempts at grid walks. I cannot stand the pre-recorded "social commentary" pieces they've been forcefully inserting since 2020, hosted by Princess LuLu (surprise! ). That's why I have a FF button. And it's been used a LOT since 2020; never had to do that before due to content. I always don't watch kneelers (even for 2 seconds), although thankfully that fad seems to have passed. Truth be told, I'd like to have Walker and Hunt again, but time marches on..... So Sky it is. At least you can't say they don't give you plenty of air time hours per weekend, but you have to decide which ones are filler.
If you have an internet connection, you don't need TV, ever again. I cut the cord entirely 2 years ago and haven't missed TV.
Best way to watch F1 today Don’t. YouTube has 8 minute race recaps and you know everything consequential that happened in the race or qualifying. Saves you the other 2 hours plus of listening to a bunch of muppets jabber on. This is after more than 50 years of following the sport.
Crofty is too intense and needs to tone it down a lot. Kravitz seems to have got too comfortable with his own ego, and Johnny Herbert provides little to no value - which is perhaps why we thankfully see him as much as Danica. I like Natalie and Rachel - they both seem to interact well with the drivers. Naomi seems to be an after thought - perhaps it's me but I notice the Sky team (male and female) don't really listen to her or engage her in the same way they do with the rest of their team - and I tend to tune out when she talks. I miss Murray Walker and James Hunt!
