Can we start a petition to draw and quarter Bob Varsha?

Very funny and very true. Totally agree.

Windsor is an idiot and you never hear anything interesting out of those "interviews". In essence they're all "Good luck and the best to you for the race!".

And yes, show me the grid girls for 30 minutes instead of Windsor hobnobbing and I'm happy.

Biggest piece of **** I ever read and I will never forgive him for that.

Agreed. Posey is unbearable as a commentator.

 

Not that I don't understand it, it's that I don't notice it. When he points it out, I notice it.

 

Face it F1 on Speed is not a prime time gig no matter how important it is to us. In the UK its a big deal and gets top notch coverage. Here we're lucky to get it at all.
While I respect SRTMike Varsha just doesn't irk me that much.
Personally I miss Jim McKay and Chris (What's it like out there?") Ekonomaki.

 

In Europe the F1 commentators have cult status with their national audience. For better or worse. Some of them are looked at as Gods (Austria's Prueller) and some of them are blindly hated (Austria's Prueller, again ).

Having enjoyed F1 in many countries, I have to say the Speed guys are middle of the road. Not too good, not too bad. The biggest thing lacking is a recent F1 driver in the group. Hobbs is not relevant anymore (fun though).

Here is my recommendation:

- Fire Windsor (ahh, I just love typing that), keep the camera guy and shoot the grid girls instead
- Replace Matchett with Montoya or Villeneuve
- Make sure Hobb's drink is always topped off
- I'll be happy to do the fuel calculations for Varsha: I know how to use excel and a stopwatch and how to say "there or there abouts"

 

Yep, we may get the best of "Pinks" next year....

 

Personally I enjoyed catching the ITV feed on the internet last year. I haven't watched any races live this year so I don't know if I can get the BBC that way.
BTW watching ITV and SPEED at the same time I noticed that SPEED is not quite "live".
In his cups or not I like D.H.
S.M. pulls his weight on tech matters and other than the creepy pit walk (WTF is THAT about?) Windsor is an asset.

 

How so?

Let me first say, that I read his book "Life in the fast lane" and recommend it to any F1 fan. A brilliant read and play-by-play of the stunning 94 season where he was a mechanic for Bennetton. So he knows his stuff. From 1994.

He knows diddly squat about today's cars. Or if he knows them well, he isn't telling. His RPM segments are dull and for the lowest of low denominator. No real information we don't already know. All he does during the races is measure the fuel intake and calculate the number of laps until refuelling is due. Big deal.

I like Matchett, but there is no new technical information coming from him I wouldn't have already read somewhere on the internet or in a magazine. If you're coming from NASCAR or IRL/CART and have never heard of F1, yes, then maybe he can teach you a thing or two.

I can forgive Varsha, because he is the hired drivel guy, but I expect much from the techno expert and if fuel calculations is all he can bring, then sorry. Time to find a real anchor.

 

Again we have to accept that we're not SPEED's target audience.
While the 3AM live feed may be watched by F1 nuts, insomniacs and night watchmen, I'll bet that the replay the next afternoon gets much better numbers (& more ad bucks) the folks watching then don't know squat about what you must admit is a very arcane sport.
Face it we watch for the race not the comment and would watch no matter who did the play by play.
SPEED is looking to make it interesting to the gen. pop. and to them its entertainment pure and simple (NPI).

 

You're probably right. I keep forgetting that.

 

You should know better than to doubt me
Or isn't that what you meant?

 

Very clever. But not as clever as my von Trips comment, to which you never replied. That was so brilliant...I was so proud to know a piece of F1 history predating my birth.

 

I came late to the thread and must have missed it.
That sort of thing happens often with us elderly, so please edify.

 

I like Speed just the way it is .. considering that the bulk of the US does not care about it I believe that it is just great !
Also Peter windsor will be gone next year ... he will have to take care of his own team .. so who knows who they will send???
Does anyone remember the races on public tv on past years .. CBS FOX AND WHATEVER .... now that was a disaster ,,, they couldn't even pronounce the names ... it was the worst ever ... so this year at least we will not have to endure that ....
and here a tip for everyone out there www.rojadirecta.com
go on that website on the days of the race and you could watch it live in your computer ,,, they have several feeds .. brasilian, spanish, british german etc ... you dont have to download anything ... just click and watch ... it is a great alternative when you are not home but you have a computer with internet

 

Thanks for the link! That will come in handy when Fox airs some races instead of Speed: They delay them.

 

I like Hobbs the best, though at times he can make comments like Madden on NFL...master of the obvious..though humerous always. Kablamo!
I always fast forward through Windsor's grid walk...a total waste of time. Grid girls are by far the highlight. I really don't ever care what a driver says on TV..they are so robotic it is pointless stickign a microphone in their little jockey faces. But during the race Windsor's comments are usually very insightful.
Matchett provides excellent technical knowledge but his constantly trying to speak "King's English" is tiresome, and his "chortle" makes me want to vomit.
Varsha is good, and ties it all together.
I forgive their explanations of how qualifying works every time becasue I figure they are on a mission to try and entice more of the US viewers into understanding and therefore becoming interested in F1...a mission I wholeheartedly support.

 

I get a kick out of Hobbs always calling Lewis 'Louise'!

 

Well for those who dont like Varsha, I say you are spoild! I think Bob does a very good job, and I think back to the times when there was no F-1 coverage, or you had people who did not know anything about F-1 - john Bisagano, or any other person on ABC other than Jackie Stewart....

So when I see Bob next tuesday night I'll be sure to pass on your critique.... I'm sure he'll be glad to know he knows nothing about F-1 after being to almost every F-1 race from the mid 80's to the mid 90's.... I'm sure you all are much better and well traveled when it comes to F-1!

Varsha and crew get my 100% endorsment, can they be repetitive sure, but that is part of the deal. I'd rather have it explained then nothing at all.

 

I am not bothered by the Speed crew. As many have pointed out, there are many that would be (and have been) much worse.

Matchett, though some years out of pit lane, seems to still be well connected with many still there. I think he is a must have on the coverage. Hobbs cracks me up on many occasions and plays well off the other two. Windsor is also deeply connected and likely muzzled by BE for his "walks". While many are softball questions he has impressed as well. The aforementioned question to the BMW engineer about weight was classic to watch the thought process go on in the engineer's head. The other he had this year (I believe Malyasia) was the question to Neslon Piquet about the progress (or lack thereof) of his son's career in F1. Quite a set of "attachments" (to use a Hobb-ism) to tell the guy that his son sucks and asks him how he feels about it.

Oh yeah, +1 on Jean-Michel and the grid girls!

 

You really need a team of three:

- one guy who can speak well and cover all the necessities, Varsha is fine for that
- one guy who tells you from pitlane what's going on, Windsor does that, but Lauda is miles better
- one current F1 driver who can talk, Schumacher/Montoya/Villeneuve, all would be great

Swiss TV uses Marc Surer. Now here is a has-been of a driver, but he is really good as a journo. He points out technical stuff before we even notice them: He spots tire degradation, smells electrical fires and hydraulic failures before the cars roll out. Seriously. Matchett doesn't have that and Hobbs lost it. I bet any modern F1 driver could fill that role.

 

I don't post about racing much at Fchat (too busy posting elsewhere about it), but couldn't resist adding my opinions here.

I actually really like Varsha. Always have. He's mostly polished, occasionally simplistic, very occasionally elitist (the Bahrain comment came off that way), but extremely knowledgeable about motorsports, and is usually enthusiastic and excited on-air. He's far from a "Moron" like a few in this thread have accused him of. Seriously, your post immediately loses credibility when you go that route. He's a near 30 year veteran of sports broadcasting, an attorney, and a former athlete himself. Not "moron" territory.

If you know anything about how difficult play-by-play in live sports broadcasting is, you have to appreciate how good he is. Is he the "best"? Debatable certainly, but he's certainly not the worst.

When compared to alternatives, IMO, he's one of the best. He occasionally misses things, and occasionally says something that makes you go "Huh?"... but most of the time he's very, very polished. Knocking him for going over things on-air, that insiders, experienced racers and "superfan keyboard racers" already know, is really a straw man's argument. That's just a given for any play-by-play broadcaster, of any sport, on TV and radio. You have to re-set the scene for all potential viewers, including brand new ones and the folks that tune in late. It's just part of it.

I've had the good fortune to speak with Bob at length on a couple of occasions, and he's a very knowledgeable steward of all manner of racing.

As for Matchett, he's probably one of the best technical commentators to ever do the job. He's well connected, and translates his hands on experience into well described anecdotes on-air. Even though he's been out of the cockpit for 20 years. Hobbs is fun ("ole' Phil Massa", etc.) and his passion for the sport is contagious, despite his penchant for interrupting the other two.

I actually like Peter Windsor a bunch as well. He's got a touch of the 'stiff upper lip', but is very, very good. Being a former team manager for Williams and a GM at Ferrari, he brings insider experience and relevant connections that add to the coverage (even though I don't love the marauding, on the spot, grid-walk segment). I'll be sad to lose Windsor next year once he gets back into team management.

 

I think this is one of the hardest journalism things for anyone to do - and I have a huge amount of respect for how well he does it.
Think of it - just before an F1 race right when people definitely don't want to bother. It is only his very high stature within the sport that most of the people aren't rude and actually give him time. He is very much on the spot and on live TV.

I also think he does a good job with F1 reporting. I don't always agree with his conclusions/angles but it is worth my time to read and consider his observations and opinions.