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

If you can remember please tell Bob 'texasmr2' says hello from Htown

tex

 

I usually watch the british feeds because I like their commentary better, but I also like bob varsha and the speed tv crew a lot.

 

i agree with you about varsha's retarded comments..it's also kind of strange listening to one american accent among a bunch of british accents..especially while watching f1..just annoys me a bit

 

Anyone catch the IRL commentary?

"The late British F1 champion Stirling Moss..." Wrong in every part except British!

 

Notwithstanding the fact that you need the letters IRL to spell IRreLevant, in actuality Mr. Moss was quite late at becoming an F1 champion...

 

Instead of a "Grid Walk"...

Why don't we have a "Grid Girl Walk" segment?

I'm sure some of us 3am watchers would appreciate all of the glittering eye-candy!!!!!

(It sure would be nice if they read this site and add this segment to their telecast). We can always dream, can't we?

Frank

 

When I got the F1 bug back in the late '60s the only way you saw a Grand Prix on TV was when Jim McKay did the taped Monaco race on ABC. I lived to read about each race after the fact in Autoweek&Competition Press, which was a pulp tabloid at the time. When cable TV became somewhat available to the masses I got an invite from a friend-of-a-friend to watch a race live in the wee hours of the morning and I thought I had gone to heaven. SPEED may not be the definitive coverage, but I'm thankful to have it..especially since it comes on the NASCAR network. It's light-years better than what you get from the networks. Our fellow Americans don't "get" F1, and may never fully appreciate it. If Steve Matchet can educate of few of SPEED's redneck veiwers enough to at least respect F1, that's a good thing. Given the current state of things we should consider ourselves lucky to have F1 coverage at all. I like David Hobbs a great deal. I got to meet him and chat for 20 minutes at last year's Barrington Concourse and I can tell you he knows his stuff and has a great, ascerbic wit. As for other commentators, the one ex-driver I wish I could have heard call a race was James Hunt. I really liked that guy.

 

The biggest problem with the F-1 coverage from Speed is that they (mainly varsha) are commentating to nascar fans.Most nascar fans do not watch F-1,and they wont,because Speed has done nothing but bash F-1 to the Nascar fans.There are way more F-1 fans in the USA than anyone knows and WE dont get REAL F-1 coverage or commentary.They wont broadcast practice,we have to watch quali at midnight (still worth it) but cant they replay it during the day? instead they run reruns of pinks-lowlife-castro stereo hack-pimp my ride crap-truck practice-larry darryl and darryl......
The USA is a huge market and our only racing channel has turned into MTV.
If Varsha knows so much about F-1,why not share it with us while he's being paid to commentary F-1 ?
What we really need is a REAL racing channel !

 

True dat. Fox owns SPEED, Fox wants their core audience (NASCAR and Pinks fans) to watch more of their channel. But they fail to understand that NASCAR and drag racing are very different. NASCAR and drag racing are not team sports in the sense that F1 is. Most NASCAR fans don't relate to F1 and will not in spite of people like Varsha or Matchett having to explain how quali works for the 800th time.

 

Just finished watching Bahrain practice and kept a more critical ear to Varsha and the team.

You know what ? : I'm good to go with the package;

Good flow.
Insightful commentary and stats
Humor and wit via class clown Hobbs.
And a guy actively setting up a F1 team.

I give it an "A".

I really like the superimposed cars running "on top" of one another.
This feature will show the differences not only in cars but drivers. Now to sort out how much one is influenced over the other.

 

I've noticed that they're better doing practice than they are for qualifying or for the race. Its almost as if they are more relaxed and are working a different demographic. A more knowledgeable fan base?

 

If JPM would be commentating on an F1 race I will officially getting a subscription to speedTV. That would be brilliant, America would be upside down with the constant use of swearwords.

 

LOL

Right on. Same goes for Montoya. I will never understand why some people get themselves into a pretzel when a driver uses the same language you hear on the streets, in public and at work all the time. Four letter words are everywhere. Get used to it.

Only PR and PC trained F1 robots don't use them and thank their grandmother for putting a wonderful car together.

 

The CBS announcers were absolutely dreadful and did a poor job of representing America. Those hicks sounded like they would have been more at home annoucing a mud bog competition. After a few debacles, they were at least wise enough to have the Speed announce team, which is light years ahead of the CBS clowns, cover it on the different channel.

 

"1. "So many fans love watching these guys race in the rain that we should set up sprinklers on the track to make it wet all the time!""

That's not what he said. He said that a lot of fans love it and have suggested they put sprinklers on the track to make it wet...he wasn't suggesting, he was commenting on what readers have e-mailed.

And Varsha is just fine. Sure, he has a few gaff's and mistakes, but he has been doing F1 since ESPN days when he and Daily were watching the feeds on 12" B&W monitors in the ESPN studios in NYC and trying to commentate on that, and that alone. No grid reporter, no timing/scoring, NOTHING but a tiny tv to look at.

The Speed coverage is light years better than what us old folks remember. Could some parts of it be better, sure. But like anything you can only please so many people at one time. Adding Matchet to the line up has made it incredibly good, esp. for us Formula Ford drivers and tech/engineer guys like me.

 

Every time I read a comment like this I'm stunned: When was it the last time Matchett actually contributed a technical fact that wasn't already known/blatantly obvious?

Sorry, he disappoints me to no end. I expect a lot more from the so called tech expert.

 

I watched the BBC coverage of Bahrain with Brundle and some other guy. Commentary was so boring and devoid of any enthusiasm that I was longing for the Speed crew. To their credit however, the race was a snoozefest.

 

Mattchett is the one I enjoy listening to the most. Yes the RPM episodes are canned "old news" but I still pull stuff from them and most are well done.
Race car dynamics really haven't changed that much since he's been active.
He still has connections and respect on pit lane but without crawling over the actual car he's just making informed assumptions or is privy to facts as they are released.
For him to start postulating then found wrong would be career suicide once credibility is lost. Or IF he did get the real inside scoop and released it, those in the garage would close those doors to him forever.

 

I hear you and get what you're saying. Still my question remains: What is it that he brings to the table?

Nowadays even the fuel calculations are part of the on screen graphics. I can see when a team puts on super softs or not. We have the pit comm and hear when a car is in trouble (e.g. Massa in Bahrain). What is it that is so great about him?

Again, I'm a big fan of his book, which is filled with inside stories etc, but none of that comes through in his race commentaries. Because he is 15 years away from it.

I hate to say this, because I really don't like Windsor, but his commentaries DURING the race from the pits bring the most insights.

I'm not complaining btw, the Speed guys are as good or bad as any TV commentators. I just don't get why some folks are praising Matchett. For friggin what?

 

^ What he said

Sometimes I think Hobbs or Varsha are going to throw a bucket of water on him when he starts to "Geek Out".

Anyone check out Jean-Michaels "full frontals" last race ?
But it was Bahrain; Bah ! Nice scarves.

 

Bob Varsha has been around the car scene for decades. Some may not like his style but he certainly has the background experience. However we don't get Bob and the gang here any more. So now it's just Fast Eddie and the BBC crowd. They have started to use the split screen here during commercials now, which is some progress. The real action is at the track; the talking is not so important though some would have you believe otherwise...
CH

 

Couldn't agree more. I don't understand what some people expect. If I had to listen to two of the three it would be Matchett and Hobbs. I don't think I would miss anything important.

 

I've got to respectfully disagree there.... I think they enjoy his "geek outs" as much as the majority here do. I certainly do.

I think "RPM" could be much improved - They've got a tough "demographic" when that airs... Maybe, add a longer / deeper version as a segment to "F1 debrief"?

Returning to Mike's OP, I do think "drawing and quartering" is a little strong He's not too bad IMHO - Someone's gotta do the in & out intros and keep the other two "under control"......

Cheers,
Ian