Speed TV and Indy

Am I the only one that feels Speedvision's coverage of the Indy F1 practice sessions and qualifying sessions have been fantastic? Steve Matchett's technical stories in the pits has been the best I have ever seen. Getting Ferrari to pull the bodywork off of the 2004 was a stroke of genius, and then to have BAR show off the carbon fiber transmission was amazing.

Before the weekend began I had read where a lot of people didn't find Indy to be a real test for F1. But I find the track to be quite good at forcing the teams to make difficult decisions in set-up which has made the field much closer in terms of lap-times. I think this could be one of the best races of the season.

Call me fawning idiot, but I have watched every minute of coverage and enjoyed every minute. I find myself wishing we got this kind of coverage for every race.

 

I agree with you wholeheartedly, Steven. Both the breadth and depth of the coverage has been stunning, IMO, and sending an e-mail of appreciation and kudos is on my to-do list.

One minor annoyance for me was some mindless chattering by the commentators during a few of the final qualifying runs, totally unrelated to the car/driver on track at the time. I felt like they had plenty of time to address those topics during the extended coverage they provided. Overall, though, I thought they did an outstanding job, and intend to let them know that...

dn

 

Their coverage was pretty good. Especially with Derek Daily in pitlane, the man knows what he is talking about. Not like Varsha who calls a Jordan a Sauber.

 

I also thought the coverage was fantastic. I got to learn some new things about F1 from the technical aspect and enjoyed the intelligent and high quality commentary. I wish every race had this type of coverage, but I guess we will have to wait till Indy '05 for it again.

 

You can clearly tell the difference when the reporters are on site as opposed to just watch "our" feed. Matchett hanging out the window observing the Ferrari crew and forecasting the imminent pitstop, superb!

 

But, if Bernie wants F1 to become popular in the USA, he must have the races on broadcast TV as well as Speed.

 

Good point. I lost my cable feed before the race. Nothing to do, but wait it out.

 

I thought the coverage on speed TV was decent. I still wis that there was one dedicated F1 TV Channel. F1 TV... now that would be fantastic!