TV commentators and bias towards certain team/driver [merged]

After reading a lot post-Monza comments, I see some of them accusing BBC Martin Brundle and DC in being anti-MSC, totally.

I was thinking, then, we could share thoughts on each TV commentators and their bias towards certain people, some video evidence would be welcome, too.
For example, I can't watch SPEED TV, ITV, BBC or RTL, but I see fans are getting nervous with their favoritism.

I'll start with my own country, Bulgaria, we've got three guys on TV7, two of them often commenting from the studio. While I don't really pay lots of attention to them, as they tend to confuse two team-mates quite often (Alonso is Massa and vice-versa), they do show some bias or anti-moods against MSC and/or Hamilton, sometimes. It was funny to see during their battle at Monza how none of them saw anything wrong.

So, how the things stack up in Germany, Italy, UK and overall, all around the world?

After reading a lot post-Monza comments, I see some of them accusing BBC Martin Brundle and DC in being anti-MSC, totally.

While I can´t watch BBC so I can´t give my opinion on that one, I have to say that during the ITV stint Schumacher always got a lot of (well deserved )praise, so I find that quite strange.

Or maybe not, he used to drive good and good things were said, now he´s not doing that good and not that good things being said.

I hate Lauda's blind support for Vettel and his hatred on Hamilton.

The whole BBC love in of Paul Di Resta is nauseating, similar to Autosports love in of Anthony Davidson several years ago.

What Matt said. The only favouritism from the BBC that I can clearly see is towards Di Resta. Clear as the day...

As for criticism, I dont think there is a particular driver that always gets a tonnes of slack from them. DC does like to bite at Schumi every chance he gets, but thats just him being himself....

IMO, DC and Brundle have been incredibly unprofessional in their conduct as commentators, and display a noticeable bias towards one particular driver.

Edited by harrows, 12 September 2011 - 13:56.

There is clear bias towards Di Resta. I like the guy but they do tend to act like he's performing at a godly level. It was also a bit annoying Brundle said "he was overtaken sadly". It's also obvious that Brundle does prefer to see Button and Hamilton winning rather than other drivers, however he does try to be as neutral as possible during commentary so there are no complaints from me.

Err... surely German commentators are going to be biased towards German drivers; British with British; Spanish with Spanish; Brazilian with Brazilian drivers etc..

I doubt you'd see a German commentator bash Vettel in the same way I doubt you'd see the Spanish commentators bash Alonso.

I think the BBC love Vettel more than any driver and Red Bull the subject matter for 70% of the build up. Thats understandable to a degree as they are the team of the moment, but it can get abit over the top. I think Brundle and Coulthard were fair in their comments about Michael Schumacher and it was shared by both Pedro de la Rosa and Marc Gene on Spanish television. It annoys me when I read from fans in other countries that the BBC are biased towards Hamilton as that doesn't come across to me at all. Infact I find that Button gets the most attention and I would say he's the most approachable of the two so that helps.

Brundle and DC are fine by and large. DC is clearly more of a fan of Button than Lewis and they both seem to have a soft spot for DiResta, but there's no real bias there or unprofessionalism as others have said (Hyperbole).

As for the MS thing, the BBC team trip over themselves to praise the guy when he's doing well (MB called him as driver of the day), it's hardly as if they hate him. Both of the BBC commentators (and others from what I have read in the Monza thread) thought that Michael's defending was borderline, Ross Brawn clearly thought the same, what's the problem with that? Or am I to believe that Ross Brawn is Biased against MS?

I hate Lauda's blind support for Vettel and his hatred on Hamilton.

yes, it's ridiculous.

Edited by Bonaventura, 12 September 2011 - 14:09.

IMO, DC and Brundle have been incredibly unprofessional in their conduct as commentators, and display a noticeable bias towards one particular driver.

I agree fully. DC adds nothing to a show but common knowledge and agrees with whatever is flavour of the day. Brundle is trying hard and as a sidekick he was excellent but as the main commentator he fails. Misses important events (Spa was really bad), does not think about the audience and lets his personal preferences shine throughout a race.

There is clear bias towards Di Resta. I like the guy but they do tend to act like he's performing at a godly level. It was also a bit annoying Brundle said "he was overtaken sadly". It's also obvious that Brundle does prefer to see Button and Hamilton winning rather than other drivers, however he does try to be as neutral as possible during commentary so there are no complaints from me.

He's a Brit broadcasting to a largely Brit audience about British drivers; if he wasn't biased I'd be writing in wanting to know why.

The ironic thing about the OP is that you will find those die hard Lewis fans in the JB v's LH thread who claim for 1) they favour JB and 2) that DC doesnt even like Lewis.

Formula 1 commentators biased?!

Never!

Brundle hates Vettel's guts - but does an amazing job of hiding it !

He let that slip up yesterday @Monza tho.

DC and Co were pathetic in their anti-MS rants. Like it or hate it, that sort of driving is why Senna, Schumacher, Prost, and their beloved Mansell won WDCs.

That is more that DC and Brundell ever accomplished.

I'm losing track of the BBC's bias. Aren't they always favouring Hamilton? Or wait is it Button they are focusing on instead of talking with Lewis? Or perhaps they spend too much time with Red Bull, or talking about di Resta, or approving/disapproving Schumacher's antics. I wish they would stop changing their bias, it's like they are commentating on each race independently, and talking about each incident separately, without sticking to the supposed "I hate XXXXX and everything he does is bad".

Formula 1 commentators biased?!

Never!

Exactly. Lobato is a paradigm of impartial judgment and never has shown any favoritism towards Alonso.

More seriously, watching the races in la Sexta (Spain) can be nauseating with its never ending praise of Fred (especially from Lobato that seems in love with him).

In Germany, on RTL, we have 2 commentators, Heiko Waßer and former driver Christian Danner. Since 1993 Waßer has been cheering for all the German drivers and especially Schumacher and now Vettel as well.
Since Schumacher's comeback Danner has become rather negative about everything Schumacher does - completely different from he what said during MSC's first career. E.g when he saw MSC out at Spa Q1 he immediately said that, without having seen any replay, MSC had made a mistake. Well, he had to correct himself afterwards.
Nevertheless, he seems to be more objective than Waßer who sometimes appears severely biased. I got the feeling that Danner's favourites are Alonso and Vettel because of their racecraft he often mentions. But he also honours Button and Hamilton performing well.

Then there's Florian König walking around with Niki Lauda. König used to be a little bit pro Mclaren when Hakkinen was driving. But maybe that's just because he wasn't the greatest supporter of MSC. You may have the feeling that now he prefers Rosberg over Schumacher. But he always tends to be rather obejctive and - if needed - sometimes tends to play Lauda's counterpart in controversial discussions.

Lauda has always been a fan of MSC. Now he has become a little bit more critical after his predictions ("MSC will be on ROS's level at Barcelona 2010") turned out to be wrong. As an Austrian he also likes Red Bull.
What he says about Hamilton is often negative but not always. And he didn't actually say that it was 100% HAM's fault with Maldonado at Spa Q2 but he said HAM's move was the incentive. He also blamed MAL for his manoeuvre. Then he applauded for HAM's victory at Hockenheim. But that's all the positive things I remember...

On the whole, RTL puts its focus on the German drivers and so do the reporters.

Edited by RudyO, 12 September 2011 - 14:41.

DiResta IS performing at a godly level. F1 is the pinnacle of 4 wheeled motorsport by most people's standards, and he's doing very well for a rookie in a midfield team as one of only 24 people who get to do this each year.

I agree that the BBC tend to be biased toward him where both Perez and Maldonado are doing quite well themselves for rookies, but then it IS the British broadcasting corporation paid for primarily by British subjects. As with any Scottish sportsman that is doing well, DiResta is 'British' to us English-Brits and is rightfully focused on out of the rookies this season by our media, the Londo...sorry, British Broadcasting Corporation. Scotsmen that are failing are just Scottish, and are not associated with us.

As for DC's comments about Schumacher, I find them reasonable. Since Coulthard has driven wheel-to-wheel with Schumacher for much of his career, his opinion of the man carries slightly more weight. However the comments on Sunday were hardly biased - I think DC would have said much the same if any other driver was holding up Hamilton with the kind of moves Michael was using.

I'm losing track of the BBC's bias. Aren't they always favouring Hamilton? Or wait is it Button they are focusing on instead of talking with Lewis? Or perhaps they spend too much time with Red Bull, or talking about di Resta, or approving/disapproving Schumacher's antics. I wish they would stop changing their bias, it's like they are commentating on each race independently, and talking about each incident separately, without sticking to the supposed "I hate XXXXX and everything he does is bad".

couldn't agree more.

they seem to be called biased and bastards every race weekend - only by a different section of fans - whoever they were giving a hard time, be it Lewis, schumi etc.

I'm neutral on both of those drivers but they can seem to be pretty hard on hamolton sometimes, and they really do go at pains quite a lot of the time to actually be fair to schumi. You can tell they are doing it through gritted teeth sometimes maybe (which is great!) but they are still fair.

I'd say the drivers they are most biased towards are button and webber though (saying this as a webber fan), those 2 guys can usually do no wrong in their eyes

I hate Lauda's blind support for Vettel and his hatred on Hamilton.

Just trundle back to post Turkey, post Hungary and post Spa comments Lauda made during the 2010 season in various articles. His negative commentary on Vettel was even livlier than his recent commentary on Hamilton. He seems a very "anyway the wind blows" type of pundit.

Speed TV's two english commentators can get a bit homeboy bias going on from time to time - but there are three and the third is American, so he keeps um pretty on even keel. It works because one gets the feeling that deep down, they all like Alonso, they all want Webber to do well, they all like Button/Hamilton/Vettel - but of those last three, each of them favor one of the drivers in particular. However, since there are always the other two to temper any over the top comments, it works on the whole (with just a rough moment here and there). This is most recently though - they used to not temper one another and their biases would just come spilling out every time they opened their mouths. But lots of complaints on Speed forums appears to have helped in that regard.

Edited by bourbon, 12 September 2011 - 15:03.

Brundle hates Vettel's guts - but does an amazing job of hiding it !

He let that slip up yesterday @Monza tho.

I think MB genuinely rates him, I haven't heard any really negative comments from him about Vettel.

I want to watch a race on Spanish TV (with subtitles, my Spanish is nil) to see how 'bad' Lobato and co are on there, but I guess it is only similar to the Germans and Vettel and our guys to the british drivers.

what annoyed me in the past was MBs constant crude remarks against Schumacher. He made no secret he didn't like him!

German TV RTL is often focussing too much on the German drivers. It's annoying. Understandable that Vettel and Schumacher get a lot of screen time but when they act like all their viewers are more interested in the likes of Sutil and Glock then say Alonso or Hamilton it's getting out of hand. Or when they are like "5 Germans in the top 10 now! bla bla". Who gives a ****. As if only nationalists watch their programme.

I think MB genuinely rates him, I haven't heard any really negative comments from him about Vettel.

I want to watch a race on Spanish TV (with subtitles, my Spanish is nil) to see how 'bad' Lobato and co are on there, but I guess it is only similar to the Germans and Vettel and our guys to the british drivers.

what annoyed me in the past was MBs constant crude remarks against Schumacher. He made no secret he didn't like him!

MB is just pathetic.

He keeps on yapping about his F1 career that was mediocre at best. The fact that he did not have the balls to exert his will on his opponents is the reason why he was never close to sniffing a WDC.

Hamilton and Schumacher are cut from the same cloth. Hard men on track that subject lessor drivers to their will.

DC reading the FIA rulebook was silly but predictable. Afterall, he signed away his balls to the great Hakinnen, letting him pass because of a gentlemen's agreement! MH is a 2X WDC, DC is a gentleman.....

However bad F1 commentators are, they have absotely nothing on Mark Petchy's adoration of Andy Murray; he has massive multiple oegasms every time Murray hits the ball and exhausts every possible superlative within the first 10 minutes.

MB is just pathetic.

He keeps on yapping about his F1 career that was mediocre at best. The fact that he did not have the balls to exert his will on his opponents is the reason why he was never close to sniffing a WDC.

Hamilton and Schumacher are cut from the same cloth. Hard men on track that subject lessor drivers to their will.

DC reading the FIA rulebook was silly but predictable. Afterall, he signed away his balls to the great Hakinnen, letting him pass because of a gentlemen's agreement! MH is a 2X WDC, DC is a gentleman.....

Edited by learningtobelost, 12 September 2011 - 15:16.

In Asia we have ESPN Starsport. one of commentator named Matthew Marsh had hatred toward Nick Heidfeld. Everything Nick does is wrong in his eyes. Sometime it get really annoying.

Edited by sesku, 12 September 2011 - 15:18.

Both DC and MB have history with Schumacher. I can see them being biased against him even without nationality coming into play.

In Asia we have ESPN Starsport. one of commentator named Matthew Marsh had hatred toward Nick Heidfeld. Everything Nick does is wrong in his eyes. Sometime it get really annoying.

Yeah, he posts he under the name 'Megan'.

I watch BBC roughly 5 out of 10 races, Shanghai Sports 3, ESPN StarSports Taiwan 1, Speed TV 1. Here are my impressions about Commentors' driver favorism.

BBC: Paul Di Resta > Hamilton > Button > the rest

Shanghai Sports: Alonso > Hamilton > the rest but a growing favorism towards Vettel, very negative about Massa

ESPN StarSports Taiwan: Alonso and Vettel are their favorites, slightly negative about Hamilton, negative about Bruno Senna's replacement for Nick Heifield

Speed TV: clearly favors Webber and British drivers in general, dislikes Vettel

The irony is that this thread is full of so much more bias than any of the commentators can be accused of. Some real drivel being written here.

Speaking on a more serious tone, well, not really. Since the TV rights are sold on a nation to nation basis it's sort of ok to have the spaniards supporting Fernando and the BBC anything that is british, it gets ridiculous, but I think most of the time it's suposed to be ridiculous, back in the days Eurosport was airing MotoGP their english commentators would always drop a line for a british rider.

Personally I have grown so used to bias that I use it to practice my nown bias against the particular commentator by nitpickign their sentences.

On a related issue, I will share a dark story, it happened on the 2005 US GP.
While most of the world probably tried to ignore there was a race, the portuguese news programm made a special breaking news. There was a portuguese driver in 3rd in a Formula 1 race. Who cares there were 6 six cars? The man was 3rd going for a podium, beating his richer team mate, national heroics at work!
The commentators, who were very much MSC biased at that time even tipped that he was well placed in case something happened to the Ferrari's, of course they shook it off after a close pit exit from Rubens. I laughed all race, it was too hilarious.

I think that Brundle and Coulthard provide the best commentary I've heard, on motor racing or any other sport. Any bias they show towards British drivers is that expected by the broadcaster for its predominantly British audience.
The level of favouritism will have been determined and monitored in production meetings, as with any national broadcaster covering an international sport, in order to pitch it correctly for the expected audience. BBC coverage of an athletics event in the Olympics, for example, will be presented with much more concentration on the British competitors, because the perception is that many of the viewers will be watching to see how well their countrymen and women get on. Motor racing probably has more viewers who are fans of the sport itself, and less partisanship, so the bias is less.

The irony is that this thread is full of so much more bias than any of the commentators can be accused of. Some real drivel being written here.

A thread moaning about Comentators? On Autosport? I cant believe it!

Really people the Legard witch hunt go embarassing even if there was justfication for wanting rid of him.

DC and MB do a fantastic job, they really do. We are so spoiled, we just dont realise it.

Speed TV

Of all the commentary teams I listen to worldwide I find the "Three Amigos" the most even keeled.
Jp

Can't stand BBC's love for Red Bull and Vettel. Being biast toward the British drivers as the British Broadcasting Corporation is understandable and its not as bad as the ITV-Hamilton days but DC's link to Red Bull and also Jake creaming himself every time Red Bull-Vettel is mentioned is pathetic!

BBC is the national broadcaster for Britain so obviously they are going to up and defend the performance of the British drivers and the drivers that are loved by the British fans (like Webber).

Even when they screw up they get defended like it was just bad luck, while other drivers are roasted for the same thing.

They are hugely anti-Schumacher too, anyone can see this, (in Monza for instance while Schumacher defended once and went back to the racing line, nothing illegal...they pretended like Schumacher was cheating and driving people off the road....I watched he comments of other channels, languages etc., vast majority praised Schumacher for great defending).

And most British fans love that bias about the BBC ;)

The irony is that this thread is full of so much more bias than any of the commentators can be accused of. Some real drivel being written here.

Quite.

I like steve slater and gary anderson... Gary provides great technical insight.

The problem in my opinion is not that the X country TV support too much their country drivers or maybe one of them if they have many, the problem is the hate/dislike some commentators show, in some cases is borderline disrespectful. For some people F1 is about teams and drivers, but I think for TV stations is more about nationality, like soccer, you support your country in the world cup more than anything, last thing you do is to be objective.

Of all the commentary teams I listen to worldwide I find the "Three Amigos" the most even keeled.
Jp

Couldn't agree more. Speed has a decent crew.

Edited by UPRC, 12 September 2011 - 16:13.

The problem in my opinion is not that the X country TV support too much their country drivers or maybe one of them if they have many, the problem is the hate/dislike some commentators show, in some cases is borderline disrespectful. For some people F1 is about teams and drivers, but I think for TV stations is more about nationality, like soccer, you support your country in the world cup more than anything, last thing you do is to be objective.

I agree. TV stations being somewhat biased or at least focusing on their country's team(s)/driver(s) isn't bothering me at all, that's just doing your job of catering to the audience. What's irritating is when they just can't hide their affection/aversion towards a certain driver.


As a non-Brit, I personally quite enjoy the BBC broadcasts. IMO they provide the best insight, their people are obviously well connected and the bias isn't on a level where it's bothering me. Of the german speaking broadcasts I prefer the austrian feed. Alex Wurz is doing a great job there, very laid back commentary and you really get a feel for why he was a valued test-driver, the guy just knows what he's talking about when it comes to explaining the little details of how to set up a car and all that. Can't stand either the german or the swiss feed.

Of all the commentary teams I listen to worldwide I find the "Three Amigos" the most even keeled.
Jp

doesn't perpetuate forum bb's though

DC and Co were pathetic in their anti-MS rants. Like it or hate it, that sort of driving is why Senna, Schumacher, Prost, and their beloved Mansell won WDCs.

With every lap that went past DC sounded more and more like a bitter old man, for mine.


In theory, Australian commentators should be biased in Webber's favour, yeah?

Uh, nope. Lewis Hamilton love-in over here. Greg Rust fawns over him left right and centre. To the point that when they come back from commercial, probably 8 times out of 10 the first driver they will update us on is Hamilton. Guys, get it through your heads, I don't give a toss about Hamilton, tell me about Mark! (Sorry: "Australia's Mark Webber" Obviously Mark's changed his name.)


One of the major incidents that's stuck in my mind over the years was the last race at Brazil in 2008. Felipe crosses the line and for a few glorious moments is the deserved champion of 2008. I'm happy, bouncing in my seat at 5am; the ITV commentators are grumbling. Then they show the now-infamous shot of Glock struggling.

Well, I thought their performance from then on in was disgusting. They were crowing, gloating about how Hamilton was champion, saying how he deserved it etc etc, calling him god, practically. Meanwhile I'm silently screaming and just about chucked the remote through the telly. They appeared to have no concept of "NOT EVERYONE LISTENING TO YOU IDIOTS WANTED HIM TO WIN!"

Being patriotic, sure. GLOATING in your commentary? No way. It was disgusting the way they carried on.

With every lap that went past DC sounded more and more like a bitter old man, for mine.


In theory, Australian commentators should be biased in Webber's favour, yeah?

Uh, nope. Lewis Hamilton love-in over here. Greg Rust fawns over him left right and centre. To the point that when they come back from commercial, probably 8 times out of 10 the first driver they will update us on is Hamilton. Guys, get it through your heads, I don't give a toss about Hamilton, tell me about Mark! (Sorry: "Australia's Mark Webber" Obviously Mark's changed his name.)


One of the major incidents that's stuck in my mind over the years was the last race at Brazil in 2008. Felipe crosses the line and for a few glorious moments is the deserved champion of 2008. I'm happy, bouncing in my seat at 5am; the ITV commentators are grumbling. Then they show the now-infamous shot of Glock struggling.

Well, I thought their performance from then on in was disgusting. They were crowing, gloating about how Hamilton was champion, saying how he deserved it etc etc, calling him god, practically. Meanwhile I'm silently screaming and just about chucked the remote through the telly. They appeared to have no concept of "NOT EVERYONE LISTENING TO YOU IDIOTS WANTED HIM TO WIN!"

Being patriotic, sure. GLOATING in your commentary? No way. It was disgusting the way they carried on.

What did you expect? It's ITV, a British TV channel. And moaning because they were 'gloating about him being champion, how he deserved it' says a lot more about your bias than it does theirs. You seem to imply that this was wrong and unusual for them to praise the newly crowned, British F1 champion. I know if I was in Australia watching on tv and Webber won the title with them crowing about it, i'd hardly be surprised, much less 'disgusted'.

Oh comeon ITV run Hamiltonthons not F1 coverage. Rider especially was super mega annoying. Brundle would be talking about something/someone in the race and Rider would cut in every 3 seconds ... "and how about Lewis?"

What did you expect? It's ITV, a British TV channel. And moaning because they were 'gloating about him being champion, how he deserved it' says a lot more about your bias than it does theirs. You seem to imply that this was wrong and unusual for them to praise the newly crowned, British F1 champion. I know if I was in Australia watching on tv and Webber won the title with them crowing about it, i'd hardly be surprised, much less 'disgusted'.

There was a reason many called the ITV-F1 coverage 'The Lewis Hamilton show'. Sometimes it reminded me of the muppet show, and almost got convinced they did it to provide some comic relief. For a sport coverage, it was very, very bad.

As ever, I am at a complete loss to understand how anyone could possibly see enough Schumi hate or bias to any particular driver or team in the BBC commentary to actually bother writing about it. Ever. In Hamilton vs. Schumacher this weekend, throughout the whole battle not once did I hear anything out of touch with reality from Brundle or Coulthard - the only real negatives expressed by either of them was that Schumi was toeing the line very, very close, and that was reinforced a few laps later with the radio message he recieved. It seems, really, that most of you are going into the weekend expecting to hear Coulthard hating on Schumacher and Brundle in love with everything British, so that is exactly what you hear, and I don't hear a single bleeding piece of that, and if you're one of those mentally-backwards idiots that go around looking to be offended by things then you are much more of a problem than the thing you're crying about.

The only bias part of the BBC commentary coverage to my eyes is their treatment of Paul di Resta. I'm sure he's a nice bloke and he is doing a pretty good job this year, but everyone involved with the coverage seems to have a hard on for him and that is, really, the only irritating part of the BBC coverage for me, and even then I don't care enough to come on here and moan about it.