Davidson is great, he does the Friday practice commentating. Lots of technical insight.

A few thoughts after the first race..

For me the most impressive part of their coverage is the online content. I'm not sure what people get in other countries, but what the BBC are doing surely can't get any better. For example right now you can watch the entire GP at any time on your computer, for free, in good quality. It's practically impossible to miss a session now.

I watched the onboard channel on my laptop and as I thought, it got boring quite quickly.. but it was still quite handy to review certain incidents. The slight time delay actually makes it easier to do that funnily enough.

The commentary seemed pretty good.. it was actually nice to hear Ted Kravitz in the pits who has certainly improved over the years. As for Lee in the pits.. not sure what she was doing really.

I thought the "forum" show after the race was good.. sitting around behind the pits talking about the race with people dropping by.. I liked that. Just a shame they can't be sat around a table drinking a pint really. A little disapointed that isn't online as I had to go out just after it started.

It was great and Eddie Jordan will make a gaff, it will,be worth waiting for

We're getting none of that. Only the TV feed with Race and Qualifying.
Not the Online and Red Button stuff you guys talk about.
Would love to have it.

I did enjoy EJ's complete and utter u-turn on Barrichello. Before qualifying it was "He'll be on pole easily.", by post-race it was "He'll be an excellent number two to Jenson."

Didn't think Lee McKenzie did anything wrong

She has a monotonous voice. It's like, I am interviewing Lewis Hamilton but I'd rather be gardening. FFS, show some passion girl! If not, hang up your mike beside your knickers, as anyone on this forum could ask more pertinent questions than her.

tbh, no matter what she did I preferred her to Louise, Lee actually asked a question whereas Louis constantly just makes a statement and expects the driver to answer when in fact there's nothing to answer.

There was one massive thing she did wrong:
LM: Tell us about your race, Lewis.
LH: You know about the situation right?
Million of television viewers: No! Explain the Trulli/third place thing
LM: (meekly) Yes.

That said, I don't think she deserves some of the level of criticism here.

That was your thoughts before the race, after the race you rated the drivers and said this

Hamilton

You're on a roll aren't you ! Shame you are not on planet Earth though


I thought the BBC coverage was excellent, from the high quality feed on the Internet, to the amount of coverage to the general level it was pitched at. Ok, nobody is going to agree always with the commentators because we all have our preferences on what we want to listen to, but as their first go it was pretty polished. Personally I'd like Paul Stoddart sitting next to Eddie Jordan to ratch it up even further, DC is being too polite

Add on top of that no adverts and the best intro music there has ever been for F1 and I think you can honestly say it is the top coverage of F1 in the world at the moment all told apart from at Bernies gaff.

Regards

Andy

Admin need s to watch him, he's all over the place $hit stirring.

Two complaints about the BBC coverage:

1. Although the main feed of the race was in widescreen format, the red button option for race + in car camera was in 4:3 aspect. I find it hard to believe that the majority of people accessing this option will have a 4:3 and not a widescreen TV. If I'm wrong, then I don't mind.

2. The website is awful in terms of how quickly it keeps up with events off-track after the race. It took long enough to update the standings to put Lewis third, and it still does not contain any (easy to find) explanations of the penalties and decisions after the race. It's certainly not the place you can go to get the latest on what is happening.

Does someone remember where the link is that can be used to give feedback?

O..k..

Sorry my opinion doesn't match yours. I didn't expect a BGP car which hadn't done hardly any testing to go the full race distance, plus I do not like Richard Branson's attention-seeking media persona.

As for Hamilton, I think you need to put things in perspective. i knew people on here would be salivating over his performance, it seems he can do no wrong. For a start, that McLaren handled very well on an aggressive low-fuel strategy, yet the safety car was the only thing that gave Hamilton any points. Even then, he wouldn't have got near to the podium had Kubica not screwed up. I would also like to point out that both Force Indias had faster race laps than Lewis, which gives the impression that others in front of him messed up, rather than his mythological Senna-esque qualifying laps, so think about these things before posting.

Aspect ratios aren't up to the BBC I think, they get what pictures they're given.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/3701180.stm

You've just explained (perhaps unknowingly) why John Wyer agreed with Nick Syrrett, Clerk of the Course at the 1970 BOAC 1000-Kilometres, that Pedro Rodriguez was "a bloody idiot."

For 'tit' substitute 'gobshite' btw. DC needs someone to rub him up the wrong way before he's roused - they'll be the perfect foil for each other.

The token female is Holly Samos, the five live pitlane reporter.

She made a real howler in practice : A car was returned to the garage for some work and was told it was to change a drive shaft boot.

She had no idea what that is and cheerfully had to ask the commentary team and Ant. had to put her right.

She has been a pitlane reporter for two years with 5 live but clearly has never had any interest in finding out anything about the cars.

I thought McKenzie was fine : she does know what she's talking about, having learned at her father's knee and has herself been a Rally co-driver. Any little hesitancy is bound to improve as the season goes on.

Overall it has to be 9/10

I'm really pleased that they brought Ted Kravitz on board - and allowed him to join the discussion forum at the end. Always thought he was the unsumg hero of ITV's coverage. Hopefully the BBC will give him a bigger role in front of the camera.

The bonus is that at last we can see all of practice, extra discussion and reruns of the race on the red button


But, really, we would forgive them just about anything for simply losing the adverts.

In such an exciting race, where could they have interupted the coverage without missing something significant ?

Yes please, when she used to anchor BTCC she was fantastic. (unfortunately they replaced her with Louise Goodman and Ted Kravitz)

Andy

Loved the coverage do to the bbc. I found my self watching the onboards quite a lot whilst listening to the main commentary. They did well to update the screen with what was happening elsewhere in the race aswell. Didnt stay up to watch te forum bit after the show, is it gonna be repeated or put on the red button?

vicky is 1 enthusuastic, 2 interested. 3 engaging in front of the screen and off and 4 gorgeous

The F1 programmes, TV and Radio 5 are available for iPhone and iTouch on BBC iPlayer

Thats my work listening schedule taken care of for next week

I'll tell you who was good that you might not have seen.

Perry McCarthy was on the CBBC commentary and he was just brilliant in full Johnny Ball mode, explaining how F1 works with really good real-world science that kids can understand. For example, under the first safety car he was explaining why getting heat into a tyre is so important, using the example of a pencil eraser on a table to demonstrate how rubber grips when it's warm and how you can get the heat in.

I'd recommend giving him a quick listen next weekend.

Brilliantly simple. No need at all to blind people (or kids in this instance) with science, just give them everyday examples they can relate to.

Will definitely give this a listen next weekend if I remember. When/how is it available again?

It's available during the live race and the full BBC1 re-run on the red button (not during the rolling replay and highlights though).

Just press the red button, choose sport multiscreen, option 1 and press right on your remote until you find the CBBC commentary option.

See, my ageing freeview box and dodgy reception meant I lost my patience trying to scroll through all the red button shenanigans this morning. I'll definitely give it a go in Malaysia though!

If anyone has a youtube - not iplayer copy of the "this is formula 1" bit at the beginning, I'd be grateful

Oh stop whinging She looks great in a not fully zipped up fire suit and no pitlane reporter is likely to ever satisfy an insider - so just enjoy the view.

Seriously though - great coverage generally. I can't decide whether EJ's a tit, or that a bit of disagreement amongst the pundits is a good thing. More impressed with Jake Humphrey than I thought I'd be and just wonderful that no ad breaks spoiled a fantastic race. Mind you when the first bore-fest arrives I might be praying for them back.

One thing I thought was lacking (unless I dozed off and missed it) was a full run down and analysis of the weights announced after Q.

Ben

I defenitly liked the look of LM but she was clearly nervous when on camera, first when she was interviewing LH post race, when she said that meekly yes was because she was suddenly on camera and panicked. Afterwards at the end of the forum programme when the camera cut to her she panicked and struggled to find something to say, but overtime with experience she will get better and I like her rough hair and unzipped suit. Her main problems is she needs to improve her interview questions.

EJ I really do hope the bbc drop him, he kept interrupting, not following the main presenter's lead and was clearly sucking up to branson at the end. He also seemed to be been rude to DC.

Onboard camera is a nice cool new feature which was badly needed but it would be great if the viewer could pick which camera to watch.

Overall the bbc beats itv mainly in the no adverts and the bbc forum at the end.

http://www.planetf1.com/story/0,18954,3265_5118237,00.html

PlanetF1 doesn't like the BBC F1 coverage, they've put it in the "Losers" side....

They say : "The minute the race started it was come-back-James-Allen all is forgiven. "

I say : "The minute the race started it was 'YES - I KNEW dropping Allen was the right thing to do' "

As I've said for half a year. F1 - adverts. - James Allen = Win.

Not only did we get that Win - we got the post race forum ( great!) - swathes of accesable, ad free web content, the brilliant onboard feed, and an option of multiple audio tracks for the race. It didn't just meet my expectations - it exceeded them.

They sum up JL well.

Anyone know where I can watch the BBC forum programme thingy? Is it on iPlayer cos i cannot find it.

Considering it wasn't broadcast on BBC1,2,3 or 4 I doubt it will go on the iPlayer, if it is anywhere it would be the sport website, but I doubt that.

DMN might know better than me though.

I always knew Legard would be dull, but I never thought he'd be as generally confused as he was. Absolutely no chemisty between him and Brundle, and I think that's took a big hit on the commentary.

I must say the 5 live commentary is superior to BBC One's by far. Davidson's insight surpasses even Brundle, he just seems to know what's going on.

I like the five live commentary, I find david croft pretty damn good, and ant davidson is great. I just feel I'd be missing out on brundle.

Question Guys _ I missed the online coverage this week, but need it next week.

How was the LIVE quality? Did you let you choose high or low quality, or one quality only?

Would you say the quality was like the iplayer website F1 "standard" quality, or "high" quality one? really really appreciate the help.

Thanks!!

Live came in high and standard quality - at least for the practices anyway. The high def was standard Iplayer quality, the standard def was normal live feed quality. I.e. a little grainy for low bandwidth. Either were fine.

The 1 hour post race forum is not looped, neither is the the onboard channel. A shame as they could have at least put them on the website for people who missed it.

But maybe not that great quality when on a full screen HD television.

So the high quality live feed is lower quality than the high quality iplayer version of the race that is up now, did I understand that correctly?

Many thanks!!

If anyone wants to watch F1 on TV in Malaysia (presumably after next weekend!), Channel 7 (Astro 107) have got the BBC feed including commentary for the race. There are still a few advert breaks, but they're much shorter than on ESPN and don't just advertise Astro. Unfortunately they don't cover Quali or pre- or post-race stuff, but that is ESPNable.

Red Button programmes are not currently put on iPlayer. This explains why the Free Practices were put on the BBC F1 website, not the iPlayer.

Here's a portion of it (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/7970618.stm) which shows the "argument" between DC/EJ.

Jesus, put DC in the booth and give Martin his retirement.

I think you probably need to ask the director general of the BBC, rather than Jesus.

boom-tish!

overall, it seemed like an improvement to me...

Sorry - but DC is very bland - no sign of any of those "speaks his mind" comments people were expecting.

Post-race me feelings haven't changed too much.

DC and EJ are like chalk and cheese. The BBC might want that, to give some edge, but it doesn't work.

DC is far far far too bland to spend any more than 20 seconds talking into a microphone. Giving him the TV job while keeping Ant Davidson on radio was a big mistake. The BBC have clearly hired DC simply because he's still famous and has just retired from racing. It doesn't stop him being monotonous.

EJ remained a total prat on race day. I couldn't believe seeing him fawning over Branson again. His comments about Branson entering F1 made it look like he'd been bribed to say them. It was the sort of thing Louis Theroux says to take the piss out of people, when they don't realise he's taking the piss out of them. And this whole good-cop bad-cop routine they have is just nonsense. They may as well exclude either DC or EJ from the proceedings, because EJ's job apparently is just to disagree with everything that DC says. And when he's not doing that he's talking over the presenter. Humphrey's tried a couple of times to throw to a link yesterday and EJ stopped him because he wanted to say something more on a subject. And Humphrey's let him get away with it too!! That is something you wouldn't have on ITV, which was staffed with consumate professionals.

As for Legard...I will say hand on heart that I never even realised he was speaking at any point, so uninteresting is he. My brain appeared to engage whenever it recognised Brundle's voice and swtich off again when Legard started speaking. Take from that what you will.

They've got a week to iron out these problems. They should have had them ironed out between qually and race but didn't.

How long do we have to endure this nonsense before they fire one or more people from the line-up?

Two days in and so far it's clearly not working, it's there to see and hear.

That more or less sums up my feelings!

To be truly honest the coverage was fantastic but Legard has such a boring f**king voice. :\

What was quite amusing was Humphries and Coulthard talking and Jordan literally out on his own and you can see him twitching to say something. Positively twitching.

It probably doesn't help that he's 4 ft tall, Humphries and Coulthard probably can't even see him

Lets hope they drop Jordan like 3rd Period French - the guys is rubbish - misinformed - bias - has less knowledge than the most bias fanboy BB menber.