Not only does Legard have an uninteresting voice, but he was woefully under-prepared for the job: he was constantly stammering as he tried to keep up with events that were well ahead of him, or just plain wrong. He was even annoying my wife, who was in the kitchen but kept coming in to tell me how much he sucked, even from that distance.

I didnt even see any build up? i turned it on at 1pm and it was straight into the race? build up on the red button or something?

Legard might not have the most interesting voice ever, but i did get the sense of genuine excitement in his voice when something was happening, whilst Allen always used to sound a bit fake....at least we didn't get 'AND JENSON BUTTON WIIIIIIINNNNNNSSSSSS!!!! GET IN THERE' like hungary 2006.

Maybe the topics are bland? DC is more successful, more recent, more intelligent, and more presentable as a commentator than Brundle. Brundle is good enough, but not now that DC isn't racing anymore.

Yeah, I didn't understand why Brundle wasn't replaced by Coulthard, as clearly a newer model would be more pertinent. But maybe he didn't want the gig, or was unwilling to take it off his mate.

Still, it was amusing to see him look at Jordan as though he was something he accidentally trod in. Which is about right.

Oh how true - he was absolutely useless. Who the heck is he anyway?

Well Brundle is a multi award winning presenter and commentator, and DC was an unknown. Not hard to see why they went with him.

However, DC and Ant Davidson would be excellent in Brundle's role. I remember Davidson commentating during a couple of GPs on ITV and he was up to speed right away. Let's see what happens when Brundle goes on holiday.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/20...he_morning.html

Roger Mosey blogs on F1.

It proves just how difficult commentating is. Legard sounded like he should be commentating on horse racing.

Still, I'm willing to give it a chance. It will all gel soon enough.

I saw Jake Humphrey looking slightly aghast at Jordan too. I thought Jordan would be good fun, but he's too long-winded; some of the questions were so lengthy I'd lost the will to live long before the interviewee had the opportunity to answer. Someone jokingly mentioned Simon Taylor earlier - he or Tony Jardine would do far better. Even James Allen (as pundit rather than commentator) might be better, providing he didn't feel the need to spout populist rubbish.

As for Legard, I like his voice and his commentating style. I think he'll continue to improve throughout the season. At the very least it's not grating, which is a big improvement over the previous guy.

I must be one of the few that enjoyed listening to EJ. I love the fact that he is totally non-PC. He asks questions and says what others shy away from.

Yes most people avoid saying things they know to be untrue.

What did he say that was untrue?

I've found out the viewing figures from various sources. With that in mind....

Australian Grand Prix - 2008
Qualifying LIVE - 380,000 (25.66%)
Qualifying RR - 1.7m (16.66%)
Total Quali Audience - 2.08m

Race LIVE - 810,000 (54.43%)
Race RR - 3.75m (23.01%)
Highlights - 305,000 (7.71%)
Total Race Audience - 4.86m

Australian Grand Prix - 2009
Qualifying LIVE - 800,000 (44.6%) [increase of 110%]
Qualifying RR - 2.5m (27.3%) [increase of 47%]
Total Quali Audience - 3.30m [increase of 58%]

Race LIVE - 2.1m (60.5%) [increase of 159%] (peak: 3.4m @ 08:30)
Race RR - 2.8m (30.2%) [decrease of 25%] (peak: 3.1m)
Highlights - 300,000
Total Race Audience - 5.2m [increase of 7%]

Comparison - Qualifying Combined
03.30m - 2009 Australian Grand Prix
02.98m - 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix *primetime*
02.12m - 2008 Canadian Grand Prix *primetime*
02.08m - 2008 Australian Grand Prix
01.96m - 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix
01.96m - 2008 Chinese Grand Prix
01.88m - 2008 British Grand Prix
01.87m - 2008 Singapore Grand Prix
01.84m - 2008 Belgium Grand Prix
01.78m - 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix
01.75m - 2008 Japanese Grand Prix
01.69m - 2008 Monaco Grand Prix
01.65m - 2008 French Grand Prix
01.55m - 2008 Italian Grand Prix
01.49m - 2008 German Grand Prix
01.48m - 2008 Bahrain Grand Prix
01.37m - 2008 Spanish Grand Prix
01.13m - 2008 Turkish Grand Prix
01.05m - 2008 European Grand Prix

Comparison - Race Combined
10.40m - 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
05.27m - 2008 British Grand Prix
05.20m - 2009 Australian Grand Prix
05.13m - 2008 Chinese Grand Prix
04.94m - 2008 Belgium Grand Prix
04.91m - 2008 Singapore Grand Prix
04.86m - 2008 Australian Grand Prix
04.59m - 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix
04.49m - 2008 Monaco Grand Prix
04.45m - 2008 German Grand Prix
04.30m - 2008 Italian Grand Prix
04.28m - 2008 Canadian Grand Prix
04.03m - 2008 Japanese Grand Prix
03.81m - 2008 Bahrain Grand Prix
03.80m - 2008 Spanish Grand Prix
03.70m - 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix
03.66m - 2008 French Grand Prix
03.43m - 2008 European Grand Prix
03.00m - 2008 Turkish Grand Prix

For European and American races, the live and highlight figures are added to make a combined figure.
For Asian race, the live, re-run and highlight figures are added to make a combined figure. Note also none of the BBC figures include those that have watched on Red Button, iPlayer or the BBC F1 website so that probably equates from a few hundred thousand more.

Good figures for the Beeb... I expected the Race Re-Run to have been a tad higher, but a good start.

the re-rerun was never going to have the whole of the 1hrs buildup, the BBC obviously didnt see the point in having the programme running for 3hrs in the afternoon as well as in the morning-best thing for you to have done would have been to record the live race programme, that way you'd get everything in

Jordan also seemed to have a habit of wanting the last word, and interrupting DC and Jake, and almost seeming like he thought the fans want to hear his voice and only his voice

Yea i tried to do that, but my sky kept coming up 'no signal received' on the live broadcast which was highly annoying

ah ok, bit weird-thats unfortunate then-if it helps, i THINK (D.M.N. can confirm either way) the online coverage that you can watch now does have the full buildup/race/post race (minus the forum afterwards)

Criticisms:

EJ annoys me a bit. It's kind of his role though.
The pre-amble to the titles with a 2007/08 car in the graphics was a tad pretentious.
Jake made a few statements that were not quite right... duff terminology and the like... but presumably he was live, following a script and he's new. I don't hold them against him for a moment.




Otherwise, I felt it was as good as F1 coverage can get. It was helped by the novelty of a new season and an absorbing race no doubt, but I didn't wander much through the array of options they provide which suggests they could even add enough to a typical Spanish GP to keep the yawns at bay.

The team was excellent, with the sole exception of EJ and even there I wouldn't look for a replacement just yet. I thought the CBBC commentary was a fantastic idea... not really for me, but a great way to explain the sport to new viewers... I hope they keep it up for the season.

If you'd asked me three months ago I would have said I didn't really care for The Chain too much. I was wrong. That music IS motorsport.

The shadowy F1 car in a studio cut scene with the husky voiceover talking about the power of the cars and reactions of the drivers would have made a much better movie intro with the Chain over it than the one they used. Its too playstation style with the cameras flying around all over.

I remember talking a while back about the MotoGP intro with the metal riders and how it was cheesy. Theyve obviously got the same guys to do the F1 intro.

The Chain will always sound drab and old fashioned, but sticking it over the top of the Red Bull style computerised graphics made it seem even more quaint than I expected.

I loved the talking about the power of the cars and reactions of the drivers etc, very very moody and dark. Superb.

I was a little ... underawed... that the entire visuals accompanying "The Chain" were 100% computer generated. Whats wrong with the sparks-flying, wheels all over the place, shunt-packed action from previous GP's?? Oh... hang on, ITV probably wouldn't let them have it

VERY good effort from the BBC though, I kept expecting intervals whenever the commentators ('specially Brundle) made a summary. Very strange.

i had the same thought!

Yes it is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00j6...ix/?src=a_syn30

I suggest if you have a query/problem with the BBC coverage that you direct your concerns @ Roger Mosey's blog: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/20...he_morning.html

Is that where I complain about the presenting team's violation of the BBC Compliance policy?

Legard was brilliant complimented by Brundle, unassuming and most important unannoying (if that's a word).

er... whatever floats your boat.

Somehow i just knew Ross would be the 1 person, more than anyone, to try and find something (anything) to complain about regarding the BBC coverage

Legard's just boring though, even when something exciting is happening on screen, his tone stays the same.

Leaving aside the fact that there have been more complaints that congratulations here since the coverage started, what is Ross complaining about exactly?

'Is that where I complain about the presenting team's violation of the BBC Compliance policy?'

That's what he said when D.M.N. posted a link to Mosey's BBC blog

More complaints?

As far as I've seen there's more people saying they liked it, but the complainers have posted more about their complaints.

http://tinyurl.com/cd4zon

And what is he complaining about?

Somehow i just knew you would be the 1 person, more than anyone, to try and find something (anything) to complain about regarding Ross's post.

You might want to learn to count, champ.

The presenting team violating the BBC compliance policy......but thats as far as he went with detail (whatever it is, he's probably the only person who managed to find something to moan about that has anything to do with the BBC compliance policy............go figure)

I guess most people think it's a big improvement, but no one thinks it's perfect, hence the complaints. I have no idea what Ross is complaining about, but I suspect he's posturing as usual.

Are you joking?

A lot of people have been saying this is a vast improvement on what ITV were offering, someone even said its near F1 Digital+ levels. A lot more praise than criticism, praise can be summed up in one post, but the criticism from the minority continues. Yes, I agree, improvements can be made this was their first broadcast in 12 years don't forget, but on the whole it was a vast improvement on last year's coverage.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/20..._a_memorab.html --> Jake Humphrey blog.

Loved all of it.
No gripes.

Jp

"The night before the entire team decided that after qualifying we should go out for a bonding meal, as for many of us this is the first time working together.

It was delicious. Well, the few sips of a well-needed pint were, until word filtered through that there may be an issue with Toyota's rear wing.

Cue a dash all the way back to the circuit in the dark to track down the Toyota boss John Howett, get the full sp and then re-record the closing link for the re-run of qualifying that was transmitting minutes later."

Shame they said the rear diffusor was declare illegal rather than the rear wing in this re-record!!

Apart from that (and EJ was verging on being annoying) I really enjoyed their coverage. No ads, no competition announcements, The Chain, understated commentary and although I enjoyed Davidson more than Brundle as co-commentator it all seemed to work quite well.

Amen.

(Didn't feel the need to post that until I saw Jackman's)

Just out of interest, am I the only one who can see all the coments about Jonathan Leggard having a dull voice and being out of his depth, and Eddie Jordan being a prat? Perhaps it's all an IP issue after all.

There's nearly 10 pages on it, during that there has been debate on EJ (who while I don't like him is not a complaint from me) with differing views roughly equally, meanwhile that added to the few complaints about Legard (and btw the amount of people using the word 'dull' who weren't reposting I think can be counted on one hand) were surounded by people saying they liked it, or offering constructive criticism, which compares to those who are just moaning very favourably. You seem to have the isp problem that you cannot see the possitive posts (or possibly the previous 5 pages?).

anyway, each to their own

Oh and I do not work for the BBC.

I too thought it a vast improvement.
And whilst I respect the views of those complaining, I do have to wonder whether you're on the right board considering there is more coverage of the whole weekend, than ever before, and it was more indepth than ITV did.
Did it interfere with you watching your soaps or dancing shows or something...?

Looking at the UK BBC site the content appears just fantastic, there is so much to see and hear. However, not one of the commentary combo's i heard worked, AD and his mate were dull and rambling constantly, Brundle and JL seem like they will never gel, I cannot put into words why JL was so poor but he just was. The woman in the pits was AWFUL.

Legard is a joke! Same tone, little knowledge - he sounds like a tour de france commentator - BRING BACK JAMES ALLEN! TO HELL WITH OTHER ANTI-McLAREN SUPPORTERS who complained about him!

Obviously BBC did not take JA - they had to be politically correct and not offend foreigners and some Brits who were angry that he was openly supportive of a British driver.

This is why I like countries like Spain and Italy they would be pro their team and drivers and anyone else can pi$$ off. Britain is weak nation always pandering to the minority voice.

And you know this after just one weekend...?
Personally, having re-watched a video of how ITV dealt with their first race, I'd have to say the BBC are on the right track, and are 1000 times better than ITV were at the same point.
Yes there are issues: the pit lane woman wasn't exactly the brightest in the box, and Legard does need to show a little more emotion, but to be slagging them off after one weekend seems a litle narky at best, and at worst, bitter and spiteful.

that'll be because he didnt apply

Bitter and spiteful? Yes, yes that's my life enemy, the evil BBC.

Correct. Allen did not apply for the job.

There will be some video stuff before Malaysia:
- Classic Malaysian Grand Prix [I think this'll just be 5 minute jobs, don't expect 40 minute long things as BBC did nt have the rights from '97 to '08]
- Murray Walker Video Blog [according to his blog this'll be on tomorrow... he answered a range of questions people asked him in his video blog; hopefully thoughts on Australia are included]