really, really annoying. There was a lot of stuff to talk about.

No, I only hate you.

Gutted there's no forum, they could have just done half an hour.

I couldn't believe they didn't do a forum! What do I pay my license fee for if not extended F1 coverage??

Thought the whole thing was decidely 'ITV' today...

Very disappointing.

Leggard wasnt quite so bad today though.

TickTickBooom, the licence fee is paid, very specifically, for having no adverts; that's what make the BBC different from commercial stations.

Not to mention the red button commentary options, extra data feeds, coverage from every practice session, half hour radio shows, classic races on the red button, Murray Walker's post-race round-up... the list goes on.

Shouldn't this be kept in proportion a little? Jake, EJ and DC had waffled on for an hour after the race was red-flagged; not sure they needed to do another hour of post-race on the forum. Given the conditions, there may also have been solid technical reasons - we can't say without being there.

In any case, I thought it was another good show - ITV would never got Bernie for an interview, interviewed Kazuki Nakajima or taken a pretty tough line with Lewis and McLaren over the events of the weekend.

No, the license fee pays for the programs.

Yeah I imagine the lack of forum was a combination of rain, lightning, the general chaos of the weekend, and god knows what else was going on both in Sepang and back at BBC HQ.

It's more irritating that there's been no one saying "we're not doing a forum".

Even if it was the weather, they could say, we'll leave it for an hour, do it, and then put it online.

also, there was very little discussion of what had happened in the race. it was primarily "what is gonna happen now"

Well I always knew that Legard would be horrible, worse than Allen(who I don't even consider bad), and I was right

Anyways, I hope the BBC get rid of him, he's just not a F1 person. Why the BBC chose him I don't know. Stupidity.

Good point Madras, they should have said so. But other than that, I understand why they'd choose not to.

As for the licence fee, it pays (partially) for the entire Beeb output - and the most unique characteristic of that output, which is no ads to interrupt the coverage.

My point, though, as I'm sure you realised, is that it's a bit harsh to slam the entire BBC effort (and raise the subject of "what does my licence fee pay for?") based on missing one red-button forum for hardcore fans.

The output is massively increased and improved this year. Complaining about the forum is rather like getting ten amazing birthday presents, and then kicking up a stink because you don't like the eleventh.

Seemed to be quite a few mistakes from the commentary team today. I missed all the studio comments during the red flag as I was watching World Superbikes. The race started just as they went to SC. Perfect timing!

Regards

Andy

I found I just tuned Leggard out, he can only state the obvious in that 1950's stiff voice. Brundle has to do a lot more talking this year, fortunately he's as good as ever.

jb26 says the following on DS regarding no Interactive Forum:

Yes, he does sound a bit old-fashioned. He also has a bizarre tendancy to say "Heikki Kovaleinen" over and over again.

I was disappointed with the lack of Forum, but they never mentioned that it was due to occur during the broadcast so it's not like they lied about it (thank god in this political climate). I can also see that they would probably have just said the same things they'd spent 75 minutes talking about, they analysed most of the race under the red flag. If they had technical difficulties in the storm I suppose it's understandable. Disappointing but not too unexpected.

Given there was no racing and just talking for 50 minutes, seems sensible they cancelled the forum.

I still can't stand Legard. James Allen was better. Legard just states the obvious, falls back on all of the F1 cliches and makes too many mistakes.

David Croft on Five Live is miles better and Ant is the equal of Brundle too.

Indeed - two of the best today I think were about Rosberg when he pitted from first "he's right at the back of the field" and when viewing a replay of a Webber off - "he's off AGAIN"!

Then there is the painful Jordon interviewing of Bernie - oh dear!

I was wondering, is it some kind of rule or regulation that all team radio traffic must be broadcast in English?

I guess it must be, otherwise why would Trulli and his Italian race engineer choose to speak English? Typical Bernie, trying to maximise the cash cow that is the English speaking market.

If Nakajima and a japanese engineer from Williams spoke in fluent Japanese, would this conversation get broadcast on the world feed? No sir.

If it had been ITV we'd have a load of ad breaks and a lot of Lewis Button b*ll*cks. Instead we had discussion and debate. I missed the loss of the post race forum (at least it meant I got to go to see the BTCC 2nd race ) but I understand their decision after an hour of televised analysis.

Fantastic grid walk, Brundle showing up the suspiciously closely stood Toyota engineers was pure comedy... particularly their continued nervous shuffling as he began to talk about something else, and one of them glancing back as he walked away to make sure he'd definitely gone. How can one man blow a team's secrecy like that... I didn't catch a grid walk in Australia, so I was wondering whether they'd dropped that feature.

doubt it, but english is basically the universal language, they generally all use english in interviews, be it for tv, radio, newspapers etc, and most have probably had english as their first language since before they came into F1

Kubica's was broadcast in dalek in the warm up lap.

I love it when Brundle uses those favourite phrases of his such as 'he's giving it full bananas' and 'understeering like a cross channel ferry''. They never cease to make me chuckle.

I also laughed when when Ledgard said of Webber 'he's gone off again' only to be corrected by Brundle. However then Brundle got it wrong when he thought it was Jenson going off track in the Brawn when it was Rubens, so its a bit of give and take I'd say. I think Ledgard (who sounds a bit like James Allen IMO) is definitely better than James Allen in the commentary box overall though.

Probably Eddie Jordan irritates me the most. He needs to talk about the here and now and stop harping back to the good old days. He sounds like my mum. Did make me laugh when he referred to Martin Whitmarsh as Martin Whitaker though.

Having said all that, I'm just glad I don't have to listen to John Watson. Can't stand the guy. Never said one single positive thing about Jenson Button when commentating on that digital channel back in 2002.

DC asked John Button a question, and he said "I'm not talking to you David".

What was all that about?

They can never drop the gridwalk!! i would seriously throw rocks at the BBC if they did that. lol

I could've sworn there were a few races at the end of ITV's tenure where the gridwalk actually was skipped, though? Or did I always just happen to be out of the room at the wrong time? :\ Or for that matter, was there another reason? That was what got me thinking about whether the BBC would adopt it. I always use the 'Replay' option from the red button menu, so presumably that's how I missed the Aussie one.

There are a few tracks where ITV never did it - China being one I believe. I think it is because of the distance between the grid and commentary box, making it logistically impossible for MB to get to the box in time for the race start.

And of course Hungary as MB has not attended for the last couple of years.

apart from legard, and to a point EJ, the bbc coverage is fantastic. you guys over there in blighty are bloody lucky to have it. the visualisation of the grid gaps and then adjusted for starting weight was superb. croft and davidson are doing a really superb job. really superb.

over here in australia they every cut to an ad break was just as something happened...we also have ads during the qualifying sessions, not just between them - 2 ad breaks during Q1! it could be worse guys.

Why did the BBC cut the press conference when the interview returned to Button for final thoughts? It's not like they didn't have enough time because they let limp-wrist DC and foot-in-mouth EJ rabbit on.

On a better note, Legard is setting in better now that he has realised he should be a no.2 commentator and let Brundle take charge.

Try using that argument in a court of law when you don't want to pay the compulsory tax, even if you don't want to watch BBC and even modify your TV to block BBC.

They'll claim that they pay for transmitters and stuff. Also, they waste their money on things like the BBC website that the entire world gets to see for free (they should monetise that site IMO and recoup some of the taxpayers money). Oh, and they never have any qualms about their blatant self-promotion of their own programs such as shoddy celebrity shows and the like on various programs and as advertisements).

Unlike most of my countrymen, I hate the authoritarian BBC!

The coverage in NZ is great. I've only been living here since July and I was sorely disappointed by the Sky coverage in NZ last year as they only covered the bare minimum. The coverage so far this year has been brilliant. I really miss five live and hearing the five live extra into at the start of free practice is great. We also get a bit of the BBC studio audio after the race, over the official pictures but they usually have that over the top of the press conference audio, which is a little strange, but apart from that it's great!

I think BBC is doing a superb job. Truly world class.

Legard I enjoyed a bit more this weekend. It isn't the same as Murray, or James, but he is not terrible. I think the only sad thing about it is that with James and Martin you at least felt they enjoyed being there calling the race together. Martin and Legard don't have that type of relationship yet, and I don't know if or when they will.

However, it's fantastic coverage, so I wouldn't complain, only comment on that. Otherwise, I enthusiastically acclaim it.

I'm taking a while to get used to hearing Legard. His voice is quite unemotional and flat at times. He talks like .. "And theres Hamilton.. and hes gone off.. and hes back on now".. taking a while to get used to that style of commentary.

I think Ted Kravitz is doing great, very glad they kept him on.

I don't much like the new Scottish Louise. It's not easy to understand her accent a lot of the time. Other than that the coverage is pretty good I suppose, better than ITV anyway.

Yes, I don't remember them discussing weights in Australia, but they really went to town on it in Malaysia. Top marks.

Brundle's grid walk was great.

Jake's blog:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/jakehumphrey/20...at_storm_t.html

Some caption comp photos methinks:

Probably going to be pounced on by the PC brigade, but she adds absolutely nothing to the coverage. Zilch. Whenever Legard or Brundle want info from the pitlane, who do they go to? Ted Kravitz who is always on the ball. Lee McKenzie just seems to conduct dull interviews asking the least probing questions imaginable whilst smiling like a cheshire cat nodding her head to the drivers.

I agree mate, at least you could understand what Louise was saying. Her interviews weren't quite as boring either.

I'd love to know what else she does over the weekend. From the little we see of her it's no wonder she has a bid cheesey grin.

It's not like she even has Beverley Turneresque looks. She's just completely useless to the BBC's coverage.

Except that the commentators were crossing to her constantly during the free practice sessions, they ran a couple of good interviews she ran with drivers in the pre-race show, and she feeds information back to the commentary team throughout the race. But why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

Yes and it was hard to understand what she was saying.

Bring back the real Louise imo.

Well maybe you should make at least a vague effort: Lee has about the mildest Scottish accent I've ever heard, so possibly the problem is with you.

Indeed. And how could anyone struggle with such a soft Scottish accent?

----

Her role is to interview drivers, especially after they've retired from the race and aren't in the mood to talk to anyone (hence why women are preferred for the role). She manages to do this without adopting a sing-song voice and patronising attitude. A big improvement if you ask me.

i switched on to the davidson croft commentary quite early on when leggard made one mistake too many. and excellent it was. get brundle's comments from the rolling highlights. which means you just miss out on kravitz, but they have their own version, who often gets there earlier (except in malaysia!)

And for those saying about the lack of Interactive Forum:

"Oh, one last note, apologies for no F1 Forum this week. Over 300,000 people pressed red and watched last weekend, which is incredible and justifies our decision to give you more coverage.

We are committed to it as an important and unique part of our build up. The thinking this week was that after 75 minutes of chatting, it was probably not necessary as all the angles had been covered already - and we'd run over our alloted time-slot on BBC1 anyway.

I hold my hands up, though, as I should have mentioned there would be no Forum on air but I ran out of time...

Sorry guys, but as I mentioned last week in the blog, a second over and I'm in trouble with Norma the PA!

It'll return next race and don't forget to be involved via f1@bbc.co.uk."

Louise Goodman was superb I thought. She worked for F1 teams for several years as a press secretary (I even have a letter from her when I was looking for a job 15 years ago!) and she was married to the Minardi guy who died.

So she was F1 through and through. Was she even offered a BBC role? This new bird offers nothing. When walking alongside one driver coming back to the pits in Oz, the camera showed them both (should just show the driver really, like ITV did) and she had this weird "eye thing" going on.