That's why I personally let the radiator in my car run low all the time, that way I can top it up with my own piss and boil it on the go. If I happen to be infuriated with MP's whilst driving then I also get twice the piss boiled at the same time.

This modern technology is great!

Wonder what she'd say if Bernie's fantasy of UK taxpayers' cash being used to pay for Silverstone came true?

And what further bodily fluids would be vapourising on this forum...

Of course, MP's probably claim expenses for each piss they take, which is why they've got rich from taking the piss.

How does that Hot Chocolate song go?

"It started with a piss, in the backrow of the classroom, how could I resist the aroma of your perfume?"

This is not the first time I have seen Brundle with an ice-cream since the whole Kimi debacle.. I wonder if its a "secret" show of support for Kimi..

Or merely serves as explanation as to why Martin is turning into a right fat bastard?

Anything to cock a snook at the increasingly mad Eddie Jordan.

I've even begun to start like DC relative to the insane and ill-informed attention-seaking drivel of "Me! Me! Me! EJ"

Talking utter w*mk about KERS cars weighing more, and thinking an electric blue shiny satin shirt would look good with orange shoes on a fat middle-aged twunt was bewildering awful.

Martin Brundle is the MF'ing man though, and he can eat as much ice cream as he likes as far as he's concerned. You learn more about F1 from a single glare from Brundle as you do from half an hour of verbal diarrhea from Eddie-how-in-the-hell-was-he-a-team-owner-he-knows-nothing-nothing-nothing-Jordan

Another classic line from DC, obviously to wind up EJ, was about the fact he'd had some very competitive cars during his career but Martin Brundle had crap cars his whole career.

Eddie Jordon knows nothing

He seems to think that Ferrari "struggling" this season is the reason why their threat of withdrawing from F1 is credible on radio1. (Hardly).

Anyone got a car radiator that needs topping-up?

Being Spanish and hearing the comments by Antonio Lobato (the narrator) and Pedro de la Rosa (the driver, the commentator), Why BBC is SO SO SO BORING? Sunday afternoon I was following F1 on live in the Spanish TV, which is, of course, on the side of Alonso, but every overtake, every detail, was narrated with passion and emotion... Later, I watched BBC, and they even didn't realized that Massa was having fuel problems until one lap later or so. No emotion at all. It seems that the only emotion in the race is on the "red lights are off, 3, 2, 1... and GO!".

Since that moment on, races become so boring... Not by the races themselves, but by the way they're narrated.

In the Spanish TV, the haunt of Alonso against Massa was like a thriller. Alonso is now 13 SECONDS AND COUNTING!!!! 11 SECONDS NOW!!!!!!!!!!

De la Rosa: Alonso will catch Massa in the last lap
Lobato: Alonso seems to be really hungry! And Massa is suffering a lot. But one thing is getting behind Massa and a completly different thing is overtaking Massa. He's a brilliant driver and he won't allow that. He will push to the end of the race.

Suddenly Alonso overtakes Massa: What? Alonso did that? On the outside? Ferrari has for sure told Massa let him go, let him go...

What I love from F1 is not only the race themselves, but the passion the commentators put on them.

Firstly my god that could have been annoying in the circumstances, secondly people would have murdered Legard for that the same as for his commentary on Vettels last lap in China.

Actually £57M is a bit of bargain They get 90 mins of MOTD and 60mins of MOTD2 plus content for Football Focus for 38 rounds of the league.

Premier league football is far and away the biggest draw in English sport and the most important in terms of broadcasting.

Sky and Setenta combined pay around £567M a year for their live packages

If the BBC lost MOTD to ITV again, the shit would really hit the fan, it would make the fuss about the F1 money seem like a storm in a teacup.

They wont say publicly but the industry gossip says around £10M a year.

Probably because the market to which the BBC broadcasts to is less partisan, and more broad based.

If the BBC got as emotive and parochial as they do on Spanish TV this board would light up like a christmas tree. Look at how much stick ITV got for their (relatively, when compared with Spanish tv) modest nationalistic jingoism with Hamilton.

UK based fans support a lot of different teams, a lot of different drivers. And while it's fair to say the dominant British driver will have the most support here, it's far from 99% of people, and probably more like 60%.

So the BBC needs to dial it all down, it needs to be more sophisticated an even handed in its coverage.

Spanish TV - probably - doesn't need to be as much.

It is isn't it?

Look at RB's expression - looks to kill.

Wow, sounds like he was talking a load of shit to me. You can keep your exciting commentary if that's how it sounds when a car with no fuel gets overtaken.

I couldnt agree more about the boring commentary, I downloaded one or two races from last year. I never really agreed about the hamilton love in that most of you banged on about, and re watching highlghted just how much more excited james allen was about racing and it rubbed off on me. It wasnt just hamilton that he used to raise hs voice for eiither.

When Legard started talking about Buttons dad dressed in sunday best, white trousers ect , sounds like he is from 1950's tv http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlv3B1078PA...B18&index=0 . also whats with the button to bar.. brawn to brawn red bull to ..... on and on and on.

British commentators (in any sport) traditionally narrate the spectacle, and are therefore more interested in giving a fair and lucid interpretation of events than hollering like demented and deeply partisan fanboys (which is what Lobato sounds like). We can get demented and deeply partisan commentaries by watching international football matches with the gobby "experts" down the pub, most people choose not to. The ideal is someone like Murray Walker who can convey passion while remaining largely impartial, but where there needs to be a choice between passion and impartiality, thankfully impartiality wins. I don't need people emoting for me.

Download Monaco 08.

A terrible chapter in James Allen's annus hamilis

Too many n's in that, I fear.

James Alle's?

No, I didn't mean that. I was talking about passion and the way commentators are giving a little bit of emotion to the sport, not about the way if some TV channels support any given driver.

In the Spanish TV, there's a guy, Antonio Lobato, who is narrating with a lot of emotion and passion any overtake, whatever it is Alonso overtaking Massa or Hamilton overtaking Nelson Piquet for P12 or something. There's another guy, Pedro de la Rosa, more relaxed, who is commentating every move in the different teams, strategies, et all.

Of course, there's a little preference about what Fernando Alonso is doing, but the same level of preference to Vettel, Raikkonen or Mark Webber trying to overtake. The same emotion.

BBC narrators sounds to me really cold and unpassionate. They're talking about the race like forensic doctors or something. It's not a matter of nationalism or supporting any driver. It's a matter of emotion. Maybe they have to think they're broadcasting for the whole world, but some kind of "What willl be the strategy of Brawn with Barrichelo in P1 and Button in P2?!!!".

Things like that.

I remember, back in 2004, watching the races in Eurosport in German that German commentators were really passionate about any driver overtaking. Of course, they were in the side of Schumacher, but they put a lot of emotion to any driver doing something.

My point wasn't about Spanish TV supporting Alonso, but putting a lot of emotion to anything happening in the race track. I didn't see that in BBC.

That's the reason I said that it sounded to me so boring.

Like James Hunt shouting "wheel to wheel stuff!!" when Mansell and Senna battled it out in the bygone days; I get it and Legard doesn't... But Brundle's comments on Webber's and Alonso's tussle did. for me that's why MB still rocks the commentary

So I am watching a rerun of the race of champions the other day on SpeedTV and what do I hear from one of the British commentator before my fellow underdog Americans go to the racetrack.. "well lets see if they can do anything else besides turning left" ...
....and what happens next.? Tanner Foust beats Jenson Button and Carl Edwards beats Michael Shumacher.. That guy must have felt like a complete idiot for saying that.

NadsatII, my post agreed that passion is good, I just don't think Lobato's blind and stupid version of it is good. I'd rather have Legard than some frothing idiot spouting pub talk.




RoC isn't sport (unless you want to count 'Superstars' type programmes too). The comment looks jokey to me, but perhaps you thought he was being earnest?

was he like a nobody or a true motorsports commentator?

No idea, the RoC is such crap I can't be bothered watching.

I was working in Oviedo during the Bahrain weekend and watched all LaSexta's coverage.
For the race I was the guest of the FA FAN CLUB at the Auditorio Príncipe Felipe.
I was asked by a local radio commentator about the coverage in comparison to the other broadcasts I had seen.

My reply was as follows.

"Passion a plenty but too many commercials. Almost as many as SPEED tv in America.
This made for disjointed and spotty coverage."


Regardless of the commentary..the intrusion every 10 minutes or so means...
The Beeb is better.

Jp

And even though the commentators on ITV/BBC like to forget it, they are reselling their broadcast to other English speaking regions which I believe would probably represent more viewers than the primary audience.

I think nadsat has a point about missing things on track. Quite often through the ITV years and now with the BBC transmission the commentators have glaringly missed huge on track moments. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say every single race there is at least one visible moment or event on track that they completely miss. It's like one person is checking his que cards while the other is watching live timing or something.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/20..._gp_choice.html

Classic Monaco voting.

Let me assure you it is very easy to miss things as a commentator. If you are commentating at live events you have a lot of information coming your way and quiet often miss things that happen within your sight because you are writing something down or checking a time. Just imagine that scenario with a director talking to you, live feeds from various sources plus you are commentating off a monitor rather than what you are actually seeing on track outside of the box.

I have the greatest admiration for anyone who does this well and the current BBC team are excellent, a marked improvement on the Mr Allen.

The spanish 'Passion' at every overtaking maneuver would quickly tire on the British audience, believe me. I want to hear about what's going on, and what may be happening with opinions, rather than some idiot getting overexcited by Felipe Massa running out of fuel and being passed. Allen was too forced, it never sounded like he was actually as excited as he made out, I'm sure he was excited but he forced out too much. Murray was that excited but went on a few years too long in the commentary box for me. I'm not Legard's biggest fan, but give me him over Allen or the genuinely overexcited Spaniards any day.

How is Legard an improvement? You say it's easy to make mistakes - fair enough - but what's that got to do with James Allen?

Sure, Murray, JA and JL make mistakes occasionally, but nothing major and they're not that common at all.

But the current problem is poor commentary, not mistakes.

JL's one liners are f-ing repetitive and boring as hell.

It's not just Legard though, Brundle is half blind. He mistakes teammates and I can't remember the last time he got the blame right for a multi car incident the first time he saw it.

Sure, I'm back seat driving here but I find Ant Davidson to be much more precise and able to convey what's happening on the track.

At least with the BBC you do have the choice of the main commentary or the 5 live version.

Can anyone tell me whether the post race 'red button' forum is available for viewing? It's not obvious on the F1 site if it is.

Yes it is. Pity they don't reshow it in the evening, I've normally had enough F1 by the end of the race.

Yes it is indeed! I wasn't there on Sunday evening when I looked. I watched the race recorded because Star trek just had to come first, and ended up watching the race listening to the risible Legard commentary instead of Ant. I was a little irritated to have missed the forum considering how inflammatory EJ had been before the race and the controversy during.

Seems to me the only people who make this alleged 'bias' complaint are a) not Hamilton fans and/or b) are ashamed to say that last year WAS all about a fantastic driver winning the Championship - the first British champion for 12 years.

I've no qualms about saying that Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Alonso and Hamilton are all phenomenal drivers.

Everybody's scared of saying how damn good Hamilton actually is. Must be a British stiff upper lip thing.

As soon as you say it, you're labelled biased! I'd be pretty disappointed if Allen didn't get excited over Hamilton - Murray was just the same in 1992 with Mansell.

Aha, you wanted to know whether it's currently available, rather than whether it's shown on TV.

I know nothing, the BBC website is unnavigable as far as I'm concerned.

The BBC website is terrible for navigation. Every now and then they'll have a promoted features video or something on the F1 side of things. You click it, and see it was actually first available a few days ago, then you come back a few days later to find it again, and it's GONE.

There's no generic videos/media section ordered by date or anything on the F1 side. Really annoying.

please please please put legard on 5 and get anthony davidson and crofty on the bbc 1 commentary (but still with the excellent brundle). just a thought.
Also, does anyone else get the impression legard and brundle aren't getting on with each other very well??? oh.... and lee(leigh)?? mackenzie seems bored as hell. bit monotone ya know. kick her off too. cheers.

Anthony Davidson and Croft ARE on BBC 1 commentary if you press the Red Button as far as I'm aware.

True, but you miss the excellent Martin (although he's been dragged down by Legard this year. Not at his best for obvious reasons).

Anthony is great (apart from hims giving a shout out to his brother last week - grr), but for his sake I hope he gets a drive in 2010 and the BBC put Croft and Brundle on TV together.

that the one who was on big brother?

Christ the BBC website is PISS poor to navigate. I somehow chanced upon a video of an ex F1 World Champion saying he'd give back his trophies or something. Can't remember who. I just glimpsed it at work, and would come home to watch it with sound.

Can I ****ing find any mention of it on the F1 part of the BBC website? No.

WHY are there only 6 items in the Audio and Video coverage. How do you get to past videos?


EDIT:

OK I clicked a random video, to see if anything would be linked in the MORE POPULAR VIDEOS panel, and found the video I am looking for

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/8050515.stm

Except it links me to a static page about the Budget Row.

First of all, this is annoying.

Second of all, why can't we just a have a list of videos organised by date or something? Why do you have to go an arse about face and indirect way to get to a video. Why when I searched Jody Schekter did it not find the recent article on him.

The website is terrible. Or more accurately, wasted potential to fit in line with a watered down template, rather than to be as functional as possible.

EDIT 2

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/8051762.stm

OK I found it, by searching for the article name from the broken link.

Like pulling teeth.

What few people understand is that, despite paying a large sum in order to show Formula 1 on BBC 1, the BBC is fundamentaly ANT-MOTORSPORT. I would elaborate on this but I've just been told to stop what I'm doing and get round to Waitrose sharpish.

Chop! Chop!

The next ten pages of this thread:

'Bring Back Allen'
'Why would anyone want that'
'Hate Legard'
'Well use the 5live commentary'
'But I want Martin although he's being 'dragged down' by Legard'

repeat till bored.

Comments are being posted mostly on a post-race by post-race basis and to be fair many people have commented how they think Legard has improved a lot. Is it not fair to keep the thread alive so improvements can be noted? Or is it just the British way to be vocal when we are moaning about something but keep our mouths shut when something is improved?

Hopefully the next ten pages won't be full of posts telling us we don't need this thread!




Its an oft-posted adage on forums, but if you aren't interested in the content don't enter the thread.