They realised that his relative 15 minutes of fame (with the public en masse at least) has been and gone.

It's a good while since he was big news 'thanks' to his accident and Top Gear will be once again owned by the old hardcore when the next series comes around. The days of 50-something housewives watching Top Gear for a glimpse of Hammond are over!

He does the commentary on the official F1 season review dvd's and FOM's editors make him sound dull on them as well, although they do also make the races appear even less exciting than the practice sessions.

He's untouchable during live broadcasts though. I don't think the guy even realises how good he is. Murray Walker was just some chancer who happened to be in the right place at the right time compared to Ben !

What I'm saying is that he does not cover himself in glory when commentating LIVE on the BTCC.

and Murray outclasses the lot of them

Ah, gotcha.

I tend to avoid the BTCC anyway, so...

Indeed, i decided to avoid it once they stopped using 'real' cars, and went to the mcdonalds carpark boy racer series models. That being said, the bits i have seen, if the stewards from the grand prix were used for the BTCC, all the cars would be doing drive throughs, getting 25 second penaltys, excluded from results and goodness knows what. The standard of driving seems somewhat ridiculous, especially from a certain Mr Plato. It seems he cant see it though and whinges and moans and barges his rivals of the track season after season. One or two good drives from the others though, i tuned in once or twice just to see how tubby ted kravitz handled things

Plato presents some top gear copy with Vicky butler do me from behind henderson, and dont we know it

Well one thing I don't get about that whole MaccyD's boyracer 'lifestyle' is that....none of these boy racers actually seem to be interested in racing. :\

Yes! He is good. The stuff he did for CART was amazing: for all his enthusiasm he never let his own reaction get in the way of the racing, and always took time to explain and contextualise what for many was quite an alien sport. Him and Jeremy Shaw IMO didn't quite match Page, Posey and Unser (especially Unser), but bloody hell they made F1 commentary look amateurish at times.

As for season review commentaries, there will only ever be Clive James. They stood on their own as something you might actually choose to watch for its own sake.

I suppose you think Matt Neals a wonderful fair driver, and the move than Onslow-Cole pulled on Jase at Knockhill was perfectly fine.

Well, when you have 10 tons of subs, amps, playstations, 15 LCD screens, power caps, battery leads of the thickness the national grid uses, stobes, lights, neons, 3 sat navs, a satellite dish, a kettle, a microwave and the kitchen sink in the boot, plus 12 nubile underage teen girls in the back seat then your corsa may sound like a BTCC car, and may bounce of the rev limiter like nobodys buisness, but with a power to weight ratio of 6bhp per ton, you aint gonna be doing any racing really are you

They try... slowly

Looks like Brundle's with the Beeb next season.

Much to the disquiet of the FIAscists.



Back to trying to pin a criminal record on him, then.

Still, nice to see Labour's Nazi approach to free speech holds good. We can see Lord Mortgage of Backhander's sticky fingers in the attempt to nail the Tories for sleaze for not accepting money, whereas he himself spent a week on a yacht trying to secure a £50m Eurobribe.

Media Gagging Cocksuckers

Jp

the BBC will ignore donnelly and anyone else who says they shouldnt employ brundle-if they want to,they will,theres NOTHING legally that donnelly or anyone in the FIA can do to stop them-i say let the beeb have him,be nice to keep someone who'll speak their mind even if they arent popular with the FIA

Let's hope so stevvy....
If my licence fee goes to a bunch of cowards I WILL BE HURLING ROCKS AT THOSE DETECTOR VANS PARKED AT THE BOTTOM OF MY ROAD.

Sorry

Jp

Let's hope this spurs the Beeb to hire Lauda as anchorman and JYS as paddock reporter.

Lauda already has a long term commitment to RTL.

Couldn't have said it better myself

Woooo Brundle

YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then on to the news of the FIA antics....bunch of little S H 1 T's

Er no?

We've had Brundle since 1997, and ironically, it was on ITV where he started his commentary.

So now we have Brundle, big wow. I still don't see the BBC fulfilling everyone's tremendous expectations.

Actually, he also did some races on BBC in 1995 while he was sharing the Ligier drive with Aguri Suzuki.

Yes they are. We'll be able to watch a grand prix without half a dozen chunks of 3 minutes ripped out of it at random.

I have very very simple expectations from the BBC

F1
- adverts
- James Allen
+ iPlayer
= win.

I'm sure they've timed their coverage just to annoy me. Just as we start to get back into the rhythm of the race, having been rudely interrupted by the last break, we get another break. It feels so disjointed sometimes it's not funny.

The ad breaks tend to get shunted to the front of the race, and during periods when nothing is happening on track - I seriously doubt that they make much difference, one obvious error notwithstanding. Apart from anything else, they give you a natural toilet / tea break.

If you can afford Sky and an HD telly, why do you give a shit about the cost?

We were on ad break during the most crucial event of last season, when Hamilton's gearbox went wrong and changed the wdc. They may have got better at slotting them in but they can't tell that nothing is going to happen while we're away.

And 5 breaks was way too much, especially since the government sneakily raised the limit to 8 mins/hr. Pity it's going to be Jonathan Legard, a missed opportunity IMO, but otherwise the BBC should be a big improvement.

And don't forget the most crucial event of the season before that, when Schumacher's engine let go in Japan, and his fight for the lead with Alonso at Imola in 2005.

Don't understand why they don't just put a cutaway of the coverage in the corner of the screen, people might actually pay attention to the broadcast then.

Especially in the early morning races when you have to do everything for yourself. When the slaves are all still asleep.

Eddie Jordan, the flamboyant former formula one team owner, is tipped to return to the sport in 2009.

The 60-year-old, who sold his Silverstone based team at the end of 2004, could assume a role when the BBC takes over as Britain's F1 television broadcaster next year.

When asked about the speculation by the Daily Express newspaper, Jordan declined to comment, but "insiders say he has been selected for his expertise both on and off the track".

A BBC spokesman said: "We have not confirmed our lineup yet."

NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Come Back James Allen all is Forgiven!!!!!

I noticed the word could in that.


Old Eejit, sorry, EJ, blowing his own trumpet yet again.


{Heads off to read the Vodafone court case transcripts once more}

I don't think it will happen and hope it won't. As well as being a self serving arse he's so far up Schumacher's arse it's embarrasing when they talk about who he reckons is the best ever, he shoe horns Schumi's name into most of the interviews he gives on 5live etc if he can.

Ah yes, that old chestnut.

I was the first to see Schumacher's talent and stick him in an F1 car

No, that would be Mercedes Benz who had him on their books and then wrote a big cheque to persuade you to let him drive your car.


Christ but he's a bigger cock than The Cock. The cock.

Yes he's an egotist but he was one of the only people in the pitlane with genuine charisma infront of camera. And that includes the entire ITV crew (with the occasional exception of Brundle when he's on form).

Im going to stick my neck out and say he'd do a good job and give a great insight as a pundit if not a presenter.

I quite liked an interview he gave in around 2002, when he took the credit for introducing the world's three best drivers into Formula One. The three best drivers being, naturally, Michael Schumacher, Ralf Schumacher, and Giancarlo Fisichella.

Except that McLaren gave Ralf his first test and Giancarlo did half a season for Minardi and was under Benetton/Briatore management the entire time

Yes, Allen is a cock, but Jordan is a just a plain self-important imbecile.

The best thing that ever happened in F1 was when he left!!!!

I'm serious id rather hear James Allen talk about Leiws Hamilton every lap-for every single-race for 10 years than see 10 seconds of EJ!!!

Except that McLaren gave Ralf his first test and Giancarlo did half a season for Minardi and was under Benetton/Briatore management the entire time

and Jordan previously admitted to never having heard of M Schumacher before Jochen Neerpasch of M-Benz made the call...

Eddie Jordan's talents should not be wasted on TV. He should be replacing Max Mosley.

One thing that is virtually confirmed based on the following:

A1GP have today announced Diana Binks as the new full-time replacement for Lee McKenzie. (sorry, no weblink available).

Some official-ish news from the heart of BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/20....html#comment20

From Alex Trickett - BBC Sport


Also....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/20....html#comment24

From Roger Mosey - Director of BBC Sport

Confirmation that DC will be joining the BBC: http://www.britsonpole.com/dc-to-the-bbc-w...mation-post4484

Yup.... it's sorta confirmed from the recent Autosport stories on him as well.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I mentioned earlier, a dress rehearsal was scheduled for Brazil. It took place, today, as planned. A few notes:

1) No presentation or commentary on the feed; just FOM graphics mixed with what the BBC team were sending back.

2) The Chain was used at the start - the new graphics are not ready yet as the 1996 intro was used!

3) An updated version of the Chain is used when BBC graphics are used which are the standard BBC Sport graphics in FOM (grey) colours. 2008 standings were used as a tem

4) I'm quoting here the exact words jb26 used: "A graphic similar to the FOM Race Control graphic appeared a few seconds in to what we'd normally call the post FOM 5 minute sequence (when they hand over to the commentary team). It was a BBC overlay as where there would normally be the white 'Race Control' tab, it had a yellow BBC Sport logo above it. Underneath, it just said 'Commentators: and , Analyst: '"" This suggests there will be THREE people in the commentary box, the two commentators and an analyst.

5) The same style of graphic appeared twice later on, this time for 'Voice of Pit lane reporter: ' (Mockup: http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/8803/11627339pe3.jpg)

the chain should be left as it is,not an updated version of it-im really hoping they havent ruined it..........it needs to be left as it was!

It's only an updated version when the graphics are shown on screen with BBC background i.e. during pre-race when they show points standings, starting grid all before FOM take over the feed.

Benson oh oh.

Obviously DC has been doing lots of interviews in the last couple of weeks. He has been very coy about the BBC F1 situation, but has acknowledged that there have been discussions.

He did mention that he'd be a TV pundit after this weekend in an interview earlier this week


found the quote:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/71858

"I wasn't thinking about it and then I left last Thursday to go to Argentina for a promotion," said Coulthard. "Karen (Coulthard's fiance) took me to the airport as normal and it was only when I was just about to get in the car that I realised I'd be leaving a Grand Prix driver, for what that's worth, and I'd be coming back as an ex-driver, a Joe Bloggs, a TV pundit."

David Croft was talking to Richard Allinson on Radio 2 earlier today, and during their conversation he mentioned that he will be commentating for Radio Five Live next year.