+1

The perfect trio if you ask me. Entertaining and insightful.

No.

He's been excellent.

The 3 of them are brilliant.

Really? I thought last week he was interrupting them more (it annoyed me a tiny bit too), but this week was much better.

The only criticism I would have was there was a couple of times where I couldn't help thinking that they were reading too much into things. But the chemistry was spot on.

Yep, I've found that Karun has been excellent again this weekend. I know he won't be around for Qualifying or the race, but I think it's finally time for me to ditch the TV commentary. Legard was just getting on my nerves too much in Germany, I think it's time for change...

But the commentary was really enjoyable today.

Couldn't agree more They keep the viewers entertained and hooked even when there's not much going on, on the track. The Ant vs Fly battle was brilliant : & just the chemistry between Karun & Ant with their insight and know how is just amazing to hear

Couldn't agree more - for the first time since I started watching F1 (which was in the mid-80's) I ditched the TV commentary for Germany in favour of the 5 Live commentary and I have to say I will probably stick with them; Crofty was a bit shouty for the first couple of laps, but he soon calmed down and let Ant back in and from then on, it was spot on, especially Crofty's sarcastic tone when Alonso passed Massa!

I think the 5live commentary was back in sync today which was great.

Probably just as well given the "questions" I was sending to the commentary box.

I'm watching the re runs now. I normally get home in time to watch the 2nd one, but had to work a bit later today.


I like having Karun there. He certainly knows his stuff.

However, is he too nice to be a good F1 driver? I think so.

It's way too early in his career to say.

Yeah I think so too, at last. I just hope it stays that way if you watch online on Saturday + Sunday.



What matters is what he's like in the car and in competition.

My complaint to the BBC finally got a response....
Firstly, my letter.

Attn: BBC
Jonathan Legard is embarrasing to listen to....


He demonstrates poor insight, blathers on & goes off on tangents that do not apply to what is happening on track. At other times, he blatently tells the viewer what they are already seeing, or misses what the producers are trying to show, hoping he will pick up on it. (ie the beautiful slow motion camera showing tyre wear on the rear of the cars in Canada. His comments were along the lines of " Not sure what we're supposed to be seeing here, I can't see anything hanging off the car...")
Meanwhile the rest of the planet was yelling at the screen saying "Tyre degradation!!! It's only the single biggest issue of the race!" C'mon.

Why he is the prime race commentator is beyond me. Mister Brundle gives a great call. Him tracking down interviews on the pre start grid is always entertaining. His exF1 & racing past shows, yet he is constantly cut off by Legard and his drivel.

Annoying amateur phrases like "Up the Hill", "On a Charge", "Round the Corner" are head shaking in their frequency.

It's turning into a drinking game.

I'm quite sure the BBC's intentions are not to get F1 fans drunk, but at least it numbs the pain of listening to Mister Legard on a week to week basis.

That said, we enjoy Jake Humphrey, Eddie and Coulthard's banter quite a lot.

Legard must go....


And the response...

Dear Mr ******(me)

Reference 141*** (141,000+ complaints?)

Thank you for your e-mail regarding the BBC coverage of ‘Formula One’.

I understand you’re unhappy because you believe Jonathan Legard is a poor quality contributor

Jonathan was appointed to this role based on talent and experience and I can assure you we'd never appoint anyone we didn't believe were competent and could meet the specific demands required of them.

The range of tastes and opinions held by our audience is so diverse that it’s inevitable some viewers will dislike or disapprove of certain presenters such as Jonathan. It’s a very rare TV personality who meets with everyone’s approval, and it’s clear that opinions on individual presenters can vary considerably.

However I appreciate that you may continue to hold a different view and I'd like to assure you that I've registered your complaint on our Audience Log. This is daily report of audience feedback which is circulated to BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive board, channel controllers and other senior managers.

The Audience Logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions on future BBC programmes and content.

Once again, thank you for contacting us.

Kind Regards

Philip Young

Wow, an original reply.

ctrl+c, ctrl+v.

Yup pretty much identical to my reply .

You really think that the same complaint is going to be given an original reply each time?

Exactly. And it's not like there is anything else that the BBC could even say.

I've said before, it's the same template reply you get when complaining about anything to anyone.

They use a standard boilerplate reply. But they do keep count of the complaints and if they get enough it will get rid of him .

They could admit that Legard sucks...


it wouldn't be earth shattering news and the truth for once.

I'm amazed at how quickly and smootly Chandhok has taken to commentating. He's extraordinarily good. Very conversational and accessible, and great insight.

Well he's been doing it for a number of years.

From the BBC website today....

"So, did you hear about the doorman who got sacked for overcrowding his nightclub? Turns out he was a Ferrari F1 driver who kept letting people through..."

The feed isn't working again.

I don't know why I'm even surprised any more when I click on the page and it isn't there.
EDIT: Refresh now, the feed is there.
EDIT 2: Its being ridiculously slow though

Took a minute to buffer but been working perfectly for me ever since.

What's with the lengthy discussion about testing sessions on Five Live this morning?

The stream isn't working for me. It just goes into a loading loop and then says "this content doesn't seem to be working"

Same here, it did work for the first 15 minutes though.

Stefano Domenicali on BBC quali now: what a slimy git.

Woooo - rivalled by EJ.

Frank Williams

What an absolute winner of a man

Got a little emotional watching that, F1 is a better place with SFW in it.

I enjoy the historic pieces the BBC do in the pre-qualifying/race segments. Kinda wish they could put together lengthier versions of them.

EJ on Stefano : "I have sympathy for him. He's been bullied and beaten this week." err.. by.. none other than.. EJ!

DC on flexible wings : "Well clearly this has been going on for years, it passed the test, didn't it, so."

The BBC team are comedy gold if nothing else :

Good preview show, like the SFW bit, touch too much team orders talk for my liking but I guess it's a hot topic so they feel obliged to.

Frank Williams

David Coulthard being on the BBC team and RBR payroll is a massive conflict of interest, I don't like it at all.

I quite liked what they did, one bit on it, summarised everything, interviewed Stefano and moved on.

Crap a doodle do. No Five Live on Freeview this weekend thanks to cricket. Whimper!

I've counted four "oofs!" in that first segment of qualifying alone. Sterling work!

"They're ahead of Virgin"

No Jonathan, they ARE Virgin, how can someone who makes so many elementry mistakes be a commentator? He talks jibberish.

Yeah I was just sat on my sofa thinking "Hang on.. Nick Wirth IS Virgin".

:facepalm: at Legard and the Virgin comment... it is getting worse!!!!!!!!!

Gotta love the "young bull" drivers program, learn to speak properly before going on tv.

When I heard that I choked on my hot dog. This man's stupidness has no limits. "Part of the YoungBulls young driver program.." Seriously?!

I watched the whole of qualy on the web with BBC5Live.

Between the sessions, they interviewed some boring horse racing-type fellows. I got so bored, I switched back to the BBC commentary.

I heard 5 seconds of Legard, and switched straight back to the horse racing.

Yep thats what i noticed too . Who was the man being interviewed at the beginning of the SFW piece? It was an old interview, think he was wearing a green suit. I recognise him but i cant put a name to his face. (Its going to be a really obvious answer isnt it?)

You clearly forgot the discussion in the pitlane, the feature about David Coulthard's history of team orders, the look at Eddie Jordan's decision in Spa, and the interview with Derek Warwick.

No 5 live on Freeview today because of the cricket, how does that make sense when it is already on 5 live Sports Extra

Had to watch it online, picture quality was abysmal but I'm glad I didn't have to hear some comments from Legard about YoungBulls or Virgins

LOL you're lucky the 5 Live option wouldn't work for me on the online stream.

That all being done in one VT, which was what I meant

Yeah I had to try it a couple of times to get it to work :/



Ooh, technicalities!

But correct technicalities