51 replies to this topic

[Shiftin]

I hate it:mad: . Some bimbo chick holding a litlle tape-recorder close to the drivers mouth, smiling and looking dumb. Listening to everything he is saying, pretending they have a serious job. How come? Why do some teams need (use) this kind of crap? Not all are. I don't know all, but I am sure McLaren does it, Ferrari does it and I believe Williams too though I am not sure. So who don't and who are using these kind of silly methods?

Look, I know....It's probably about drivers being quoted incorrectly but still I really hate it....If I was a driver I wouldn't allow it, I'd reckon I'd be smart enough deal with repoters myself....

What are your thoughts on this..

[RV_Canada]

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you suggesting reporters stop recording drivers? What would you prefer??

[Shiftin]

Originally posted by RV_Canada
I'm not sure what you mean. Are you suggesting reporters stop recording drivers? What would you prefer??

Sorry. I mean the teams have someone, in team clothes, taping with a small tape-device everything the drivers says when he is asked questions. These people always stand close behind the driver and holding this device close to his mouth.

[pRy]

It's to let the team check what the driver told the reporters. A driver may for example say something which the press misunderstand, and the team like to know about that sort of thing incase they need to correct a misunderstanding or such.

[RV_Canada]

Originally posted by Shiftin


Sorry. I mean the teams have someone, in team clothes, taping with a small tape-device everything the drivers says when he is asked questions. These people always stand close behind the driver and holding this device close to his mouth.

I haven't seen that. Are teams taping their own drivers, or other team's drivers. If they were taping their own drivers, it may be to avoid misquoting by having a recording of what was said, which I guess is what you mean.

Like I said, I've never noticed it before. Seems like a pretty insignificant thing to me.

Ask Frans .. the recorder is probably a security guard or propaganda police or something.

[schumigal]

pry is pretty much spot on. i dun see any issues with team personnel sticking a recorder at their mouth. the team personnel won't be the only one, along with all the journalists! otherwise how are they going to record what the driver say?

[Shiftin]

I know it's all about being misquoted. But not all teams are doing it. It just irritates me very, very much.....It looks like the drivers can't take care of themselves. So IMO it says a lot about a team in a possitive or negative way. I just don't like that method.

[edit] It prevents a driver from being himself. Being cautious all the time.[edit]

[Ross Stonefeld]

The thing that raises my eyebrow is how packed the group is. Unless im in an orgy, or stuck on the subway, i dont want crowds of strangers pressed up against me with stuff in my face

[schumigal]

Shiftin, it's probably cos big teams care for their image. They dun want the press issuing misleading statements.

[KenC]

Originally posted by Shiftin
I hate it:mad: . Some bimbo chick holding a litlle tape-recorder close to the drivers mouth, smiling and looking dumb. Listening to everything he is saying, pretending they have a serious job. How come? Why do some teams need (use) this kind of crap? Not all are. I don't know all, but I am sure McLaren does it, Ferrari does it and I believe Williams too though I am not sure. So who don't and who are using these kind of silly methods?

Look, I know....It's probably about drivers being quoted incorrectly but still I really hate it....If I was a driver I wouldn't allow it, I'd reckon I'd be smart enough deal with repoters myself....

What are your thoughts on this..

Uhm, it's not some "bimbo chick", "smiling and looking dumb". It's usually either the team's PRESS OFFICER, or it's the driver's own PRESS OFFICER. You know those press releases that teams put out after each day of a race weekend? Those quotes are from the tape recorders of those "bimbo chick"s. They probably went to university and are being paid squat as part of the dues of working in F1. I shudder to think what you would say if your daughter some day decided she wanted to go into media relations.

[schumigal]

Plus, they probably need it to release it to their own website! Unless it is a practice to just copy it out when other journalist print it out?

[Shiftin]

Maybe it is Schumigal. That doesn't mean I have to like it. I hate it, I hate it a lot It takes away a part of freedom for the drivers to speak. I know, maybe they have to do it but it just sucks....

[bira]

Originally posted by Shiftin
I hate it:mad: . Some bimbo chick holding a litlle tape-recorder close to the drivers mouth, smiling and looking dumb. Listening to everything he is saying, pretending they have a serious job. How come? Why do some teams need (use) this kind of crap? Not all are. I don't know all, but I am sure McLaren does it, Ferrari does it and I believe Williams too though I am not sure. So who don't and who are using these kind of silly methods?

Look, I know....It's probably about drivers being quoted incorrectly but still I really hate it....If I was a driver I wouldn't allow it, I'd reckon I'd be smart enough deal with repoters myself....

What are your thoughts on this..

What an incredibly ignorant and malicious description.

For your information: the people you see next to the drivers are the PRESS OFFICERS. They are the ones who decide who gets and interview and when. They record the interviews for professional reasons, as would any organised press officer do. It means that a driver will not be misquoted; it means that the team can then use his quotes elsewhere. With 500 journalists around and only less than 10% of them getting direct contact with the drivers during a GP weekend, the press officers act as the driver's voice on many occasions.

Ann Bradshow is not a bimbo chick. She is one of the most respected and professional press officer in the F1 paddock and in general one of the most professional press officers I've ever worked with.

Tracy Novak (BAR), Sabine Kehm and Bern Pisa (Michael Schumacher), Jane Parisi (Rubens Barrichello), Virginie Papin (Prost GP), Ellen Kolby (McLaren), Graham Jones (Minardi) and so many many others - are probably the busiest press officers I've ever met. The nature of F1 is as such that demand will ALWAYS be higher than availability, which makes their job immensely intense.

Without them, you'd have nothing - no quotes, no press releases and no interviews.

So on their behalf allow me to ask you to bugger off and look for other victims to insult.

[Shiftin]

Gee, sorry.....

I am just saying I don't like it. I hate it. If all teams did it ok, no problem...BUT only a few are, as far as I know. And THAT is what irritates me...It divides teams in being driver-friendly or not. In.....our drivers can't speak for themselves. We have to tape them to make sure they didn't say amything stupid......



Man, what did I start, I already regret this topic.

[bira]

Originally posted by Shiftin
Maybe it is Schumigal. That doesn't mean I have to like it. I hate it, I hate it a lot It takes away a part of freedom for the drivers to speak. I know, maybe they have to do it but it just sucks....

The only freedom it takes is for the journalists to misquote or make up quotes; the drivers are the ones who WANT these press officers around them, not the other way around.

Furthermore, your inner ability to contradict yourself is awesome: you actually tag someone as a "bimbo" and then suggest that maybe someone like Michael Schumacher will be afraid to speak his mind because a "bimbo" is standing next to him????

Or maybe you're actually suggesting that Jean Todt is sitting down and listening to all these tapes, then calling in Michael and saying: "I did not like what you said here and here and here. Next time please refrain from saying that"?

Man, you managed to piss me off. I HATE ingrateful ignorants. And that's exactly what you proved to be here.

[Shiftin]

Originally posted by bira

Ann Bradshow is not a bimbo chick. She is one of the most respected and professional press officer in the F1 paddock and in general one of the most professional press officers I've ever worked with.

Oops

[bira]

Originally posted by Shiftin
as far as I know.

Well you don't know jack. Why not ask first?

ALL teams do it. ALL of them. AND it's considered BETTER driver treatment if a driver could have his own press officer. Michael Schumacher employs his own press officer (Sabine) on top of the ones from Ferrari. Sabine was a German journalist before she got this job. She is the closest person to Michael. When he needed someone to go around the paddock and talk to the drivers ON HIS BEHALF and try get their signatures on the pre-start agreement in Monza, he sent HER.

I just cannot believe you would start such a topic without even checking the facts!!!

[A3]

Well said Bira.

Verstappen told in an interview that he wanted the press officer there because otherwise he had to tell the same story to the team again for the race reports.

[A3]

Originally posted by bira
I just cannot believe you would start such a topic without even checking the facts!!!

You haven't seen the "Verstappen go away" thread have you ?

[RV_Canada]

Originally posted by bira

... Man, you managed to piss me off. I HATE ingrateful ignorants. And that's exactly what you proved to be here.

[Apparently] Bira [doesn't] rock(s).

[bira]

Originally posted by RV_Canada


Bira rocks.

No, I don't. But I'm after four Grands Prix were those "bimbo chicks" made my job possible. Without them, I wouldn't have been able to interview Montoya, or Head (thanks Annie!) or Lauda and Irvine (thanks Nav!) or Panis (thanks Tracy!) or Trulli (thanks Fiona!) or others not yet published (thanks you-know-who-you-are!). And I know many of them read Atlas F1, including glances at the Bulletin Board. The idea that someone among them would see this thread and get insulted makes me cringe, because they don't deserve this.

[Ross Stonefeld]

uh...wait a minute


real, actual racing people have been known to visit this board?




Im gonna get my ass kicked

[A3]

bye bye Europe ! ;)

[KenC]

Originally posted by Shiftin
Gee, sorry.....

I am just saying I don't like it. I hate it. If all teams did it ok, no problem...BUT only a few are, as far as I know. And THAT is what irritates me...It divides teams in being driver-friendly or not. In.....our drivers can't speak for themselves. We have to tape them to make sure they didn't say amything stupid......



Man, what did I start, I already regret this topic.

Keep digging yourself a deeper hole. All teams do use press officers, so what are you irritated about? It has nothing to do with being driver-friendly. This is not Big Brother watching the drivers.

By the way, I thought I was the first to point out that these so-called "bimbo chicks" are indeed Press Officers of either the team or driver, and not Bira? Don't I get a few backslaps?;);)

[A3]

Well done Ken. ;)

I think Shiftin is hiding now somewhere, hoping this thread will dissapear.

[RV_Canada]

Originally posted by KenC
By the way, I thought I was the first to point out that these so-called "bimbo chicks" are indeed Press Officers of either the team or driver, and not Bira? Don't I get a few backslaps?;);)

[VOICE I USE WITH MY DOG] Who's a good boy? Good boy. Goooood Boooooy. [/VOICE I USE WITH MY DOG];)

[Shiftin]

Okay, here we go again. I just got back so I couldn't reply earlier.

Bira,

Sorry if I pissed u off. I didn't know u knew any of those.....Press officers. Besides that you don't seem to be really objective in this matter. But my apologies, I didn't mean to piss anyone off.

Still I am staying with my opinion. Maybe I get some other interviews than most people here. But I can't remeber any occasion where a Sauber, Jaguar or Arrows driver was being taped.

I will explain myself a bit further. Maybe I was wrong but that would be due to a lame coverage, u tell me.... When I look at F1 at Dutch TV the reporter always talks and fools around with the drivers. They talk to them while they walk to their motor-home, to the paddock etc. The interview is always open, relaxed and fun to look at.

The only time I see other drivers like Mika, MS, David etc. being interviewd is when they are being taped. So I was under the impression those drivers were only allowed to talk to the press when their press officer (I am a quick learner) is around. And I wanted to point this out. Because that would be something I realy dislike.

Maybe I was a litlle rude but nastier things have been said on this forum.

And please don't give me the "check your facts" reply. I know a lot of things about F1 but not everything. And IMO this had got nothing to do with facts but with an opinion.

[Shiftin]

Originally posted by A3
Well done Ken. ;)

I think Shiftin is hiding now somewhere, hoping this thread will dissapear.

Pfffff, jealous I got a life besides the internet.

[edit]sorry, a bit rude but I have never been slaugthered on any forum as I am now, kindda pisses me of. Being misunderstood is my biggest problem in here[edit]

[ScudBoy]

Originally posted by bira


Well you don't know jack.

sheeesh! relax!!! the bloke made a mistake. i think you may have missed a bit of his head when you bit it off there! wanna go in for seconds?

[bira]

Originally posted by Shiftin
I will explain myself a bit further. Maybe I was wrong but that would be due to a lame coverage, u tell me.... When I look at F1 at Dutch TV the reporter always talks and fools around with the drivers. They talk to them while they walk to their motor-home, to the paddock etc. The interview is always open, relaxed and fun to look at.

The only time I see other drivers like Mika, MS, David etc. being interviewd is when they are being taped. So I was under the impression those drivers were only allowed to talk to the press when their press officer (I am a quick learner) is around. And I wanted to point this out. Because that would be something I realy dislike.

I think the primary reason for this is because Mika, Schumacher and David don't walk around the paddock or give a spontaneous interview with journalists. Ask pRy - he was with me at the Monza paddock on the last GP. You would see Trulli strolling around and at any point you could walk up to him and ask him a question. If Mika or Michael as much as take a look outside the motorhome, they are run down by a swarm of reporters and cameras - they simply cannot have the freedom to walk around as other drivers have. That is especially true for Mika and Michael, and to some extent to Villeneuve and Coulthard. You just do not see these drivers walking freely in the paddock.

When there is an official press briefing (*) or press conference (**) or interview opportunities (***), these interviews are always recorded by the press officers, always, regardless of what team it is. And, a lot of the news reports and press releases you'd read are a result of that.

* press briefing is when a driver (eg Michael Schumacher) has an arranged meeting with a group of journalists that can ask him questions. This usually happens on Thursdays and Fridays afternoons in the team's motorhome and is arranged by the press officers.

** press conference is usually arranged by the FIA (Thursday's pc, Friday's pc, post-qualifying and post race). The first part is hosted by an FIA interviewer; the second part has "questions from the floor" - that is, journalists in the media center. This is recorded by the FIA's press office and transcribed.

*** interview opportunities are primarily arranged by the FIA and are aimed mainly at the electronic media. An area in the paddock is closed up with a select number of the drivers - assigned by the FIA - standing in the middle with their press officers, and the photographers and reporters stand around and the driver moves from one to another and answers questions. these take place on Friday and Saturday and sometimes on Sunday as well, and are recorded by the press officers. these are the interviews you see on TV with the press officer holding the recorder next to the driver because due to the fact that it's held in open space, it's very hard to hear anything if you are not VERY close, so later us journalists who couldn't hear anything would go to the press officer's motorhome and listen to the tape.


The other kind of interviews are 101 arranged (not many during GP weekends, usually during testing sessions) and in that case almost always a press officer will be present, regardless of who is being interviewed (although he/she would often come and go during the interview and in general remain in the background), and the spontaneous ones, of running into someone in the paddock and asking a question or two.


One last thing: the press officers don't tell the drivers what to say. They never stop a driver when he gives an answer even if it might be damaging (imagine Jaguar's press officer's job with Irvine if he tried!)

That's all

[jonpollak]

<> Bira

Anne Bradshaw ROCKS!!!!!

And.. I have a crush on Jules...


Jp

[bira]

Just to give you an idea of the situations where you would see the press officers recording the drivers (media briefing and interview ops):


This is a very typical picture (this specific one is from the Japanese GP last year). The woman next to Mika with the back to us is Ellen Kolby, McLaren's press officer. The guy next to Schumacher is Bern Pisa, one of Ferrari's press officers. This is what the FIA-organised interview "kennel" looks like. There are approximately 100 journalists and photographers around trying to shove their way and not hearing a thing the drivers are saying



Again, a typical picture of what a media briefing looks like (this one of Ralf Schumacher with the German media, at the Brazilian GP of this year). The Williams-BMW guy standing over Ralf with a slim-recorder is Guido, BMW's press officer.

In both cases, the quotes ended up on a press release or the team's websites, or played back to journalists upon request.

[Williams]

Originally posted by jonpollak
Anne Bradshaw ROCKS!!!!!

There's an interesting book from 1998 by Derek Allsop called "Formula One Uncovered", which, despite it's tabloid-ish-sounding title, is quite good. There's about six pages of interview with Anne Bradshaw in it, in which she discusses her impressions of several F1 characters, including Irvine, Villeneuve, Schumacher, Bernie, etc. She sounds like a very interesting lady, with a very human and yet professional approach to her job.

[KenC]

Originally posted by Shiftin
[edit]sorry, a bit rude but I have never been slaugthered on any forum as I am now, kindda pisses me of. Being misunderstood is my biggest problem in here[edit]

Calm down, where were you "misunderstood"?!? Who did all the "misunderstand"ing? It's one thing to get annoyed by the media scrum and tape recorders, but it's another to pick out the women and call them something derogatory. Where did any of us misunderstand THAT? As you can see there are plenty of male press officers, but you didn't notice them. Methinks, someone here has a chauvinism problem.

[bira]

Originally posted by KenC


Calm down, where were you "misunderstood"?!? Who did all the "misunderstand"ing? It's one thing to get annoyed by the media scrum and tape recorders, but it's another to pick out the women and call them something derogatory. Where did any of us misunderstand THAT? As you can see there are plenty of male press officers, but you didn't notice them. Methinks, someone here has a chauvinism problem.

To reiterate what Ken is saying (I seem to be doing that a lot in this thread ;)), I don't think this statement can be misunderstood:

Some bimbo chick holding a litlle tape-recorder close to the drivers mouth, smiling and looking dumb. Listening to everything he is saying, pretending they have a serious job.

[ScudBoy]

I dont think personal attacks are neccesary to educate someone on the inner workings of the formula 1 media.

Shiftin had the impression that these 'press officers' were present in order to make sure the drivers' towed the 'company line' - so to speak. The pictures he had seen were of people standing next to a driver holding a mic. I can see how someone could form the opinion that they had a 'pretend' job in the sense that it wasnt very demanding - any 'bimbo' or 'himbo' could perform the task of standing whilst holding a mic.

I did not see any personal attack, on his part, of any particular press officer, but merely an opinion formed on insufficent information.

He has since been informed that he is incorrect and that the job of a press officer is quite demanding. Most of us are not privy to the inner workings of a F1 paddock and can often form opinions based on snipets of pics and info.

Bira and ken, I feel in these cases it is essential that people are corrected - but they dont have to be lambasted.

[prettyface]

Agree with scudboy there, but I'd also like to add that I'm glad this thread came up: I learned something new here.

So there you have it, something good came out of it. So shiftin, don't feel so bad, everyone can commit a faux pas on occasion. And what a big one this is.

And Bira, thanks for the pics and explanation.

[Shiftin]

Bira and KenC

Thanks for clearing things out for me (us). I realy didn't know a lot of the things you just told me, thanks for taking the time:up: .

Calling the Press Officer a bimbo chick is something I regret know and I apologise again. But I really thought those people were only there to tape, and it irritated me every time I saw them.

I was even more irritated because I thought not all teams had them...and I didn't know they are there for the driver....that the driver actually wants them to be there there. I realy didn't....

Scudboy and prettyface,

Thanks for a the support. I could sure as hell use it.

A3

Sorry again. It was more or less an action of a desperate man...I felt pretty uncomfortable to say the least.
_______________________________________________________

Next time time I start a thread I will be typing it in Word. Read it over for a week, do some research on the internet and than maybe I will post it. I didn't even eat last night beacause of this situation. I realy felt bad about it.

[Shiftin]

Originally posted by prettyface
So there you have it, something good came out of it. So shiftin, don't feel so bad, everyone can commit a faux pas on occasion. And what a big one this is.

Yeah, you can say that again. I feel pretty stupid.

[Gudrun]

Originally posted by bira


What an incredibly ignorant and malicious description.

For your information: the people you see next to the drivers are the PRESS OFFICERS. They are the ones who decide who gets and interview and when. They record the interviews for professional reasons, as would any organised press officer do. It means that a driver will not be misquoted; it means that the team can then use his quotes elsewhere. With 500 journalists around and only less than 10% of them getting direct contact with the drivers during a GP weekend, the press officers act as the driver's voice on many occasions.

Ann Bradshow is not a bimbo chick. She is one of the most respected and professional press officer in the F1 paddock and in general one of the most professional press officers I've ever worked with.

Tracy Novak (BAR), Sabine Kehm and Bern Pisa (Michael Schumacher), Jane Parisi (Rubens Barrichello), Virginie Papin (Prost GP), Ellen Kolby (McLaren), Graham Jones (Minardi) and so many many others - are probably the busiest press officers I've ever met. The nature of F1 is as such that demand will ALWAYS be higher than availability, which makes their job immensely intense.

Without them, you'd have nothing - no quotes, no press releases and no interviews.

So on their behalf allow me to ask you to bugger off and look for other victims to insult.

Thank you.....

[A3]

Originally posted by Shiftin
A3

Sorry again. It was more or less an action of a desperate man...I felt pretty uncomfortable to say the least.
_______________________________________________________

Dude, don't worry, I had a good laugh at this thread. You were slaughtered, but you deserved it. You apologized, you were forgiven. There, over.

[pRy]

another one bites the dust

[desmo]

We've all said really stupid things, at least you apologized. Faggetabaddit.

[Nikolas Garth]

Originally posted by Shiftin
sorry, a bit rude but I have never been slaugthered on any forum as I am now

Sorry for laughing, but man you got done like a dinner. ;)

[Nikolas Garth]

Originally posted by desmo
We've all said really stupid things, at least you apologized. Faggetabaddit.

I thought the gay slur was a bit tough there mate.;)

[ScudBoy]

Originally posted by Shiftin
Next time time I start a thread I will be typing it in Word. Read it over for a week, do some research on the internet and than maybe I will post it. I didn't even eat last night beacause of this situation. I realy felt bad about it. [/B]

Dude, dont worry about the actions of a few of the self-righteous ***** on this board. you will run into plenty.....

What really gets me is the amount of brown nosing sheep. As soon as somone starts flaming the usual suspects all join in like parasites

[bira]

Shiftin, I used harsh words and I'm sorry you got offended. But at the same time, I would like to think that yes - you should think twice about slinging mud aimlessly. Not naming names or making a direct insult at someone doesn't diminish the severity of the insult, in my opinion.

Anyways, let bygones be bygones.

That is, if ScudBoy has had enough in fuelling this thread any further

[ScudBoy]

Wow Bira you rock!

ha ha - okay ive had enough now

[RV_Canada]

[KICKING DEAD HORSE]

This has been an interesting thread. Perhaps Bira et al could write some articles from an 'insider' perspective about the F1 races. Even if I do make it to Montreal, I certainly don't have the access that they do, and the insider view (not Mitch) makes for an interesting story.

[/KICKING DEAD HORSE]

[hedges]

Originally posted by Gudrun


Thank you.....

Gudrun, are you an F1 press officer? I won't tell.