The dust has settled on what has been an extraordinary few weeks of Formula 1 action with thrills, spills, controversy and drama. With it, Channel 4’s first stab at covering Formula 1 has concluded.
Sky Sports selected Australia as one of their exclusive races, meaning that Channel 4 aired extended highlights. Alongside that, fans were treated to a special edition of Speed with Guy Martin in the build-up to Australia. I wrote a piece looking at Saturday’s qualifying highlights programme from Australia.
Channel 4 have since aired live coverage of every session from the Bahrain Grand Prix, meaning viewers have now seen a sample of both Channel 4’s live and recorded coverage. What are your early impressions of the presentation team? Was there anything that disappointed you throughout the two weeks? Where would you be looking to improve the coverage?
The best thoughts and opinions will be collated into a new post which will be published in the lead up to the Chinese Grand Prix.
Text updated on April 3rd following the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Motorsport Broadcasting 
Hearing the familiar and brilliant commentary team has helped the transition. Jones great. Ad breaks not too intrusive. Only complaint was Mark Webber insisting on looking down the camera, made me feel uncomfortable!
Very good. Just the annoying music and intro outro that I didn’t really like. Other than that a more than solid effort!
I really liked it, very approachable yet not dumned down. That graphics they used were great and the social media touches made it feel fresh and New, something the BBC struggled with. The presenting team is awesome and mixes all the best of the BBC with great new people.
I know people will moan about the ads but that’s what makes it free, at least its not like Sky where you have to pay then still have ads. We should be grateful we still get high quality free to air coverage in this country when so many others in Europe don’t anymore.
I’m looking forward to Bahrain and seeing more people on screen such as EJ and Susie.
Excellent coverage loved it, good presentation, much cheaper and more informative than sky sports, looking forward to the rest of the season !
Good, liked everything and everyone. Only thing that gets REALLY annoying is the little intro outro sound piece in the ad breaks, driver interviews etc. Drum and base crap. Get rid of that then 10/10
Well to only have 3 months to get everything ready, they did a superlative job. They may not have the best races to show live, but they have an amazing team. We may not have seen all 12 or 13 (Zanardi dependent) but it looks like a super line up, and they’ve taken the best from BBC and a few new faces.
I noticed on twitter that Steve was getting a lot of stick, but he did a great job, and didn’t look or sound like a rookie F1 Presenter. The dedication he put into this role was unbelievable.
The thing that I was slightly annoyed with was that i feel they had too much build up on both days and especially with qualifying, they didn’t have enough analysis.
But we are yet to see them live. So now we wait until Bahrain and see what the team are like LIVE.
Excellent effort, MUCH preferred it to BBC’s highlights package, it was pretty much a full race rerun with ads strategically placed, which we will get used to. I love the new look, I think they have done a terrific job.
I think there is something missing for the Friday, maybe a 30min magazine show, or even a short (15mins?) practice highlights show. Also I feel that could do a little more for analysis at the end of show…it felt a little rushed, but I guess as a highlights show it would.
Overall I love the team, and am very convinced that channel 4 are going to take this seriously, am sad that have to wait 2 weeks for it all again! Bring on Bahrain!
Much prefer Sky F1, Better line-up and its all live, Not the same waiting on and watching highlights which would be spoiled before hand.
Very good effort, apart from the awful ‘Hello magazine’ style Hamilton interview, and the truly awful song at the end, what were they thinking?
A very good broadcast…you got everything you wanted and more, really liked the Channel 4 upbeat feel to it, with the added humour…once Steve Jones has settled in with DC and others all will be perfect…the ad’s were well placed and we will all get used to them…overall I really enjoyed it.
I really liked it! Felt fresh and new. C4s own graphics were really speak looking and I like how driver lower tbirds change colour depending on team. C4 is definitely going for the slightly less technical edge to try and appeal to a more mainstream audience. Which is fair enough cause if you want more in depth coverage/are a bigger fan, you are probably more likely to pay for coverage. Steve Jones did a really good job. Although there are times when you can tell hi is not technically minded (eg. Referring to drivers as race car men, although that might have been on purpose). I liked the way the combined their graphics with live footage, ie when they showed the grid pre race at the side while DC and Webber talked. I never got a chance to watch the post race coverage but pre race didn’t feel too dissimilar to that of BBC. I do feel C4 are trying to reach a younger adience with their coverage. With the hashtags and (incredibly annoying) dub step music. The humours elements (Murray Waller attempting to play the chain on bass) were good, I just hope they don’t repeat them loads cause they will get stale fast. Sometimes I feel they jumped into breaks very suddenly, with no nod to what’s coming next. Q1 ends straight into break, no mention of Q2/3 until after. If I had never seen the sport ad randomly tuned in then it could be confusing, I may think it’s all over and leave… They made the best of a shocking qualifying to.
I enjoyed the coverage overall very much, much better than I’d expected from a highlights package. Some niggling faults, especially the dreadful “music” used as outro/intro to adverts & some extraneous attempts to introduce elements of pop culture into what really should remain a sports programme, but the team’s solid (Steve was fine for a debutant & will get more relaxed as he goes along) & all we need next time is some expert techie stuff. Basically: BRAVO CH4!
I thought the show was very good but someone to keep my eye on is the host. It appears that he has done plenty of research and is well prepared for the upcoming season. However at times is reminded me of watching T4 in my youth! This is primarily a sport and secondarily entertainment, and I hope that the presenter can successfully make the transition from entertainment to sport over the coming races. I’m concerned that he will lack substance but will try and make up for it in style. I’m very open to him proving me wrong!
I have been suprised with what they have done. Thought that today’s broadcast could have showed more race. They made around 12 minutes of visible cuts which should have been done at ad-breaks. Both sessions require less build-up (around 15 minutes) allowing for more analysis or reaction especially in Qualifying. I think the build-up would have been great, if it stopped after the first ad-break and didn’t get filled with ridiculous interviews with Hamilton and Alonso. However, I do understand that they are only contracted to show a set amount, but the BBC used to show 90mins of Morning races, whereas C4 have only shown about 65mins (excluding adverts). They should have shown less chit-chat and more on-track, they did suring Qualy, so should throughout the race.
“BBC used to show 90mins of Morning races” – this was true in 2012 but shortened in length as the years went by. Last year’s Australian GP highlights programme was 85 minutes long
China last year was still 2 hours.
As I understand it the amount of live coverage Ch4 they can show is contractually limited. So they can’t simply show the entire race and run ads over the boring bits.
No, but the point is, adverts account for highlights, so they did just need to place 6 ad-breaks in at boring points of the race cutting it from 1hr 48mins down to 84mins. 84mins is well within the contract.
Really surprised at all the positive comments. The commentary and camera work was poor. Around lap 14 Hamilton was stuck behind Verstappen and then suddenly he wasn’t ..(Verstappen had come in, apparently un-noticed by commentators!). Replays took ages to come up (e.g the crash- thankfully Alonso OK.). Anchorman has zero charisma! Ads intrusive but since watched recording didn’t matter (and didn’t see ads!)
Lots of “flash” but not much substance. Still, hopefully will improve through the season.
C4 coverage of the crash:
Crash
Red flag
Safety car leads everyone into the pit lane
Commercial break
Safety car leads the cars out of the pit lane with Ben Edwards saying it had been 19 mins since the red flag had been out
In the 19 mins FOM were showing replays so it was inevitable that C4 were going to loose those replays as they couldn’t afford the time to show it! Just after they showed it they tweeted that you could watch it again on the website. Would you have preferred that they cut more of the race to show more replays of the crash?
For me the jury is still out on Steve Jones. He was still trying to play the cheeky chappie boy on a Swansea night out. Did you notice Lewis giving him a look during the interview after qualifying? There seemed to be a few of those looks from DC and Mark Webber. Look at me! Look at me! gets boring after a while. If he irritates drivers or team bosses, he will very soon find that the PR people will close him out. Everything else looked OK. Karun Chandhok was OK for the pits. I think he will develop as the season progresses, and more people in the teams trust him, and pass on information.That same ‘learning period’ happened to both Ted and Tom. The drum and bass music was OK, but not very original. But hey it was probably something cheap, from a free site. Original or commissioned music costs money, and I want money spent on the screen, so no complaints. For a first broadcast, I thought the production company did very well.
Liked it. Webber was a great step up from crazy Eddie who think would be better suited to interviews rather than any sort of analysis.
Steve Jones impressive and looks as will be perfect for the job. My only complaint is Steve calling Coulthard a legend and then raising it to dizzying stupid heights today calling Suzie Wolff a legend!
If Suzi is a legend what is he going to call Prost when he makes an appearance?
Great blog David, often read it though rarely comment.
yeah i saw that as well. DC was a decent f1 driver and so was mark but neither of them were legends. Susie is anything but a legend. First female in F1 in 20 years is the only major thing she has to her name.
It’s good that Alain and Murray got shoutouts as legends because they are, you could slide Bruno into that list calling him a nephew of a legend if he had to do the rule of 3.
Looks like a good team of presenters, shame about the coverage… Can only hope it gets better… Or it’s going to be a very long season of frustration.
Overall, I’m pleased. C4 have put together a solid product in a short space of time. Of course almost anything would have been better than the alternative of no free-to-air coverage.
It felt very much like the BBC show because of all the familiar faces/voices. Steve Jones did well for a first attempt.
Much like others I am not a fan of the intro/outro sting. It’s too loud.
The ad breaks, especially in between the qualifying segments, cut down on the waffle/analysis so C4 may have time for all the pundits they’ve signed up. Obviously things will be a little different during a live weekend.
The race camera work can’t be blamed on C4 and but some detail was lost in edits. I did notice a 3 lap jump in the highlights towards the end (53 to 56 I think).
Be interesting to see what the audience figures are like in comparison to last year.
Ugh, dubstep.
Avoided spoilers and watched up until the red flag, then had to go out. Came back a couple of hours after the C4 programme had finished hoping to watch it on-demand, but it wasn’t available. Even now, four hours after the programmed aired it’s still not available on All4 – when you can torrent the Sky SD race broadcast in 20 minutes it’s not good enough.
A bit poor compared to the BBC’s 2 hour rewind and usually very quick iPlayer availability. Though at least there’s C4+1 in HD, useful for Baku when it clashes with the end of Le Mans!
Err your comparing All4 to a recording “Joe Bloggs” made of the race and put online plus programmes usually are made available several hours after broadcast, with the BBC it was usually up after about 4-5 hrs after it had finished before it was available on the iPlayer
Joe Bloggs is almost uniquely taken to mean the very excellent F1 blog by the highly knowledgeable journalist Joe Saward . https://joesaward.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/six-hours-after-the-race-9/ He also publishes GP+ online magazine which has the full weekend report plus many interesting articles on the history of racing, drivers past and present etc.
In case it is not clear Joe does not illegally video F1 and put it online.
Mostly negative I’m afraid. Shame BBC still not providing coverage.
I thought there were to be no adverts as part of the deal, so this was a disappointment.
Steve Jones very irritating, Having recorded it, I found myself fast forwarding whenever he was on. He needs to try and not be the wise cracker all the time (or actually not at all), especially when he interrupts Coulthard or Webber mid sentence with his ‘jokes’.
Hopefully he will change his act, or C4 will change the presenter?
Big learning curve for C4, but if lessons learnt, not too late to make improvements.
Look forward to seeing these improvements with future coverage
Its been publicly announced and been written on here that the LIVE races were commercial free with the last break finishing 15 mins before the formation lap and the next when all cars are in Parc Ferme but 1 Mercedes Benz 30 second commercial on in the last minute before the formation lap
I really want to like the coverage but Steve Jones irritated me this weekend with his wise cracks and didn’t seem up to interviewing the drivers. Love the sport so want to hear what the drivers and teams have to say, I don’t need it ‘lightening up’ with Steve Jones trying to bring the party to F1, it just distracts from the interview.
Hard to judge content of analysis coverage as last minute rule changes meant not even the teams knew 100% what was happening this weekend!
I’ll never like the adverts but will have to get used to them I suppose.
No issues for me. I noted some people forgot it was a highlight show therefore no issues with the ads. just a reminder in two weeks time Channel 4 will NOT show an ad during the F1 when live
Jones reminded me of Jake Humphrey in his early days, so I’m happy to give him the benefit of the doubt. He’ll learn when to keep quiet, and when to ‘add value’. Can’t be as bad as Suzi Perry who never looked interested in F1. The overall coverage was a good change from BBC. I like the effort to involve social media. Instant reaction to what has happened in the race, just a few hours after the event. We’d all prefer a 4hr love programme, but given the time constraints I thought C4 did a great job.
Steve Jones. This is f1 where the big boys play and the jokers are left behind. Lose the Saturday night out with the lads in Cardiff attitude and poor attempts at being a comedian or step aside and let someone else take over. Preferably Lee McKenzie she more than proved she could handle hosting a to show during the commonwealth games on the BBC and she has the respect of each and every driver in the paddock and the team principles. Take a look at Gene Haas face as you interviewed him he has the look on his face of am I being plunked? Every show you have done has been cancelled and every show you have done has had your poor attempt at humour in it.
Adverts. Ok so no adverts in the live races but for goodness sake on the non live weekends enough already. 32 minutes of adverts in 1 programme. Far too much.
I thought it was excellent, really refreshing.
It was good to see F1 aiming for a younger audience, because that is what it needs right now, and C4 is the perfect channel for attracting them.
Steve Jones – he’ll get better, only needs to stop interrupting DC mid flow.
And as for moaning about ads, how are C4 supposed to pay for the rights to F1 without them? It makes no difference when it’s the highlights, and it’s great that during live races we won’t have ads.
Totally with you there, if there was no ad’s we wouldnt have f1 at all. Loved it!
I was so irritated by Steve Jones. He’s just not right for F1 (or anything else come to think of it.) Loved Mark Webber. He’s like a breathe of fresh air. I really hope Alex Zanardi makes an appearance at some point – and of course Murray. The rest of the team did a good job. Get rid of Steve Jones and I think it will only get better.
Sorry for spelling error above BREATH of fresh air!
Very disappointed. Steve Jones was irritating and the new team has yet to gel making the whole atmosphere awkward. Far too many adverts – will not be watching another highlights show.
Not too bad, but nothing to rave about. Steve Jones needs to stop trying too hard, give him a vallium before the program starts.
Loved the Guy/DC special, lots more please.
Still prefer JA to DC commentating.
We must remember that people like DC and Lee McKenzie have been in and around the paddock for years. They are known to the drivers and team personnel. They all travel, live and work together for a lot of the year. Steve Jones has only just joined so it will take a little while before he is used to way things are and they become familiar with him. He’s the new boy and needs to settle in.
Steve Jones would be better suited to presenting the “reality” type shows that i don’t watch .i can’t put my finger on it but his presenting style is annoying and seriously detracts from the experience.
Steve Jones is the worst F1 presenter EVER. He hasnt got a clue, hes ruining the experience for me.
Mark Jinks said >”Steve Jones is the worst F1 presenter EVER. He hasnt got a clue, hes ruining the experience for me.”<
OK. Steve seems to have listened to somebody. Still looks a bit stiff, and continues doing the looks to camera. Just nerves? Though it has to be said that the vision mixer was slow on the cut to whatever, and made it look worse. Has he got a clue? Hmm! He's mixing with the pro's, and if he doesn't do his homework, then he will look bad. Suzy, DC, and Webber looked really comfortable. I have a feeling that Steve is happier with something that is at least partially scripted. The others appear to have plenty of relevant questions to ask drivers and team personnel, based on their knowledge and experience, and Steve appears to be somewhat out of his depth in a free-form scenario. Overall the show was OK.
Let's be clear. Any comments about Steve Jones, relate to his TV work. I heard from some acquaintances in broadcast production, that he is, "an OK human being, and a good laugh". Q – Could we do better if we were offered his job?
Ditch the Welshman and let Mark Webber front the whole presentation. Toto Wolff’s and Daniel Ricciardo’s reactions to comments by Jones after the event show he hasn’t got any credibility – something Webber still has bucketfuls of.
I didn’t like Steve Jones as much as Suzi Perry but he was much better than Jake Humphrey. It’s telling that they gave him an iPad i’d talked to a few people about his flailing hands during the highlights.
I have a feeling that Steve will do this season then DC will take over. It seemed that DC was being groomed to do a lot more of the talky bits with Mark Webber.
I liked the guy who did the co commentary with Ben during the practices and it seems he was the stats guy for Ben and David at the GPs.
I love the graphics set up. It’s so channel 4 but then it’s good that they’ve put their stamp on. The break bumpers to drive twitter use is a good way of having the inevitable social media plugging.
I missed the guitar thing I thought that would be a continuous thing. Good to have Murray involved and Jenson getting interviewed. It’d be nice for Murray to be able to do that for every live race. However the Ecclestone interview gave nothing but that wasn’t Eddie’s fault. I’d have much rather had a little five minute section with EJ sounding off about the sport.
“I didn’t like Steve Jones as much as Suzi Perry but he was much better than Jake Humphrey.”
This is a very good point. Jones is still settling in and the dynamics between himself and the other presenters are still taking shape, but he is already better than Humphrey.
Humphrey has a constant grin on his face to suggest personality… whereas Jones actually appears to have one. He’s not there to be the F1 expert. Early signs for me are that he will add some personality and ‘lightness’ to proceedings, and thus be a decent front / link man for the experts around him.
I quite enjoyed his irreverent response to Toto Wolff when he replied that a 1-3 was “the best we could achieve this weekend”, to which Jones casually and mockingly replied, “well no it wasn’t, a 1-2 was the best you could have done.”
As much as I grew to like Suzi Perry (who I thought was very, very nervous in the beginning), you wouldn’t have got that or its style of delivery from her!
Yeah I didn’t see that as flippant or misunderstanding. I think he was correctly suggesting that Lewis is a better driver than Kimi and surely could have caught up.
Yeah Suzi we all know is a biker grrrrrl so the f1 would have been daunting but I liked her and was surprised she never got the gig ahead of Mr Kids TV.
I’m not entirely sure if the coverage has been increased or decreased. I’d be inclined to say that their highlights package has been increased a little but in general live coverage has been decreased slightly (due to the lack of F1 forum, no additional feeds, ad breaks, etc.). Either way, I’m still enjoying the coverage as it’s better than nothing.
As for Steve Jones, I’m not sure what to think about him. I’ll reserve my judgement until a few more races in as he’ll need time to get used to things. If things still look fairly bad by the European Leg of live races, then I think they should look for another lead presenter to take his place.
Watched C4’s coverage today and generally was good. Good graphics and the way the team split up pre race and did different questions, styles etc. was good. Mark and Susie offered good insight and karun was ok in the pits. Steve Jones is new to it and needs time but he did struggle today. The use of the wow happened too many times and at times, lack of involvement was evident. DC was excellent and filled the gaps well. Steve will get known around the paddock and learn no doubt of better questions to ask people such as Toto Wolff. Need to remember that C4 has had to throw all this together in a short time and overall was good.
Two many trivial opinions. C4 effort is great. Shame its counting down to paywall.wonder if people will criticize something they pay extra for. I doubt it.the only whining will be those looking at a blank screen unwilling to pay.
I think on the whole the Channel 4 F1 coverage has been pretty good. In particular the most important part (the races themselves) benefit from the excellent commentary, uninterrupted live coverage and, for Australia at least, what felt like relatively lengthy highlights.
The rotating pundits idea has worked so far because it allows for good access and different angles for each individual due to their historic or current links (e.g. Susie Wolff in the Mercedes garage, DC driving the Red Bull with the two race drivers). They seem to have given more air time to Lee McKenzie, who was superb in Bahrain with her interview of Sebastian Vettel meeting her usual high standards – I’m old enough to remember her on Speed Sunday and she’s come a hell of a long way since then! It’s also odd that Channel 4 are featuring Murray Walker more than the BBC did, but hope it continues. Karun Chandhok doesn’t seem to have featured much so far (partly because Mark Webber often gets asked his opinion mid-session perhaps?) but his limited contributions have been decent too.
As for Steve Jones, I’m not entirely convinced as yet. He has a weird presenting, and particularly interviewing, style that seems off-putting to the other pundits and people around him, and makes some odd, misplaced comments at times (e.g. “please cross everything…” at the start of Q1 – why Steve?). He doesn’t pretend he knows it all though at least; I was never a big fan of Jake Humphrey because I didn’t think his knowledge of F1 was sufficient but got the feeling he thought it was, and I felt he asked daft questions and missed things without realising it or (seemingly) learning about the sport. Jones by contrast hasn’t got a clue, but is refreshingly honest about it and seems eager to learn.
I do feel sorry for Channel 4 that no matter what they do, they won’t have live F1 in three year’s time. Nor will I unless Sky’s subscription prices take a nose dive!
I agree about Steve jones. He is an entertainer not a sports presenter. I can’t believe that C4 could think he was the man for the job.
He is the weak link in C4 coverage. Bring back Suzi Perry or anyone who has a bit of F1 knowledge. Anyone but him.
Steve Jones is useless, as I said he would be. Would like to see Webber front the show, but wouldn’t have him in the commentary box. Ben Edwards, Lee McKenzie and DC all greats. Karun Chandhok is highly knowledgeable but I have some understanding issues (not being racist). Susie Wolff provided decent info today but feel she is a waste of space and is definitely not a great. Good to see Murray Walker back, the true F1 legend. Found the coverage 1000 times better than Sky’s but agree the post race coverage was less informative but the highlights are more informative because interviews can be editted in from 3/4 hours after the race, not just 25mins. Overall, positive but please bin off Steve Jones.
Well, you can’t please ’em all can you?
Personally, given the details we have on Steve (that he’s been swatting for 6 weeks etc) are that he’s doing his damnedest to make the show work. He’s not pretending to be something he’s not, and he’s done a good job so far. Personally I think his style is the snappy kind that is precisely the freshness that was missing on the Beeb after Jake. If you want to engage with new fans, then maybe having someone who empathizes with new fans isn’t such a bad thing? Considering he’s stood next to three racers with tonnes of experience in the bag I think he’s done a fine job. It must be pretty nerve wracking at times and he looks at ease. I’m sure he’ll get better with time.
I don’t think it can’t be understated what a top job Channel 4 done in terms of choosing solid personnel and then bringing a fresh, zippy Channel 4 style touch to proceedings in a super quick time. The BBC experienced hands are doing the great work they have always done.
Having Webber involved is a masterstroke. He’s one of the most outspoken drivers of his era, and a real character. Having modern drivers in the team is important, and since DC left the sport in 2008, there hasn’t been a real injection of driver input from the modern class of the field. Having left in 13, and with current WEC experience gives him a real edge. Given that it took DC a few years to come into his own in front of camera, I’d like to see more of Webber.
I don’t want to speak about the rotation too much yet as it’s been largely the same team. Give it 4 or 5 more races and we’ll see how that pans out. The Murray material is absolutely brilliant too.
Overall a definite thumbs up here.
Well said about Jones & Webber.
Also the splitting up into pairs to do different spots is good. The grid walk was the best on terrestrial TV for years with Webber out there as well as Coulthard, who has never looked comfortable chasing down people to interview whilst on camera.
It’s a nice little tweak to that format.
The presentation is good but it’s much more difficult to watch now. I was half an hour late for the GP yesterday and couldn’t start the programme from the beginning (which you can always do on BBC). I ended up not watching the GP because I didn’t want to miss the beginning. Now I’m waiting for highlights to be available but they don’t tell you when. It’s all unclear and much less straightforward than before.
Verdict: 5/10
Channel 4+1, then… which certainly on Freeview we don’t have a BBC equivalent for, so that for is an improvement in switching to C4.
What is a definite, large step backwards is the catchup service. Completely flawed. I picked up on the 2nd half of the race on the ‘All 4’ app this morning, and after about 30 mins of uninterrupted action, I had a spell of about 7 or 8 ad breaks each separated by 10 seconds of F1 action.
So whilst live on C4, the race is uninterrupted by ads, this is not the case with their catch-up service. Their app is almost completely unusable ad-ware.
Major downside for catch-uppers.
really enjoyable coverage, but Suzi Wolff needs to speak up! She’s hard enough to understand at the best of times with that strange hybrid Highland/German accent of hers without her mumbling as well. Mark Webber and DC are a great double act, unlike Bernie and EJ who both need to retire. Interesting that they gave some screen time to Lee McKenzie at the end and Karun Chandok at the start but none to Ben Edwards in the Combox. Jones is still a little awkward but so was Suzi Perry at first. I think they’re trying to recreate the dynamic they had with Jake Humphrey and Jones will soon settle in with a few more live races under his belt. The tweets at the bottom of the screen were too small to read [or at least they were on my not huge telly] the adbreaks weren’t that intrusive, talking to Christian Horner on the pitwall [like the Beeb used to do] can stay but a bit more technical analysis wouldn’t go amiss. Shame they can’t nick Alan McNish. Overall, better than the Beeb.
Re race coverage, felt saw too much of cars entering and leaving pit lane (not pit stops themselves which are always good to see) and teams looking at equipment on pitwall when could have been showing front runners. Whilst an exciting race showing lots of action, we only heard from commentators re what happening with the front runners, didn’t see much coverage of them at all would have been nice to check in now and then. Unsure if camera via C4 or local in which case probably no control over it?
All race coverage is provided by FOM (Formula One Management) and so broadcasters have little say in what happens on screen after the F1 logo is shown
I really wish people would stop knocking the efforts of Steve Jones after only two GPs. What were most of us like on the first couple of days into a new job? He’s not supposed to be an expert on F1, he’s the presenter who leads the programme and provides all the links to all the many changing topics, interviews etc that take place over a GP weekend. These are happening constantly, with producers and directors constantly giving him instructions (and probably advice) in both his ears. The poor guy has so much to remember and coordinate, while all the time presenting a relaxed and confident image to the camera. I think he’s already doing a fairly good job of it. People have suggested DC or Webber could do the job, but that’s not where their expertise lies – they’re the pundits who feed off questions asked and observations made. Over on Sky Lazenby has now being doing the job for 3 or more years – so we can now perhaps fairly judge him – and already I prefer Jones.
Steve who? Stupid and too tall for most of the drivers. Who was that brilliant singer at end of Bahrain?
For their Live coverage, they were good. I saw many complaints about the Pole Position ad break, but I’m sure people understand now. I think Steve thinks its a live studio show for half of it, but sooner than later he will get into the groove of it. Literally everyone in the world is out to get him and we’ve only had 2 races so far! People need to give him time. I see him as a Jake V2.0. Their pre and post race coverage was good, however, I think they could’ve stayed on for a little longer. However the time zone of it makes it understandable. In all honesty, I did expect a little more from C4, so far, hopefully they change me during the next few races
Just caught up on the Bahrain F1 on Chanel 4 website and I found the coverage to totally unwatchable. Nothing to do with presenting skills, just the level of disruptions the add breaks have completely takes away any sense of the drama that’s going on in the race. As this is normally how I have to watch F1 I’m afraid its a big thumbs down for Chanel 4 coverage and I’m sadly I won’t be tuning in again.
Channel 4’s live races do not contain adverts, the actual race is uninterrupted. Only the build-up and post-race segments have adverts, same as on Sky.