Martin Haven is to lead commentate on the first Formula E race of the 2016-16 season, he has confirmed.
Writing on his Twitter, Haven made reference to his commentary duties alongside Dario Franchitti for the Hong Kong ePrix. Haven substitutes for Jack Nicholls, who has been Formula E’s lead commentator through the first two seasons of the championship.
Readers who watch Eurosport’s motor sport output will recognise Haven’s name: he is a familiar voice on their World Endurance Championship coverage and has previously commented on the likes of the GP2 Series for the channel.
With Nicholls now dedicating his time to BBC’s Formula 1 coverage for Radio 5 Live, it means his Formula E commentary duties have decreased as a result. If Nicholls is still involved in Formula E going forward, I would expect him and Haven to share lead commentator duties through the season.
I hope Haven is not a one-off deal, because there needs to be some kind of consistency across the season rather than appointing commentators on an ad-hoc basis. Saying that, I also hope Nicholls is involved, simply because his commentary with Franchitti was brilliant to listen to, race in, race out.
However, there is this…
I think Dario [Franchitti] needs to be listened to more and somebody who has some idea about what cars do when they go round circuits and the dynamics that apply to them, would be useful to be alongside him. From what I’ve heard, that may well be happening next year. – John Hindhaugh on Midweek Motorsport, September 21st (1:13:45 in).
So, there you are.
Update on September 28th – Haven will also be lead commentator for the Marrakesh ePrix on November 12th, as that race clashes with the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend. Beyond that is unknown at this stage.
Motorsport Broadcasting 
Listen to last week’s Midweek Motorsport from radiolemans – and this story was rumoured, with the ditching of Nicholls completely. At 1:13:45…
Thanks for the hat tip, I shall have a look…
Thanks for that, never knew radio le mans did a weekly podcast, very interesting. Always loved radio le mans for the le mans coverage.
Martin Haven is ok, shame that Jack is leaving then. The three of Jack, Dario and Nicki was what made the coverage really good. I watched it all in the Formual E app,. none of that itv nonsense before and after.
Jack is wasted doing radio, hes such a good commentator. Cannot see many listening to F1 on the radio. Suppose if you are stuck in a traffic jam on a sunday trying to get home to watch it, but then if you care about your motorsport, get a calendar and watch it on tv live 🙂 Did try matching up a Beeb radio feed once this year with F1 on sky, but the radio commentary was not good, motorsport just does not work on radio for me.
We didn’t rumour a full ditch at alll, James. John was speaking generically about what might improve the comms – we are well aware of the limitations placed on Jack by the format.
John Hindhaugh’s comments are ones I completely disagree with. Dario’s analysis is fine as is, and it’s more important that he retains chemistry with Nicholls than just replacing him with some bland, Johnathan Palmer-esque figure with a less exciting personality. Also, the critique is that Jack isn’t technical enough to be a lead commentator; didn’t realise that was a requirement. John sounded jealous and mean-spirited listening back to that segment in context.
You may think that Ed, but in fact, John was aware of the involvement of Martin and simply wanted to trail that as Martin is a friend and colleague and we enjoy his work. You have inferred mean spiritedness where one exists
Ah, okay, sorry I misinterpreted that as John implying that someone should replace Nichols permanently. Anyway I look forwards to hearing Haven’s commentary in Hong Kong.
Obvs that should say ‘none exists’ – that’ll teach me to try and tweet PLM whilst dealing with this stuff