Last Sunday, at the conclusion of the Brazilian Grand Prix, I asked for your opinion on the BBC and Sky Sports Formula 1 programming this season. Once again, the response from readers has been fantastic, with 21 comments on that post.
It should not be a surprise that the main topic of conversation was Suzi Perry’s role as BBC F1 presenter. In the comments that were made, it was difficult for me to find a positive, to be honest, with the main consensus that she is the weak link in the BBC team.
I have become increasingly tired of Suzi Perry tripping over her words when speaking live. I know that she has to do the tricky bit of listening to instructions in her ear and talking but even this last race was littered with minor errors that really grate after a while or is just me? Prime example: referred to the V8 engines in the build up show as being the “start of an era” or “the end of a new era”. – b1uenose
Suzi clearly is not a fan of F1 and it would certainly be best for all concerned if BT came calling for her for MotoGP. If that were to happen, I would hope that Lee McKenzie would get the job. – Sean
James Rowe makes a point that Perry’s presenting has meant that the standard of the forum has decreased compared with the high quality of 2012, however velvet argues that Perry has done well in 2013, when considering other previous efforts:
She was better than I thought, wish she’d stop tripping over her words but she was way more comfortable in this arena than Simon [Lazenby] was at first.
Whilst Perry has been criticised above, it appears the jury is still out on Lazenby, with several readers believing Sky are better off looking elsewhere:
Don’t get me started on Lazenby, no idea why Sky haven’t replaced him yet. – marc
For Sky, get rid of Lazenby for anybody else, along with Herbert, he seems far too smug and in your face, shall we say. – James Rowe
Connor McDonagh is more positive about Lazenby, but is not as impressed with Herbert’s contributions:
I disliked Lazenby but have started to like him a bit more, his presenting has improved and making it better for the viewers. Some of Herbert’s comments are ridiculous and offer no insight whatsoever such as ”You need a car which drives well”, however I like Johnny, can be quite funny alongside [Damon] Hill.
Another key subject was the commentary, with readers on the whole leaning towards the Ben Edwards and David Coulthard combination on the BBC:
I can’t put my finger on it but [Martin] Brundle seems to have lost his shine and Coulthard has overtaken him. It could be down to Coulthard being experienced with modern cars or just that he’s fresher to commentary than Brundle. Also, I can’t stand [David] Croft, his voice grates on me and his excitement sounds forced. – marc
In terms of commentary, BBC wins this. Ben Edwards is one of, if not the best commentator around and with Coulthard alongside him, they create an almost unbeatable duo. Gary Anderson’s snippets during commentary is also very useful, especially when he makes the strategies easy to understand. David Croft for Sky is far too shouty. The emotion which he tries to portray sounds forced and ruins it for me, although Brundle is still a vital asset to Sky. – James Rowe
While the BBC commentary is a highlight with readers, it appears the BBC highlight shows themselves are not winning readers over, JackiJam was particularly damming:
The coverage of the Austin, Texas race was abysmally poor, and the so called ‘replays’ of live coverage were nothing more than highlights, often less than 1.5 hours.
The point that Sky only have drivers’ as pundits was raised by velvet, however others say that Sky’s coverage has improved versus 2012:
Fantastic coverage, loads of insights, Ted Kravitz, Martin [Brundle] and Anthony [Davidson] really make the coverage of races and practices amazing. Testing coverage has made the channel come alive this year and is great to see a channel do so. – Chris Robey
I’ll finish this piece with one comment, which is some food for thought:
Ultimately though I don’t think either side is near the level of BBC from 2009 to 2011. – Sean
There are a lot more comments on the original blog post, some of which are really worth reading, but the above is just a little taster on what blog readers are talking about.
Motorsport Broadcasting 