Sky Sports F1’s weekend output: The Verdict so Far

In the first two parts of my five part mid-season series looking at BBC F1’s and Sky Sports F1’s output, I looked at both of their current line-ups and their strengths and weaknesses. In this part, I intend to look at the weekend output from Sky Sports F1, including suggestions of how to improve it. In the fourth part of this series, I shall look at Sky’s programming outside of weekends, again, with suggestions on how it could be expanded upon; while the final part of the series shall look at the television ratings, and whether the new broadcasting deal has led to an increase in ratings, or a decrease in ratings.

As I noted back in April, I will not be doing a part on how BBC can improve, simply because I feel that they have reached ‘the rooftop’. There is not much at all in my opinion that BBC could do to expand their current output beyond their budget constraints. My only suggestion is that from October, is for them to put practice sessions on BBC Two now that all children’s programming is leaving BBC Two. Aside from that, there is not much else for them to do. I did, however, look at in detail their Qualifying broadcast for this year’s German Grand Prix, for those that wish to read that, please click here. As thus, I won’t spend a part of this series giving suggestions that are never realistically going to happen.

The Sky Sports F1 channel covers every session of the 2012 Formula 1 season live, from the Drivers’ Press Conference on a Thursday afternoon right through to the race itself. The channel also covers every session from the feeder series called GP2 as well as the Qualifying and the two races from GP3. The stars of GP3 typically move up to GP2, with their end goal to reach Formula 1.

Practice Sessions
Each practice session on Sky Sports F1 is covered with 15-minutes build-up and 10 minutes post-session analysis fronted by Simon Lazenby for practices one and two with Georgie Thompson for practice three. David Croft and Anthony Davidson are normally the commentators, although with Davidson’s 24 Hours of Le Mans injury and commitments prior to the injury, Jerome d’Ambrosio and more recently Allan McNish have stepped in for him. During the session Natalie Pinkham, Martin Brundle and Ted Kravitz rove up and down the pitlane; Brundle also with Lazenby before and after the sessions. The amount of time dedicated in the build-up to practice is fine, as is the length dedicated after practices one and two. However, “running off air” three minutes after practice three is quite embarrassing for the sake of seven minutes of advertising, given that the advertised off air time is given as 11:10. The reason I say embarrassing is because of what happened at the Monaco Grand Prix. A quite hectic end to practice three thanks to Sergio Perez and Pastor Maldonaldo, and Sky decide to rush off air before the world feed ends with Thompson, Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill looking a bit clueless in a boat. For the practice sessions, the way they cover the sessions is fine, and there is nothing to change. The commercials I can accept, in fact, commercials in the practice sessions are a good thing as they allow me to hop onto the Red Button (or Sky Race Control in Sky’s language) and access the onboard feeds, which is a good watch while the commercials are on the main channel.

Occasionally they also cut away from the World Feed to show Brundle or Kravitz demonstrating something in pit lane, I don’t mind if they do this, as long as there is a reason for doing it. I don’t like them doing it if cars are on track, they should only cut away if absolutely necessary in those scenarios. It does grind though as there are one or two cuts that are too long, it is as if the director has fallen asleep for a few seconds to me. At this point, I would suggest the Picture-in-Picture (PiP) option for the channel, but I’m not sure whether the broadcasting rights allow them to go PiP during an actual session, so I’m unsure if that is a valid suggestion. Another thing is how Sky treat the practice sessions. I don’t mean in terms of air-time, I mean how they approach the commentary. Back in the 5 Live F1 days from 2009 to 2011 with Croft and Davidson, the editorial decision was that the session were mostly interactive with a lot of discussion encouraged via Twitter and text. That in my view was the perfect way of doing it, the pictures were essentially an addition to the commentary, as it should be for practice. Unfortunately, with Sky the editorial stance appears to have changed in that a lot less tweets are read out and more of a focus is put on what is happening on the track. I mean, there is nothing wrong with that, but I don’t really agree with it. I prefered the discussion nature of things that Croft and Davidson did with 5 Live back from 2009 to 2011 in all honesty.

The F1 Show
The first of its kind in the UK, The F1 Show airs on Friday’s presented by Ted Kravitz and Georgie Thompson, either on location or in the studio. This paragraph is going to be short, because for me it is by far the best and most enjoyable hour of the content that Sky produce. As I said in Part 1, the combination of Kravitz and Thompson is one that has gelled quickly, the two are clearly relaxed working with each other, and it makes for a better programme as a result. The programme also airs outside of race weekends, for instance on the March 30th edition of the show we were treated to Patrick Head as a guest on the show. The limited commercial format (only 2 ad-breaks on the show) allowed Head to talk in detail about his time at Williams without the need to cut away quickly to the next feature. The show also has cars past and present in the studio, such as this year’s Mercedes or the 1993 Williams car. I don’t think there is anything I would do to change The F1 Show, because it is already a brilliant hour of television, arguably the best piece of television that Sky Sports F1 produces. And long may that continue.

The above paragraph I wrote in April, and to be quite frank (pardon the pun seeing as I was talking about Williams above!), I don’t feel the need to change one word.

Support races
As I noted above, Sky Sports F1 is broadcasting the two feeder series’ to Formula 1: the GP2 Series and the GP3 Series. I’m glad that Sky have taken GP2 and GP3, I was confused when BBC Sport decided not to pick up GP2 in 2009, it seemed they had let it slip through their fingers, and was a bizarre decision in my opinion. That’s for an issue for another blog, though. For all of the coverage, Sky takes the World Feed coverage for every session, with commentary from Will Buxton and Jerome d’Ambrosio. However, their coverage only starts 5 minutes before the race, and finishes 5 minutes after the race. This applies for every session. For practice, that’s fine, I wouldn’t expect any other coverage outside of the World Feed. For the Qualifying and the Races, though, I think Sky should consider adding a pre and post-race show. For the pre-race show, I would suggest 10 minutes build-up with Georgie Thompson presenting and interviewing one or two drivers’ on the grid alongside Johnny Herbert. Just to bring some flavour and voices to the coverage, while after the race they can grab one or two of the finishers and get their analysis on the race. It doesn’t need a lot, but just something to add to the bones to the coverage so the drivers’ can be introduced to the public.

This isn’t without precedence, I’m not suggesting something which has never been attempted before. Back in 2008, ITV4 won the rights to screen GP2 live on their channel. Instead of just taking the World Feed coverage, ITV4 opted to have a pre-race and post-race section to their coverage, presented by Charlie Webster. Ignoring how good (or bad!) the presenter was, it showed for me a commitment to bring GP2 coverage up to a higher level compared to how Eurosport covered it previously. It doesn’t look like Sky are going to change this for the remainder of this year, so I hope to see the GP2 and GP3 coverage advanced up a level for the 2013 season.

Pre-Show, Post-Show and the dreaded commercials…
Whilst I believe Sky’s Friday coverage is a fine piece of work, and there is really not much to change about it (unless I was to nitpick!), Saturday’s and Sunday’s main coverage leaves a lot to desire. I could have split this blog into two or three sections, with each section focussing on a different area, but I don’t think that is necessary and it would soon become repetitive, as we get back to the same problem: commercials. Commercials plagued the ITV F1 shows, and they appear to be doing the same for the Sky Sports F1 shows, the only difference this time is that Sky took the wise move to run the Qualifying and Race sessions during the race with adverts before and after the race.

Now that we are halfway through the season, however, a pattern has emerged. During the races where BBC are live, Sky run what they like to call “limited” adverts. However, when BBC are not live, Sky run adverts every 15 minutes during the build-up and after the race. Apart from the fact that, in my view, this is extremely petty, it also makes the programme a dozen times worser because of it. Having adverts disrupts the flow, it means the director is constantly shouting at the presenter “5 minutes to adverts” and it means the viewer gets pointless VT’s that add nothing. I really don’t like it, to be honest and I don’t get why they do it, or why they find the need to do it. Aside from that though, they have produced some stunningly good features this season. The Brundle goes to Ferrari features have been well done with super access to Maranello, but the feature at the top of the pile for me unquestionably has to be the Nigel Roebuck series as he looks into his archive. For a Formula 1 fan, this makes for fascinating viewing as Roebuck listens to his past recordings of legends such as Gilles Villeneuve. I hope we get to see more of Roebuck’s archive as the pre-race shows continue on Sky Sports F1.

The post-race shows need to be tidied up a little still and perfected, but I appreciate that the barriers move every race depending on the nature of the race. I noted with the practice session section earlier about interactivity and the same point applies here with the post-race show, I don’t think I have seen any of the Sky members ask for questions on Twitter to ask any driver, which is a contrast to seeing Jake Humphrey on Twitter constantly scrolling down the iPad looking for questions to ask drivers’ or team bosses. On the brighter side, I was extremely pleased to see Ted Kravitz’s Notebook become part of the post-race show. Alongside The F1 Show, this is one of the highlights of the race weekend as Kravitz wanders up and down the pitlane with the technical gossip and pitstop mishaps.

How to improve for the future is quite simple, in my opinion:

– limit the amount of adverts for every race programme, irrespective of whether its rival broadcaster is live or not
– increase interactivity in practice sessions and post-race
– continue high quality features such as the Nigel Roebuck features
– introduce a proper GP2 and GP3 programme
– ditch the pointless pre-race VT’s that add little

If I was a scheduler and had a say on decisions, this would be my perfect weekend schedule. It is an expansion of what I put in April, along with some adjustments based on shows that are now in Sky’s schedule:

Fridays
08:15 – Drivers’ Press Conference
08:45 – Live Practice 1
10:55 – Live GP2 Practice
11:35 – Classic F1 (35 minutes)
12:10 – Classic F1 (35 minutes)
12:45 – Live Practice 2
14:50 – Live GP2 Qualifying
– session on from 15:00 to 15:30, giving small build-up and reaction from paddock
15:45 – Team Pricipals’ Press Conference
16:15 – Classic F1 (35 minutes in 45 minute slot)
17:00 to 18:00 – Live The F1 Show

Saturdays
08:35 – Live GP3 Qualifying
– session on from 08:45 to 09:15, giving small build-up and reaction from paddock
09:30 – Live Practice 3
– length increased to prevent ‘awkward’ filler
11:15 – Classic F1 (35 minutes in 45 minute slot)
12:00 – Live Qualifying
14:25 – Live GP2: Race 1
– race starts at 14:40, so gives Sky time to go onto the grid and interview a few people, with reaction afterwards
15:55 – Live Qualifying Roundup
– Ted Kravitz in the paddock with a live (or as live) Notebook getting a roundup of Qualifying events, with a few interviews/Sky Pad analysis which could not be fitted in the main show
16:10 to 17:10 – Live GP3: Race 1
– race starts at 16:20, so gives Sky time to go onto the grid and interview a few people, with reaction afterwards

(although I’ve labelled it as different programmes, on screen it will be a seamless hand-over at 14:25 from Simon to Georgie, a seamless hand-over from Georgie to Ted at 15:55 and so on)

Sundays
08:15 – Live GP3: Race 2
– race starts at 08:25, so gives Sky time to go onto the grid and interview a few people, with reaction afterwards
09:15 – Live GP2: Race 2
– race starts at 09:35, giving Sky time for a feature and grid interviews, extended as it is the main day of racing
10:30 – F1 Legends
– what is normally shown after the race, but instead shown between GP2 and the main F1 programme
11:30 – Live Race

See on Friday’s, by adding things worth watching between the sessions, it gives me a reason to keep watching the channel. Instead they schedule repeat number 218 for no particular reason and with no relevance to that particular race. There is not a lot of change compared to now, but subtle differences compared to the real schedule to make GP2 and GP3 more prominent which as I’ve outlined above is necessary in my opinion. I’d argue that would bring more viewers to GP2 and GP3 as there is a seamless transition between races instead of fiddly 5-minute fillers which are more likely to make viewers tune out, maybe not realising that another race is coming up. There may be an argue that showing support races may be of detriment to the rest of the product with extra resources needed for pre-show and post-show, I disagree.

I suggested earlier in part 1 that Georgie Thompson could be host for the support races, a suggestion I stick to. On Saturday’s and Sunday’s, let’s be honest, she doesn’t do much apart from throw questions to Anthony Davidson in the Sky Pad. Therefore, having her as host for the support races would be a perfect way to utilise her. Comparing the above to F1 Digital+ in 2002, see here for my piece a few months ago, F1 Digital+ stayed on air longer before and after sessions, half an hour for the practice sessions, although it probably should be noted that the coverage, pre-show and post-show was produced by FOM and not Sky Sports. Nevertheless, it is not unprecedented.

As with my verdict series in April, part four will focus on Sky’s Formula 1 coverage outside of race weekends, while part five will look at the ratings picture as Formula 1 enters the second half of the season. My verdict has been outlined above, but your verdict is equally as important. How do you feel about Sky’s weekend coverage at the moment? I look forward to your comments.

The Sky Sports F1 Team: The Verdict so far

A few months ago, I decided to launch an F1 Broadcasting blog. Since April, the blog has racked up over 100 posts and over 7,000 hits. For what is quite a niche topic, I would like to think of that as a success, so thanks to each and every one of you for reading.

With the Summer break now in full force for the Formula 1 teams and drivers, ‘The Verdict so Far’ series makes a return to the blog, with myself looking back on what I wrote in April and adding to my thoughts from the original ‘Verdict so Far’ series. If you have not read the original posts, fear not, you can find them here. Heading into 2012, we had nine new voices presenting, commentating, reporting on Formula 1 for BBC and Sky. Since April, more new voices have been heard on a regular basis. They are:

– Allan McNish (Sky)
– Tom Clarkson (BBC TV)

So both of them will be included in the series from now on, assuming Clarkson will be back on TV reporting. You may be wondering why I am not including Nick Heidfeld or Jacques Villeneuve, who both appeared as pundits on Sky Sports F1 during Europe and Canada respectively. Neither are regular pundits, and both only appeared once as a one-off appearance, so there is not much to be gained from me ‘analysing’ both in detail. I will, however, say that it is good to see Sky using a variety of pundits aside from the regulars, which can add to the weekend broadcasts when it is a different voice being heard. Obviously there’s no guarantee that said voice will be good for the broadcast, but it is a risk worth taking.

As with April’s series, parts one and two will focus on the Sky Sports F1 and BBC F1 teams respectively. Parts 3 and 4 will be reposted from April, with probably minor alterations while Part 5 will be updated fully with the ratings picture as it is currently. For the purposes of this series, I will only be focussing on the two main TV teams, as thus the Sky Sports News or BBC Radio teams will not be covered.

Allan McNish
I’ve always been a fan of Allan McNish, both as a pundit and a driver. It was unfortunate that he only got one chance as a Formula 1 driver with Toyota as 2002, but in any case he has since had a highly successful career in endurance racing. We first saw McNish on screen with Sky Sports F1 during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, alongside David Croft in The F1 Show. Like with Herbert in China, it was stating the obvious very early on, that McNish would be a super pundit for Sky Sports F1 with his breadth and depth of motor sport knowledge so I was very pleased when Sky announced that he would be staying on.

As a pair during practice, McNish and Croft are a much better pair than Croft and Jerome d’Ambrosio as it was before. McNish is much more of a veteran in motor sport than d’Ambrosio and therefore was able to talk in depth about technical issues within the sport. I hope we continue to see McNish on Sky Sports F1 as the season continues.

Anthony Davidson
After a short lived Formula 1 career with Minardi, BAR and Super Aguri, Davidson moved into the BBC Radio 5 Live commentary box at the start of the 2009 season where he partnered David Croft. He flourished in the role with Croft, with their commentary style in practice sessions universally well received. Davidson moved into other motor sports, mainly focussing on endurance races including the Le Mans 24 Hours. Davidson moved to Sky Sports in the same role for 2012, except instead of commentating on every session, he only commentated on the practice sessions, with Martin Brundle taking over for qualifying and the race. Davidson’s other role has been with Georgie Thompson in the ‘Sky Pad’.

Due to Davidson’s horrific accident at the Le Mans 24 Hours, his activities with Sky Sports F1 have since mid-June been curtailed, only appearing at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Sky’s London studios. In my April piece, I did comment that Davidson was “under-utilised massively on Sky”. Although I agree still with that sentiment, it is unfair to comment further on it as he has not been on screen a lot since then.

Damon Hill
From someone who didn’t have a successful Formula 1 career to someone that did have a successful Formula 1 career. Hill won his only title in 1996, in a fantastic battle with Jacques Villeneuve which came down to the final race in Japan. Hill’s career went downwards from that point onwards, however, moving to Arrows in 1997 before retiring in 1999 while part of the Jordan team. Hill’s role with Sky Sports F1 is not his first broadcasting role, however. Some may remember that Hill was part of the short lived F1 Digital+ concept in 2002 which seen him join Matthew Lorenzo, Ben Edwards, John Watson among others at Biggin Hill during that season to preside over the pay-per-view channel. Hill has the main punditry role in Sky’s coverage, with him alongside Lazenby and Brundle in the pre and post shows.

While I would not call Hill a fantastic pundit, I do think he is improving as the season progresses. In the first few races, it was not easy to watch Hill and Lazenby together and it felt somewhat ‘awkward’ with both of them new to the Formula 1 broadcasting scene (in Hill’s case, he is not new, but to my knowledge he has not done a lot of F1 broadcasting since 2002 aside from a few ITV commentary duties). Since then, however, Hill has improved somewhat, and definitely seems to be more at ease when Johnny Herbert is on screen alongside him, the two able to bounce off each other. As I said back in April, pundits can make the difference between a dull and good pre and post shows, the combination of Steve Rider and Mark Blundell was one that was badly received in 2008 at ITV, but the combination of Jake Humphrey, Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard in 2009 at BBC had the opposite effect. In both cases, very good presenters, but it was the pundits that made all the difference – in the example above Jordan and Coulthard being better than Blundell. At the moment, I do feel Hill is improving, but the verdict is still out on him. Can I see him staying with Sky Sports F1 for 2013? Probably, but in a reduced role, maybe attending a few races in the season but not week-in, week-out.

David Croft
In his 7th season now as a lead commentator in Formula 1, Croft began his commentary journey at the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix with BBC Radio 5 Live commentating alongside the likes of Maurice Hamilton for the first three years. At the start of 2009, he was joined by Anthony Davidson for every session, a combination that has been well received. With the change of broadcasting rights for 2012, the inevitable question was ‘who would partner Martin Brundle?’ While the answer was not Ben Edwards, the answer was David Croft (I’m sure you have your own opinions on which line up would be better). Given how James Allen and Jonathan Legard fared alongside Brundle as a commentary pairing, fans wondered whether the Croft and Brundle line-up would fare better.

There is not much to pick fault with the commentary so far this season, I have not had any problems with the Croft and Brundle partnership, the two are working well alongside each other and is definitely the most successful partnership involving Brundle since Brundle was alongside Murray Walker in the commentary box. Sometimes there is driver identification problems (most commonly involving Sauber’s and Williams’ I tend to find) but again, you can pick fault while looking at a massive television, while Croft and Brundle are calling things on the spot, without the luxury of a large screen in front of them. So that is case of apples and oranges, in my view. Aside from his commentary, I hope we see Croft becoming a regular presenter of a journalists show on Sky Sports F1, which I shall elaborate on in part three.

Georgie Thompson
Probably one of the more controversial appointments given her drink driving record. But I don’t think Sky took that into account when hiring her. And neither will I, it doesn’t affect her ability to call and present Formula 1 coverage, so I won’t mention it again. Thompson, like Simon Lazenby, has been with Sky since the late 1990’s, mainly as a presenter on Sky Sports News. Unlike Lazenby however, Thompson has had experience on presenting motor sport, she presented A1 Grand Prix on the channel when it debuted in 2005. Thompson was announced as partnering Ted Kravitz to present ‘The F1 Show’ on the Sky F1 channel.

It would be hard for me to find complaints about Thompson in the coverage. She seems enthusiastic and genuinely interested in the sport. The show, for me has been the best part of the weekend, and her combination with Kravitz is definitely a joy to watch. The two gel together brilliantly and I hope that the Thompson and Kravitz duo is maintained in the latter stages of this season and into 2013. If Sky choose to expand their support race coverage for 2013, then I hope to see her present that, but on the other hand we may well find her in the main presenting role, should Lazenby leave after this season. Time shall tell…

Johnny Herbert
A Formula 1 veteran, Johnny Herbert’s career began in 1989, lasting until 2000. He won three races during that time period, two during 1995 while at Benetton alongside the memorable 1999 European Grand Prix with Stewart. Herbert did not initially feature in Sky’s Formula 1 coverage, suggesting his appointment was last minute. In any event, Herbert’s first appearance was on the March 30th edition of The F1 Show alongside Georgie Thompson, Ted Kravitz and Christian Horner.

Since that show he has appeared at multiple F1 races and multiple editions of The F1 Show. There’s a word used every so often to describe people on the some wavelength, or that can understand each other, and that word is rapport. Herbert seems to have an extremely good rapport with a lot of people, which makes for a better Sky Sports F1 show all around, whether he’s on the Sky Pad with Thompson, discussing something with Kravitz or getting asked questions by Lazenby. Herbert has also, in my opinion, made Hill feel more comfortable in his role when the two are together, a world apart from just having Lazenby and Hill in Australia. Hopefully we shall see Herbert in a lot more races with Sky this season.

Martin Brundle
Another Formula 1 veteran, but probably better known nowadays as a commentator for 16 years. Brundle’s F1 career ended in 1996, his last year competing with the Jordan team. Despite retiring, Brundle stayed in the F1 paddock, and quickly found himself new fame, as a broadcaster and a commentator alongside Murray Walker. The combination, a collection of ‘Murrayisms’ and ‘Brundleisms’ quickly became popular with the public, as did Brundle’s famed gridwalk which was introduced at the 1997 British Grand Prix. When Walker left at the 2001 US Grand Prix, he was replaced by James Allen, whom Brundle partnered until ITV relinquished the rights to Formula 1 in 2008. Brundle jumped ship to BBC for 2009, partnering Jonathan Legard. Although Brundle was well liked, neither the Allen/Brundle and Legard/Brundle combinations were well received. Legard was dropped at the end of 2010, allowing Brundle to take on a ‘fresh challenge’, moving into the lead commentator, with long time friend David Coulthard alongside him. Due to the change in broadcasting rights halfway through that season, the combination only lasted a year. Despite this, the combination helped bring back out the best in Brundle.

Brundle ditched the BBC at the end of 2011, moving to Sky and becoming the main face of the channel, dividing his time between pitlane, paddock and the commentary box. There is not much to add here, as I noted above, the Brundle and Croft combination is in my view the best involving Brundle since he was with Walker. That may not be too hard to achieve given how Allen and Legard were criticised, but it is still worth noting. Brundle being with Sky also means that get superb access outside of race weekends, Brundle at Maranello and Brundle’s Le Mans Diary were both fantastic features and insightful to watch (even if he has driven a Ferrari before!).

Natalie Pinkham
More of an entertainment reporter than motor racing reporter with her duties for various Channel 5 programming including The Wright Stuff, Pinkham moved onto the Formula 1 scene in 2011. Pinkham replaced Holly Samos as BBC Radio 5 Live reporter, Samos moving to pastures new. Pinkham has the role of interviewing drivers’, and occasionally smiling on camera whenever necessary. There’s honestly not much to say here, apart from improve the line of questioning. Or is there?

Pinkham was not with Sky Sports F1 in Germany as she was getting married. In steps Rachel Brookes. If you haven’t seen how Sky Sports News are covering Formula 1, then you’re probably thinking “who”? Brookes in the past few months on Sky Sports News has been vastly underlooked by many, so I was extremely glad to see she got a chance to shine in Germany. Brookes appears, to me, to have a better understanding of the sport than Pinkham, despite only being apart of it since the start of the year, and asks the right questions where necessary, unlike Pinkham who appears to ‘rinse and repeat’ the questions. If I had a choice between Brookes and Pinkham for the pit-lane reporters role, I’m afraid I would go with Brookes nine times out of the ten. I really don’t see them making any changes here for 2013, but it is just an observation worth making.

Simon Lazenby
When the Sky F1 team was announced last November, it was no great surprise that Sky chose Simon Lazenby as their presenter. After joining Sky in 1998, Lazenby was Sky’s Rugby presenter for the best part of a decade, before moving over to their Formula 1 team. At this point, you could argue ‘why did Sky choose someone with no motor racing experience’. The answer is quite simple, and that is because they preferably want someone in-house. This is a tendency that all broadcasters have, ITV moved Jim Rosenthal to their Formula 1 coverage when they began broadcasting the sport in 1997, while BBC did similar with Jake Humphrey when they regained the rights for the 2009 season.

I wrote the above in April. The other day though, I read a piece by Tony Dogkins over on AUTOSPORT (subscribers’ only) written last year. Towards the bottom, he spoke briefly to Jon Desborough who works for Sky. So, let me just summarise this. Sky have two motor sport presenters working for them (the other is Keith Huewen), yet they went for someone who has never presented motor sport? Now come on, where is the logic in that? There is not. The only feasible reason I can see for Lazenby getting the Sky Sports F1 job is because Martin Turner, Sky F1’s executive, also wanted him to make the jump to Formula 1 from Rugby.

Now, to get onto the point in hand, is Lazenby as much as a motor sport enthusiast as Desborough or Huewen? I don’t know the answer to that question, but I do know that both Desborough and Huewen have motor sport experience under their belts, stretching back over ten years. Lazenby, possibly due to the lack of motor sport experience, has not found his feet as quick as I thought he would. Of course, the F1 paddock is a much different environment to the calm Rugby studios, but it makes me wonder if Sky made a mistake in moving Lazenby over to the F1. Unfortunately, while I do agree that Lazenby is not the best F1 presenter, he has been unfairly criticised by certain sections on the gutter press, more information on that is here. The jury is still out on Lazenby, there is still nine races left of the season to go, so we shall see if he improves as the season concludes.

Ted Kravitz
One of the best aspects of the Formula 1 coverage is hearing what the pit lane guys have to say. It always has been, getting into the nitty gritty of it, but also putting it across to the viewer in a language that they understand – without dumbing down. Which is always the fear. Kravitz’s F1 career began in 1997 with ITV behind the scenes. He moved onto pit lane reporter in 2002 when James Allen moved into the commentary box. I was extremely glad when Kravitz moved to BBC in 2009, as I always considered his pit lane tidbits one of the better aspects of ITV’s coverage. With free practice sessions live on the BBC Red Button from 2009 to 2011, Kravitz excelled as we got his tidbits on all three days of the weekend. Furthermore, his video blogs helped us dive into the post-race strategies and gave us a great summary of the majority of the teams’ on the grid.

Kravitz’s role expanded further for 2012 on Sky as he became host of The F1 Show alongside Thompson. As I noted earlier, the two have gelled together brilliantly. Kravitz’s relaxed style makes the show all the better, as well as seeing him poke around old machinery and seeing him explain new inventions on the Sky Pad. One of the explanations so far is with the Mercedes diffuser, which wasn’t dumbed down, but still made the hardcore fan like it. I’m glad Kravitz made the jump, because I would have hated seeing BBC cut his contribution down to shreds in the highlights shows, if anything, Kravitz deserves all the exposure he gets on Sky. Kravitz is also now doing his notebook’s for both Qualifying and the Race, with the Race version being broadcast live on the Sky Sports F1 channel. Very quickly, it is turning into, for me, the best bit of the post-race show.

The above is a hybrid of what I wrote in April and my thoughts now. Some sections remain virtually unchanged, while other bits have been ripped up and torn apart depending on how my opinion has changed. Since April, Sky have added to the line-up with Allan McNish, a definitely much needed addition to the team. It also gives a bit of a variety to the punditry and allows them to rotate it around each race which helps keep the program fresh and ‘new’ to the viewer. There is no need for them now to add anyone else to the team for the remainder of the season, although no doubt the team will be reviewed at the end of the year depending on when talent’s contracts expire.

In part 2 of this series I’ll focus on all the BBC TV team members, in a similar fashion to what I have done above. Again, some sections will remain the same as April’s series’, while some will change.

Comments, thoughts, disagreements and suggestions are welcome!

Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 5th August, 2012)

From BARB:

1 – 31k – The F1 Show (Friday, 22:01)
2 – 10k – F1 Legends (Friday, 19:30)
3 – 9k – The F1 Show (Friday, 20:00)
4 – 6k – Hungarian Grand Prix Highlights (Tuesday, 21:00)
5 – 5k – 1999 Season Review (Friday, 21:00)
6 – 4k – Hungarian Grand Prix Replay (Monday, 19:00)
7 – 4k – Hungarian Grand Prix Highlights (Sunday, 18:30)
8 – 4k – F1 Legends (Friday, 23:31)
9 – 3k – Fast Track (Tuesday, 19:30)
10 – 3k – Canadian Grand Prix Highlights (Sunday, 12:30)

When I first seen the figures, I thought to myself. Do I really need to state the obvious? I’ll simply say two things here, the first is that the channel reach is the lowest yet, and well, Olympics. The figures are not surprising, Formula 1 is on its Summer break and the Olympics destroyed all.

Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 29th July, 2012)

From BARB:

1 – 718k – Live Hungarian Grand Prix (Sunday, 11:30)
2 – 366k – Live Hungarian Grand Prix: Qualifying (Saturday, 12:00)
3 – 63k – Live Hungarian Grand Prix: Practice 2 (Friday, 12:45)
4 – 49k – Live Hungarian Grand Prix: Practice 3 (Saturday, 09:45)
5 – 40k – Live Hungarian Grand Prix: Practice 1 (Friday, 08:45)
6 – 29k – The F1 Show (Friday, 17:00)
7 – 26k – Hungarian Grand Prix: Practice 1 Replay (Friday, 18:01)
8 – 25k – Behind the Scenes with Force India (Sunday, 16:18)
9 – 25k – Fast Track (Sunday, 10:58)
10 – 24k – Hungarian Grand Prix: Qualifying Replay (Saturday, 17:24)

This bit really is mainly directed to Formula One Management and the FIA, not Sky Sports, but the “Idiots Guide to Scheduling” tells you not to schedule a Formula 1 race during the Olympic Games period. Although the race itself did well considering, everything else fell down like a stack of cards. The practice ratings are dismally low – the lowest since the season opener in Australia for live sessions on Sky Sports F1 – while it seems anything to do with GP2 and GP3 was under 24,000 viewers during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend. A major, major ouch. Not surprising, but still extremely low numbers.

Dumbstruck would be the word to describe the scheduling by those high up this season, as I outlined in this piece. Those at FIA and FOM appear to think that scheduling Formula 1 races during the European Championship’s and the Olympics will help ratings. Not true, it will only hurt ratings for those rounds as attention is diverted elsewhere.

Again, both Qualifying and Race figures are the worst since 2008, but as I said earlier, I think the race did well considering, and in fact was not that far down on the last three years.

As always, your thoughts and opinions are welcome.

The F1 Show to continue throughout August

Sky have today confirmed that The F1 Show will continue throughout August. The editons on 3rd and 24th August will be, as usual, live with Ted Kravitz and Georgie Thompson. The 17th August edition is a review of the 2012 season so far, but it is the edition on 10th August that interests me the most.

In that edition, David Croft will be the presenter, and will have alongside him F1 journalists Kevin Eason (The Times), Jonathan Noble (Autosport) and Bryon Young (Daily Mirror). For regular readers of my blog, you will know from my initial blog posts back in April that one idea I had was for a weekly or bi-weekly show called “The Paddock View” which, in essense, will be doing exactly what The F1 Show will be doing on 10th August. So I am extremely pleased to see Sky doing this for that particular show and look forward to see how it turns out.

I will be, however, disappointed if that turns out to be the only original programme on Sky Sports F1 during August. The rest of the schedule up until at least Sunday 12th August is glittered with repeats, repeats and, yep, you guessed it, repeats. It is as if the schedulers lack imagination. Why not give us something else? There are hours and hours of archive Formula 1 footage sitting on the shelf, being unused which deserve to be shown again. Being brutally honest here, showing repeats of 2012 races throughout August is taking the extremely lazy route. Where’s the classic Formula 1 races for hardcore aficionados to grit their teeth in too and to whet their appetite? It will be plain disappointing if Sky do not show classic races, or a classic season during the August break.

As always, your comments and thoughts are welcome. Would you want to see some classic action on Sky Sports F1 instead of 2012 repeats during the Summer break?