Sky Sports confirm Indy 500 scheduling

During today’s IndyCars race programme on Sky Sports F1, it was confirmed that that Indianapolis 500 race on Sunday 27th May will air at 16:30 live on Sky Sports 4. What’s interesting here, though, is that on the same day is the Monaco Grand Prix, from 11:30 to 16:30 live on Sky Sports F1.

For a race billed as “the greatest motor racing spectacle”, why is it on Sky Sports 4? Secondly, it would make far more sense to put it on Sky Sports F1 given the core Indy 500 audience would already be watching that channel. I imagine that 99 percent of the IndyCar Series viewers in the UK also watch Formula 1. So putting the Indy 500 race on the same channel as the Monaco Grand Prix surely would be a logical decision? It seems someone on the Sky Sports hierarchy disagrees…

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

In the first two parts of my first five part series in this Formula 1 broadcasting blog, I looked at the BBC F1 and Sky Sports F1 teams for the 2012 season after the changes in broadcasting rights that came into effect at the beginning of this season. In this part, I intend to look at the current output from Sky Sports F1 at a race weekend, 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 lead to an increase in ratings, or a decrease in ratings.

You may be wondering at this point why I won’t be doing a part on how BBC could improve. The reason for this is quite simple. The BBC have been broadcasting F1 since 2009, and I feel that in those three years they have reached ‘the rooftop’, in that it would be extremely difficult for them, in my opinion, to improve upon their current output. Of course, its always possible, but I think it would be difficult to do so given their budget constraints. Therefore, 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 first practice session on a Friday morning, right through to the race itself. The channel also covers every session from the feeder series called GP2. From the Spanish Grand Prix in May, the channel will also be covering the GP3 Series, which is a feeder series to GP2. 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. David Croft and Anthony Davidson are the commentators, with Natalie Pinkham, Martin Brundle and Ted Kravitz roving up and down the pitlane; Brundle also with Lazenby before and after the sessions. The structure of these sessions is fine, the build-up length and post-session analysis is of a perfect length, although in what may be a recurring theme in this blog, Sky should not rush off air 7 minutes before their allocated slot time ends ‘just to fill it with adverts’. This is not too much of an issue with practice, but it is later. 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. 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. In any case, the practice sessions are fine as they are, in my opinion.

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.

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 another person, typically a former driver from the GP2 Series. 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. I hope Sky opt to bring in a ‘mini’ pre and post-race show to their coverage, to bring some needed bones to the coverage.

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. This has been the situation for three of the four races so far this season. The only race they didn’t run as many adverts (in their linguistic terms limited adverts) was China, possibly because a certain BBC was also live on air? The problem with adverts is that it disrupts the flow of the programme and it comes across on screen as unnatural. During the pre-show for the Bahrain Grand Prix last Sunday, the structure of the show was like this:

– feature 1
– 30 second VT
– commercials
– 30 second VT
– feature 2
– 30 second VT
– commercials

Repeat and rinse. It comes across on screen as unnatural, with no natural change of discussion, like on BBC. The other thing you will notice in the above is the ’30 second VT’ that I’ve labelled three times. These consist of a few interesting facts, or a few pictures. Not really needed, and a waste of 30 seconds that could be used for some more discussion once you tot up all the other 30 seconds wasted in the pre-show. So I’m afraid these need to be dumped as they do nothing for me. Admittedly the commercials in the post-show were not too bad in Bahrain, they went an hour without commercials which is fair enough.

I don’t mind the odd commercial every half an hour/40 minutes, but a commercial every 15 minutes as it was for the Bahrain pre-show ruins the flow for me. It also makes the presenter Simon Lazenby on edge as the director/producer is telling him to hurry because a break is coming up or to hurry to end the show. It is a dedicated channel, there should not be the constant rush to get to another break or to another feature. I would expect that (somewhat) on ITV1, they are not a dedicated F1 channel and have to cater to all audiences, hence why they didn’t stay on air for too long after races sometimes. But for a dedicated channel, having them go to commercials every 15 minutes is not really necessary in my eyes.

In terms of material, the features are fine, while the post-race show in Bahrain was fairly well done. Focusing in on China though (I understand due to the circumstances that judging the Bahrain post-race show is probably not a good idea), their post-race show was focused in the right places, they spent a quite a bit of time whipping up the atmosphere in the Mercedes garage straight after the race and seemed to be at ease before going to some of the other stories in the paddock.

For me, the China programme was just as good if not better than the BBC’s output from 2009 to 2011. In the China programme they also brought Anthony Davidson out of the Sky Pad in the latter parts of the post-race programme to join the main team, which I thought was a nice touch. It was pretty evident straight away there that him and Johnny Herbert have good on screen chemistry, which was a stark contrast to Damon Hill in the post-race segments at Australia and Malaysia. One thing that I’m glad about is that they extended the post-race show to 2 hours, so that they are on air until 16:30 instead of 16:00 having listened to viewer feedback, showing that they are taking all feedback on board.

In parts 1 and 3 of this blog I have looked at Sky Sports F1’s presenting team and their output at a race weekend. I think in conclusion there are a few simple, but effective steps that Sky could take to improve their weekend output even more:

– bring in a pre-show and post-show to the feeder series’ to make them more prominent
– reduce Damon Hill’s role
– limit the commercials to one every 30/40 minutes in pre-show and post-show (ie at 12:05 and 12:50 in pre-show and then 15:00, 15:35 to 16:05 in the post-show)
– increase Anthony Davidson’s and Johnny Herbert’s role

I think implementing those four steps would help make their coverage even better than what it already is. Martin Turner in a Q&A session on the Sky Sports F1 website said “that there’s a limit to how much can be generated – we’re already pushing the boundaries”, which is fair enough, but I don’t think implementing any of the above ‘push the boundaries’, it simply merely makes the product better. You could argue bringing in pre-show and post-shows for GP2 and GP3 would ‘push the boundaries’, but ITV did a proper GP2 show in 2008, so it is not without precedence. If I was a scheduler and had a say on decisions, this would be my perfect weekend schedule:

Fridays
08:30 – Press Conference
– F1’s Thursday press conference
08:45 – Live Practice 1
10:55 – Live GP2 Practice
11:35 – filler
12:45 – Live Practice 2
14:45 – Live GP2 Qualifying
– session on from 15:00 to 15:30, giving small build-up and reaction from paddock
15:45 – Press Conference
– F1’s Friday press conference, Thursday’s was put up on Sky website for China and Bahrain, so I assume they can put up Friday’s on the website or broadcast it on the channel if they wanted to
16:15 – filler
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 – filler
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
10:45 – filler
11:30 – Live Race

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 their typical European race schedule and here – 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.

In parts 4 and 5 of this series I will look at Sky’s programming outside of race weekend and why it is currently focusing on the wrong areas, while the final part of the series will look on the ratings picture with this ‘new deal’. Any thoughts, comments, criticism and further suggestions welcome!

Scheduling: Sky Sports not broadcasting this weekend’s IndyCars live [UPDATED]

This weekend’s IndyCar Series race meeting from Sao Paolo will not air live on Sky Sports. The race, which is due to start on Sunday (29th April) at 16:45, is going to be shown on tape-delay on Sky Sports 4 at 17:30. That is despite the race being advertised as airing live.

Looking at the other Sky Sports channels, there is live action on until 17:00, so the decision is somewhat understandable though. What is not understandable, though, is the insistence not to show it on Sky Sports F1. As Sky will well know, the only live action on Sky Sports F1 this weekend is the GP2 Series standalone event from Bahrain. You may remember that Sky Sports F1 broadcasted the latter stages of the first race of the season live on their channel, in similar circumstances.

Sky Sports F1 at the time is broadcasting a repeat of The F1 Show, which coincidentally is also airing at 16:30. The decision not to show IndyCars on the channel this weekend seems bizarre and nonsensical to me when they have done so in the past. In my opinion, live broadcasting always trumps repeats. Why Sky couldn’t do this:

11:30 – Bahrain Grand Prix (R)
16:30 – Live IndyCar Series
19:00 – GP2 Series: Round 3, Race 1 (R)
20:30 – Legends
21:00 – as normal

Instead, I don’t know. Would seem logical to me instead of throwing IndyCars around the schedule. Repeats on non-F1 weekends don’t do well as it is, according to BARB the highest rated programme on Saturday 31st March was a Legends programme with 21,000 viewers, while the highest rated programme on Sunday 1st April was the 1998 Season Review with 17,000 viewers. The following weekend, the Saturday figures did better, with Australian Grand Prix highlights getting 31,000 viewers, but on Sunday 8th April the highest programme had 8,000 viewers.

I think IndyCars would get higher figures than that. As a whole, I find it disappointing that Sky are seemingly choosing to screen recorded content over live content on the F1 channel when they have a clear opportunity to show IndyCars on that channel on Sunday.

Edit: According to Keith Huewen on Twitter, the organisers changed the schedule from what the originally had it as. It shall be interested to see if it remains a one-hour tape-delay or if Sky move it to Sky Sports F1, or (the more likely solution) put the first hour of the race behind the Red Button, although Huewen also notes that this is not a popular option.

Updated edit at 16:00: Keith Huewen has confirmed on his Twitter that the IndyCar Series race from Brazil this Sunday will be live on Sky Sports F1 at 16:30. Good to see common sense prevailing.

Scheduling: The Bahrain Grand Prix (GP2 Standalone)

This weekend, the Bahrain International Circuit plays host to the GP2 Series again for the second weekend running, for a standalone event. All sessions will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1 at the following times:

Friday 27th April
07:55 to 08:40 – Practice
09:25 to 10:05 – Qualifying
13:55 to 15:20 – Race 1

Saturday 28th April
11:55 to 13:00 – Race 2

Commentary will be provided as usual by Will Buxton and Alexander Rossi.

The Sky Sports F1 Team: The Verdict so far

To launch this blog, I thought it would be a good idea to do a five part series looking at the broadcasting of Formula 1 in the UK this season. With the changes of broadcasting, with the 20 races shared between BBC and Sky Sports, it gives the viewer a wider range of programming, as well as a wider range of voices on the screen. All the same voices remain as last year, but in 2012 we have nine new voices on either BBC or Sky. They are:

– Ben Edwards (BBC TV)
– Damon Hill (Sky)
– Gary Anderson (BBC TV)
– Georgie Thompson (Sky)
– Jaime Alguersuari (BBC Radio)
– James Allen (BBC Radio)
– Jennie Gow (BBC Radio)
– Johnny Herbert (Sky)
– Simon Lazenby (Sky)

Some of those have never been apart of Formula 1 paddock before, while others are veterans in the broadcasting circles in the paddock. Part 1 of this series will look at the Sky team and my opinions of them from the first four races, while Part 2 will look at the BBC team. Parts 3 and 4 will mainly focus on Sky, and how they could improve on their product. You may be wondering at this point why I won’t be doing a part focussing on how BBC can improve, I will say why when I get to Part 3. And finally, Part 5 will look at what effect the new broadcasting deal has had on the television ratings here in the UK. Have they increased, or have they decreased? All, shall be revealed.

The first part of my series will focus on in detail the Sky Sports F1 team. 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.

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’.

Despite that, I do believe Davidson is under-utilised massively on Sky. On Radio 5 Live, Davidson commented on every session, and was part of their Chequered Flag podcasts before and after each Grand Prix weekend. On Sky, he’s only commentating on some of the sessions and is not seen often in the pre or post-shows apart from the ‘Sky Pad’ analysis. In China we did see Davidson join Lazenby, Brundle and Johnny Herbert during the latter stages of the show, something I hope we continue to see as the season progresses. The work Davidson does at the moment is very good, its just a pity in my view he is under-utilised.

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. Unfortunately for me, however, I don’t find Hill the best of pundits, and is arguably the weak link on the Sky Sports F1 team.

I don’t think Hill suits the role of pundit very well, unlike Johnny Herbert and Anthony Davidson, who are ‘easy’ on the voice, Hill tends to grate for me I’m afraid. 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. I’m left feeling at the moment that if Hill is continued to be used in the same way, that I’ll be drifting to BBC in the pre and post race show.

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.

Thankfully, so far, in my opinion, the Croft and Brundle commentary pairing is far better than the pairs mentioned above. I think Croft has settled into the role alongside Brundle well, albeit with a few niggles, but minor ones at that. Driver misidentification is one that is raised a lot, but something that I think we should give somewhat due consideration to. We’re watching off a big TV screen, with little distractions, they are watching and commentating at the same time, calling moments off the spot. Inevitably mistakes will be made, but for me, there hasn’t been a higher-than-expected rate of errors from Croft. Aside from the errors though, one thing that does grate is the self promotion, and in the example of this past Sunday, revealing the result of a football live on air. I suspect both of these are calls from the commentary director (Mark Hughes) or the programme director, but either way I find both unnecessary. The latter is up there with Allen telling us that Coronation Street follows this programme in the ITV F1 days, but at least then no one was being spoiled – this time there was, in a few enraged football fans. In any case, hopefully they learn from this and don’t do it again (I sound like I’m telling someone off here… anyway).

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. Aside from that, she is with Anthony Davidson in the ‘Sky Pad’ on Saturdays and Sundays. There’s not much to say about her here, she’s just there to throw questions to Davidson, which is understandable to keep discussion flowing and is there to keep Davidson comfortable, with Davidson not a broadcasting ‘veteran’. If Sky choose to have a pre-show for GP2 (more thoughts on that in Part 3), then she would be the perfect host for that alongside Davidson.

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. Thankfully, it turned out that Herbert’s appearance was not a guest appearance, nor was it a one off. Herbert appeared once more in China, with Hill’s role only for 10 races. The difference, was evident to see and in stark contrast to the ‘forced’ nature of Australia and Malaysia. Herbert seemed comfortable in the role in Hill, and as thus the show seemed ‘lighter’ with Herbert, him, Brundle and Davidson cracking a few jokes, the end result meaning that Lazenby came across as feeling a lot more comfortable during that particular post-race show.

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. I’ve always liked Brundle, having listened to his commentary since 1999. I think his combination with Croft after 4 rounds is already better than his combination with Legard during any of 2009 and 2010. The two gel extremely well, and the combination will only grow in time. I don’t have any criticisms of Brundle, there is an argument however that he is on screen too much so for that reason it may be advised to remove him from the qualifying show, but I don’t think it is a big issue (there’s much more pressing issues with the pre and post shows – something I will address in Part 3).

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. She isn’t a big aspect of the coverage, nor do I expect her to be. Louise Goodman was not a big aspect of ITV F1’s coverage, nor is Lee McKenzie with BBC. They do their job, sometimes the questioning is good, sometimes I’m left wondering “really? Did you just ask that?”. Apart from that, this section is rather short. We’ll leave it there.

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 think that there was more pressure on Lazenby than Rosenthal and Humphrey before him, though. Unlike Rosenthal and Humphrey, Lazenby was fronting a channel, not a programme which brings with it extra demands. With Sky covering every session live, it means the amount of time Lazenby is on air for is far higher than that of Rosenthal and Humphrey. Despite that, I believe Lazenby has settled into his role just fine. Okay, there is room for improvement, but if you were to compare Lazenby after race 4 with Rosenthal and Humphrey after race 4 in their respective seasons, it would be difficult to be harsh on Lazenby. My only criticisms of Lazenby would be that his questions can be long winded and that he interrupts his guests unnecessarily, the latter is not really Lazenby’s fault and is probably a demand from the director as the channel is heading to a break (more on that annoyance in Part 3). In China, where the commercials were ‘limited’, Lazenby seemed a lot more settled and relaxed without the extra pressure from the director to head to the next commercial. For that reason, I think Lazenby is doing fine as presenter at the moment.

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.

As a line-up of pundits, the line-up is stellar and very good. I think, and maintain, that the key word is ‘reorganise’. Some people are over used (Hill), some people are under used (Herbert). Whether that is due to contracts or not, I don’t know, I’m not privvy to those things. Overall though, I’m glad Sky taken the best people from BBC’s coverage and put them on their coverage alongside some new faces. I think over time the line-up will improve, and gel more and I look forward to seeing that on screen.

In part 2 of this series I’ll focus on all the BBC TV team members. I anticipate I won’t be writing as much, as some of the team have remained the same, but nevertheless I hope you enjoy reading it. Comments, suggestions, agreements, disagreements welcome!