[stevvy1986]

Maybe it's the fact that I'm tired, but for some reason I think I recognise the voice doing the PC after qualifying as Will Buxton's (GP2/GP3 world feed commentator).

[Red Devil]

Originally Posted by stevvy1986

Maybe it's the fact that I'm tired, but for some reason I think I recognise the voice doing the PC after qualifying as Will Buxton's (GP2/GP3 world feed commentator).

I thought it was Will when I heard earlier too.

[flashwilson]

Originally Posted by MODTL

I think Georgie is well placed to become the first FULL TIME female presenter of F1 unless Jake decides to leave BBC F1 and Lee takes over. I would put my money on her definitely replacing Lazenby though.

Please no. She is ghastly. Cares more about how she looks than what she says. Plus I dont think it sends out a very good message to have a convicted drink-driver on tv, I certainly wouldnt promote her until she has her licence back and it has all been forgotten.

[pakokelso93]

It is Will Buxton doing the PC.

[stefmeister]

Nice to see Sky ditch the Highlights feed today so that were now getting all the feeds that matter.
Hopefully what we had avaliable today for qualifying ends up been what we get for the rest of the year for Qualifying/Race.

Those feeds been:
1 - Sky Sports F1/HD
2 - Driver Tracker
3 - Timing
4 - Pit Lane
5 - Quad Screen (SSF1, Timing, Tracker, Pits)
6 - OnBoard 1
7 - OnBoard 2
8 - OnBoard 3
9 - OnBoard-Mix

[allthingsuk]

Originally Posted by flashwilson

Please no. She is ghastly. Cares more about how she looks than what she says. Plus I dont think it sends out a very good message to have a convicted drink-driver on tv, I certainly wouldnt promote her until she has her licence back and it has all been forgotten.

Whilst true, we should judge her on her presenting ability, not her private life and her misdemeanours.

[alexj2002]

Originally Posted by pakokelso93

MB was DC's race manager while he was in F1. I doubt surely now he still is? I know DC has ventured into DTM but I dunno, maybe someone has confirmation!

I thought Martin gave up his management roles when he joined the Beeb? I think DC owns part of a production company along with Jake if we're throwing in tenuous links that might see him move or otherwise to another broadcaster because of the people that are there...

[joel turcotte]

Originally Posted by ariusuk

Regularly? Always more like

Always, and never missed an opportunity to write childish, petty, spiteful dismissive digs at Mansell, along with Roebuck's contemporary, Eoin Young, that did pretty much the same.
The pair of them were the reason I stopped buying the magazines. They were embarrassing.
On Sunday you could watch Mansell, Senna, Prost, Piquet driving like Gods, on Tuesday you bought the magazine to keep the pictures, results and reports for posterity, to instead find column inches devoted to eulogies to Giles.
Yes, we love the legends of the past, but what about whats happening right now.
The humourists at the time noted that Roebuck " always managed to keep his enthusiasm for Mansell in check " allegedly because he once lent Mansell £5 for petrol which was never repaid*.
I'm sure if Nige met Nigel at the time it could have been a Kurt Busch / Bob Pockrass moment, without self-restraint.
Anyway, point being to paraphrase Elvis Costello, regarding Roebuck - I don't wanna hear him - 'cos I know what he done.
Worst kind of F1 journalist snob.





*Verification needed.

[codename_47]

Nigel does annoy me at the moment with his purist Anti DRS, Anti KERS anti Pirelli stance.
After years of pontificating about a better on track product, we finally have wheel to wheel racing on track and he's searching for reasons not to like it.
Yes, the FIA took a while to get DRS right last year but this year I think its been just right, used more to keep the cars close for overtaking elsewhere than the "open DRS, blast past" of Turkey etc last year.

But the guy has forgotten more about the history of the sport than I'll ever know so is always a good read, and particularly, listen on the Motorsport podcast.

Motorsport is his proper home anyway, where he can pick an era of the sport to focus on and then pontificate away....no pressure to shoehorn in a reference to current times if its not necessary.

[mlt11]

If the consensus (and it seems pretty widespread) is that Lazenby is not doing as well as should be expected the questions are why and can he improve?

He presented live rugby for 10 years and he seemed to do a pretty good job. OK, Sky's rugby coverage doesn't get the same scrutiny on DS as F1 but I saw him on many occasions and I never thought he wasn't up to scratch.

This implies to me that his presenting / general broadcasting skills are up to standard.

So the problem seems to entirely relate to the content of what he says.

It's a tough job and as has been posted on here he is required to interview people at no notice and the pre and post race segments are both lengthy. So you can't just swat up for an hour or two in advance.

I think the answer has to be that he just doesn't have a deep enough knowledge of every aspect of the drivers / teams / cars / circuits / history etc etc with the result that some of what he ends up saying just isn't of the quality that it needs to be.

It seems to me he needs to do a collosal amount of work so he gets to the position of knowing a lot more - not just straightforward knowledge of facts but also a proper understanding of everything as well.

Maybe in a 2nd season returning to circuits for a 2nd time will help him quite a lot but other than that I think he just needs to do an awful lot of work.

[dansus]

Originally Posted by mlt11

If the consensus (and it seems pretty widespread) is that Lazenby is not doing as well as should be expected the questions are why and can he improve?

He could start by slowing down, its like he's going at 100mph and learning nothing. Jake was a bit ropey at first, but he wasnt afraid to pause for moment before opening his mouth to make sure whats about to come out is remotely meaningful. He still does that today, works well for him.

As mentioned before, he seems out of his depth and doesnt look like hes going to get much better this season at least.

[Gordie10]

Could've done without the silly Cirque du Soleil feature with the Toro Rosso drivers. Wasn't even funny like the quirky BBC features often are. Good other features in the pre-qualifying build-up though.

I thought Simon Lazenby seemed at his most comfortable during the qualifying show while he was talking to Ian Poulter. Even more comfortable than he is with the regular Sky pundits. But that's not a good thing. So bring on Georgie, who's just exposing Simon's frailties when she does Practice 3.

I don't watch a lot of rugby, but whenever I did see Simon on it, I thought he was very cool and laid-back. He's almost trying too hard to be laid-back on the F1 coverage, which ultimately has the opposite effect.

Originally Posted by stevvy1986

Well done Herbert for grabbing Schumacher

I disagree. He was just trying to do an Eddie Jordan for no reason, just seconds after we'd heard from Schumacher in the pen with Natalie Pinkham. Johnny obviously wasn't watching that interview. The only bonus from the latter interview is that we got a "crap" out of Schumi.

Originally Posted by stevvy1986

Also am I the only 1 who's now getting sick to absolute death of them constantly ending every live programme 7/8 mins early? 3/4mins, fine, that's the norm on other channels so they can show adverts etc, but as far as I'm concerned, for a dedicated F1 channel to end a live programme 7/8mins early every single time really isn't acceptable.

It's not 7 or 8 minutes - that's when they stop talking. It's more like 5 ... which is probably still too many, admittedly, but the closing montage IS still part of the programme, just like it would be on the BBC.

[lettice]

Originally Posted by D.M.N.

Ted's Qualifying notebook: http://www1.skysports.com/formula1/video/12870/7804023

Watched this on the ipad with sky race control relaxing this morning, amongst the plethora of other goodies in there.Ted is so good in front of the camera, professional, knowledgeable, humorous and bossy.
Snippets like this is really what makes the whole sky f1, so superior to the Beeb for me.
The Beeb really did not know what a great broadcaster they had lurking down in the pits.
Still doesn't matter now. hes doing a great job for sky, for me and the fans.

[lettice]

Originally Posted by mlt11

If the consensus (and it seems pretty widespread) is that Lazenby is not doing as well as should be expected the questions are why and can he improve?

I think the problem is that there is quite a strong team now, with Georgie, Ted, Anthony Davison and the ex drivers playing key roles along with the commentary team, that Simon is looking weak and a little ill used sometimes.
Ive watched Sky for many years and know he has been excellent in the past, Rugby coverage and Sports News.
Dare I say it, but I think perhaps he could be dropped and Georgie takes over the role, but she does really have enough to do already.

[mikw]

Originally Posted by mlt11

If the consensus (and it seems pretty widespread) is that Lazenby is not doing as well as should be expected the questions are why and can he improve?

He presented live rugby for 10 years and he seemed to do a pretty good job. OK, Sky's rugby coverage doesn't get the same scrutiny on DS as F1 but I saw him on many occasions and I never thought he wasn't up to scratch.

This implies to me that his presenting / general broadcasting skills are up to standard.

So the problem seems to entirely relate to the content of what he says.

It's a tough job and as has been posted on here he is required to interview people at no notice and the pre and post race segments are both lengthy. So you can't just swat up for an hour or two in advance.

I think the answer has to be that he just doesn't have a deep enough knowledge of every aspect of the drivers / teams / cars / circuits / history etc etc with the result that some of what he ends up saying just isn't of the quality that it needs to be.

It seems to me he needs to do a collosal amount of work so he gets to the position of knowing a lot more - not just straightforward knowledge of facts but also a proper understanding of everything as well.

Maybe in a 2nd season returning to circuits for a 2nd time will help him quite a lot but other than that I think he just needs to do an awful lot of work.

Simon's problems can be summed up in one word, "Jake".

[BenFranklin]

The best Simon has looked was in the season preview show where he was sitting in a studio. Says it all for me.

[bluesmurf]

The BBC cut hardly anything from the qualifying, which I found rather odd.

I wonder if they were allowed to show more due to the hour they had to broadcast it at?

[stevvy1986]

Originally Posted by flashwilson

Plus I dont think it sends out a very good message to have a convicted drink-driver on tv, I certainly wouldnt promote her until she has her licence back and it has all been forgotten.

Personally I think that's ridiculous. You're REALLY suggesting that someone convicted of drink driving should basically lose her job or be placed on 'gardening leave' for however long? Sorry, but that's ridiculous. What difference does her having her licence back make to anything related to TV? Nothing.

[stevvy1986]

Originally Posted by Gordie10

I disagree. He was just trying to do an Eddie Jordan for no reason, just seconds after we'd heard from Schumacher in the pen with Natalie Pinkham. Johnny obviously wasn't watching that interview. The only bonus from the latter interview is that we got a "crap" out of Schumi.

It's not 7 or 8 minutes - that's when they stop talking. It's more like 5 ... which is probably still too many, admittedly, but the closing montage IS still part of the programme, just like it would be on the BBC.

He wasn't trying to do an Eddie Jordan for no reason. Schumacher was walking past, he tried to grab him for a chat. I fail to see the issue there, regardless of whether Pinkham had spoken to him. EJ won't be the only person in the paddock who grabs someone like that, so a complete non issue. Also it's not more like 5. Even taking the closing montage into account, it's definitely still 6/7mins, it's not like every closing montage lasts 2-3mins.

[sadler]

Originally Posted by bluesmurf

The BBC cut hardly anything from the qualifying, which I found rather odd.

I wonder if they were allowed to show more due to the hour they had to broadcast it at?

Huge chunks of Q1 were missed out as per other highlight shows. . .

[skeggysteve]

Like most I was prepared to give Simon time. But he hasn't got better, it seems to me that he is just presenting from a script and isn't able to change the script as he should do in a live programme - hope you see what I mean. Does anyone agree/disagree?

Georgie has got better but I think she would do well to get rid of the glamour dresses and wear something less formal.

[theARE]

apart from 5live is there any other english language audio commentry avaiable anywhere online? be good to have a backup especially with all the other sport impacting on 5live coverage

[lettice]

Originally Posted by skeggysteve

Georgie has got better but I think she would do well to get rid of the glamour dresses and wear something less formal.

Nope, if you have got it flaunt it, and she looks great with it. This is after all F1, not Bowls.

[madmusician]

It is also unfortunate that Simon is being compared to Jake in his fourth season. When Jake started he was more restrained, things were slightly more 'straight' and the fully-relaxed style was certainly not there from the beginning and it evolved through 2009 and 10 and has since become the focal point of the coverage last season and this season.

Just watch this short segment (courtesy of our very own MODTL, I believe) from the first qualifying show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl6ks...0&feature=plcp Nowhere hear as 'relaxed' or 'natural' as it is now. Yes, Jake got rave reviews from the get-go, but that's because he was coming in after Steve Rider and the ITV coverage which was more 'strict' and, let's be honest, had a fair amount of criticism thrown at it from these boards.

Not dismissing Jake at all, as he is a superb broadcaster, but undoubtedly he grew in confidence with the team throughout the first half of 2009 to become the presenter he is now.

I also remember a quote from James Allen's blog about Jake where he said that Jake had told him that he wouldn't try to be an expert from day 1, i.e. he would play the 'everyman' and not try to be smartarse about the sport - leave that to DC, EJ and the rest and let that come naturally - let him become respected in the paddock first. And that's worked.

Simon doesn't have that advantage, because he's being compared to Jake straight away and perhaps because of the "I pay x amount for Sky and thus their coverage must be awesome straight away" mentality which some have.

Just my thoughts on the situation...

[gd49]

This is the first weekend where I've felt the BBC's coverage has been really stripped back. DC and Lee were good together, but I don't think 4 people and a random person doing the interviews is really sufficient for top class coverage. Unless Edwards or Anderson gets involved in the post-race, the analysis is going to be very weak.

Can understand why the BBC have chosen not to send Jordan out to Canada - this is going to be one of weakest races in ratings for the BBC, and at least for myself, this is the first time this season I'll be seeking out live Sky coverage.