If he's bored, he should stop commentating for good. I won't miss him anymore. His commentary has been sub-par for several years now. IMO he should have quit when the rights went to Sky. His views as a driver who hasn't raced in a top-tier open-wheel series for 20 years now are totally irrelevant. Sky should promote someone like Di Resta up permanently.

I rather suspect by the time Sky get their exclusivity in 2019 Jenson Button will be in the box.

Hill and Herbert for the grid walks then for this race and Azerbaijan unless they get Ted to do it, I feel like Ted could be a very good person to do a grid walk and I'm surprised he hasn't done one yet.

I don't think there will be a extra pundit for Canada considering the news has come a day before the action begins so I expect Paul to be on co-commentary duties. Azerbaijan could be different though, without Brundle there needs to be a space filed, yes they have Di Resta but Sky might want a extra pundit to fill a full team for the weekend, first name that springs to mind is Marc Priestley. (Him and Croft would be good together in the commentary box)

EDIT: Unsurprisingly it's Paul Di Resta on co-commentary duties this weekend as confirmed by Crofty:
https://twitter.com/croftyf1/status/740966888222658560

Will be interesting if Di Resta does all 3 practice sessions, quali and the race, or will Sky chuck Herbert or Hill at one or two of the FP sessions.

Or perhaps bring up a guest for the Practice sessions. I remember the BBC used to do that when Allan McNish wasn't available for FP2. Susie Wolff, Jolyen Palmer, Jackie Stewart among others used to grace the BBC Comms box.
Jacques Villenuve would be a great shout.

Oh god, anyone but Herbert. I'd rather have a piece of Swiss cheese doing it than him (same goes for the track parade after making a complete tit of himself, in my opinion anyway, in Monaco with Hamilton (plus his comments earlier in the season saying Alonso should retire). Hill is a bit wooden and can be a bit uncertain at times, but at least he isn't a berk like Herbert.

If Brundle had the operation last week, probably there was a big chance he wasn't going then so I'm sure Sky may well have had a plan into gear before Brundle announced it.

Might be worth just ditching the grid walk and having Ted and Rachel do some random in-position interviews. Not sure anyone else can pull it off, really.

In other news, I see DC is now a "Heineken ambassador", whatever the heck that is. I wonder if it might not have been better to skip that given his prominent role on the C4 coverage.

So all three British broadcasters will consist of an English man commentating (Ben Edwards, David Croft and Jack Nicholls) and a Scottish analyst (David Coulthard, Paul Di Resta and Allan McNish)
Going to be one noisy Grand Prix wherever you tune in.

Isn't McNish missing Azerbaijan because of his role as an Audi ambassador?

Basically the rumoured F1 sponsorship deal with Heineken (the beer company) has been officially announced & him and Jackie Stewart are the spokespeople for this deal. I don't see why this would be an issue re. C4, in fact if anything DC's rather an appropriate person for such a deal . Also his Red Bull ambassador role doesn't stop him presenting C4, so why should this?

I think we now know which team Heineken will be partnering with (they mentioned a link-up with an individual team when the deal was rumoured) now anyway, which makes sense as they also sponsor a Red Bull soccer team in the US.

Probably, but I guess a bit of it for him would also be a case of "it's Le Mans, how can I miss Le Mans?"

You can't miss the Heineken branding...

Di Resta in every session.

I thought Herbert was quite good when he did commentary for the practice session, and would rather have him in for the race to be honest.

I'd prefer to be thrown into a pool of lemon juice with a million paper cuts than have Herbert commentate the Grand Prix.

That is the point of sponsorship...

That's a new angle from FOM facing T1, isn't it? Very nice.

You know, i hate it when people are never clear in what they're trying to say

Not a fan then?

New on-board angle on the Haas, wonder if that's in preparation for the Halo next year.

It's not really a new angle, Its just the standard over the shoulder shot thats tilted a bit too low & running a narrower angle lens.
https://flic.kr/p/HSZiqw
Here is the same angle with the usual wider angle lens on Grosjean's car during the Spanish Gp:
https://flic.kr/p/HBeL9h

And on Rosberg's Mercedes last year:
https://flic.kr/p/HYGo41


TBH I don't see us getting any change in OnBoard angles with the Halo next year as the T-cam on the roll-bar won't really be that affected based on the bit of footage we saw from the Ferrari pre-season.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3v...-concept_sport

Always enjoy the drivers and principal press conferences.
Daniel Ricciardo was not happy, quite rare to see him so down and not the big smile.
But my real gripe is I'm getting a tad fed up with this Dieter Rencken bloke, who just asks the same money distribution questions every week.
Did look up Racing Lines that he mentions in Google and nothing comes up.
Do enjoy the more technical side from these guys and the occasional political topic, but he just asks and normally a few times in the conference the same old bore.

A great sporting Saturday and Sunday with the F1 qualy today ending just before the big England match.
Along with the cricket, Rugby and football, plus the WEC and British GT.
Will be on my patio with the family, friends and neighbours for a football party from lunch till late evening today (just off to buy plenty of the essentials and time for cooking just before they arrive), looking like a warm pleasant day.
It will be great fun juggling with all sorts of tablets and phones to lay them all out for watching.

One thing on that is the British GT from Silverstone shown live online somewhere like youtube rather than via motors tv?

If for some reason Croft is ever unavailable, what do we think is Sky's plan to cover him? Have Brundle do lead comms alongside Davidson/Di Resta? Let Ted have a go? Get someone else in entirely?

They could also use Alex Jacques, don't think he's busy during the F1 action.

It would probably be having Brundle do the lead with Davidson or Di Resta.
I'm not sure Ted has ever done full Comms before, that would be interesting. Who would then be in the pitlane? Rachel Brookes with Craig Slater in the pen?
I'd still put my money on Brundle, he wasn't too bad at it in 2011 when he did it and could just fill in if needed.

Hello Sky F1 fans ,

Just watched the Whisper films edit of the Silverstone WEC 6h highlights on Channel 4 (All4 streamed in SD). Breathless stuff, really nothing more than a LMP1H race recap for the 24 minutes it was on, with brief glimpses of the other classes. Just Hindy calling the action, with Lee McKenzie introducing/concluding the highlights off screen. The WEC online Youtube highlights are longer at 52 minutes.

Good to see another World Championship on terrestrial TV even just as early morning niche sports quota filler. Maybe they'll do more with WEC once F1 sails off into the pay-TV sunset post-2018.

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I also attended the Coventry Motofest last Saturday, saw Peter Dumbreck at the wheel of the screaming Aston Vulcan (FOM Fan would not like ), as well as rallycross driver Andy Scott. The truck racing demo was good fun too.