Its the type of lens commonly used for this angle back in the 90's #OldSkool

Seen it a few times in the past they did it, often at Canada when Euros/WC have been on.


FOM Fan has been muted for about fortnight now after my patience ran out, on the wee bits i've seen of him quoted by others, best decision... Some utter garbage.

When it comes to Soccer, probably more people would watch the Copa America as there is a higher population in Latin America. But my point was that there are many Sports clashing, most also requiring more Skill and courage than Soccer. I would think that in Indai/PK/SL, the Cricket would have a higher audience and in the US, then the domestic Baseball would have a higher audience. I would expect that only in the EU (and maybe China) would the EU soccer have a higher audience than all other events. Maybe consider moving the F1 if it was a final but they've scheduled a GP against Le Mans weekend, so can't see that happening either.

Sky's coverage was a joke today yet again!
So stale, same-old same-old tripe plus Herbert who frankly is the one that needs to retire!
Gave up after 15 minutes and muted it until the actual quali began!


Same.
It was either mute him or leave the thread like i did last year and well, muting him was the right call this time around.
Shame when it comes to that though as i don't want to mute people but sometimes, you're pushed into that decision because one making somewhere insufferable with the ability to block them shouldn't mean you leave but make them disappear!

I thought Di Resta did an excellent job today. He was strong on commentary with some good input on punditry and considerably more insightful than Herbert. I just wish Croft wouldn't start half his sentences with, "Paul, you've raced here..."

As for Herbert, I despair. Palmer hit the Wall Of Champions in Q1 which Herbert declared repeatedly with great delight as taking the corner perfectly with a kiss of the wall. Minutes later Sainz hits the same wall with the same force but his suspension didn't take it so well. Herbert's contradictory view was, "These boys should know not to push so hard." WHAT?!

His usual lack of opinion was on show again when Simon asked, "Is Sainz the hottest young property in F1 at the moment in your opinion?" Unsurprisingly, Herbert didn't touch that question and instead rambled on about Carlos Sainz Sr's ability as an agent to his son. What is the point of Herbert if he refuses to have an opinion and when he does it's usually something absurd about kicking drivers out of the sport or directly contradicts something he already said?

The greater issue here is Sky's overall weak lineup vs Channel 4. Herbert is Sky's only full time pundit these days with Di Resta, Hill & Davidson turning up randomly and the latter 2 increasingly rarely. Compared to 2012 they seem to be bare with on-screen staff; Back then they often had 11 on location at races compared to 6 on some this year, a substantial drop. On the other side Channel 4 have Coulthard at every race with a much stronger part-time lineup than their pay-TV counterparts.


Sky's use of split screen during track action is unnecessary and infuriating at times. Admittedly it's far preferably to the BBC's old practice of fullscreen interviews but audio of the interview alone is more than adequate. Today proved this when Sainz hitting the wall was barely noticeable in the reduced window until he rolled up the wall towards the line. Later, Hamilton outbraked himself into the chicane and took the escape road which again was needlessly and distractingly demoted to the split screen. More annoyingly it was used during the Spanish GP and polluted the screen for much longer than was needed. It's a bugbear but it's irritating none-the-less.

On a different note, great coverage of the Isle Of Man TT from ITV4/North One this past week. Can't be easy to cover 37 miles of action and cut an edit in a few hours but their highlights and documentaries were top notch.

The last WEC 6h round at Spa was a classic motor race full of incident, well worth checking out the highlights on Dailymotion.

The Bathurst 1000 normally delivers a good amount of on-track action for an endurance race event (yes, I know it's touring cars). Highlights from last year.

One thing with Di Resta is, I wanted him to jump in a bit more naturally, Crofty always seemed to have to tee him up. Hence why the "you raced here" patter a lot. I guess with lack of numbers, virtually no Skypad. With all the sport today only switched over at 6pm basically.

Hard to think is well in there when Georgie (although not her biggest fan) was around in 2012, even if they didn't have all the team on the flyaways, Georgie and a pundit or 2 were in the London studio via split screen during all the live coverage... Had lots of options. Who remembers Blundell doing the Gangnam Style!

Di Resta did do a good job to step in.
I'm sure its all just nerves with his waiting to come in and after a long partnership with Croft and Brundle, it obviously feels different.
Never had a problem with Herbert when he is commentating. But often as a pundit and his childish play acting during those video extras is what annoys me. Its like he has two personas.
The only time it worked for me with him as a semi-pundit was that pit walk with Damon (some liked some didn't), not so professional but it was enjoyable.
Do think the pit walk has become quite dull lately, much to do with the drivers spending half of it walking up to the national anthem line and ruining the original flow..

I was being sarcastic & was making a point that F1 (as a global sport) shouldn't try to avoid clashes with every kind of sporting event in every single country, because that would be impossible to do. People bang on about the Euros, but outside of Europe, I bet no-one gives a toss about the Euros. In fact, F1 SHOULD schedule against such events, as it gives people an alternative if they don't like football.

Why would qualifying be rescheduled for 400-500k (max) live viewers in the UK?

Herbert needs to go he's by far the weakest part of the Sky coverage. Inane, childish and adds nothing of value. His rant urging Alonso's retirement shows how out of touch with reality he actually is.

Very thin this weekend without Brundle, Hill and Davidson.

Rescheduled Indycar coverage should be on BT Sport 2 at 7pm apparently, though it's not showing in the Sky EPG yet.

The small bits of Sky's F1 coverage I've seen, presenter-wise I've always thought it was a case of "lets see how many presenters we can cram on-screen at once with 3-4+". ITV (pre-Lewis Show + Blundell) always seemed to manage with just 2 (Rosenthal and Jardine) less waffle.

Generally it's Herbert and Hill with Lazenby. At times they will be joined by Brundle, Ted and Ant/Paul if there's more to discuss. They certainly don't try to overload it.

Nothing makes me more angry when I come here to read comments about motorsport than seeing people being rude and nasty towards FOM Fan. The guy is entitled to his views. If you disagree with what he expresses it is wrong for you to brand him a troll and suggest he is being deliberately provocative.

FOM Fan, I find your comments interesting and I hope you continue to post on this forum.

Nonsense. Euro 2016 is a tournament popular only in Europe. As for Sunday's & Saturday's matches, they are minor group matches not exactly with both sides being major teams. I could understand if it was the tournament final, but it's not. The matches played this weekend will never be key matches of the tournament, so IMO F1 shouldn't adjust to accommodate. Besides, most F1 fans don't give a toss about football and would rather watch F1 than football.

Excuse me?? I'm a F1 fan and I give a toss about football a lot, hell i'm even using two screens tonight to watch both.

I am too (and will be watching on two screens!) but FOM Fan said 'most' not 'all'.

Besides, the Formula One season happens every year whilst the Euro is once every four. I don't see why they should alter the Formula One schedule to fit around the Euros; it's not going to hurt it overall.

Not sure who is the sponsorship manager for Shell is, but they must be very smug at getting far more coverage for their fuel over the last few races by offering up the Ferrari drivers' time at Maranello and a funny studio in Monaco, than they ever did when they sponsored Sky!

Nice hat that kid was wearing on a close up during the formation lap. F**ktard indeed!

Love the camera shots from the marshal's position behind the catch fence.

Brundle might not have enjoyed going in to hospital this week, but it's locked-in his job for the next few years at least. The commentary without him today was appalling, with people who struggled to identify cars and didn't know the basic rules of F1.

Whilst Paul Di Resta did a good job filling in on commentary, David Croft had a poor race commentating not being to identify drivers, saying Rosberg was the youngest driver to set a fastest lap in 2016 where he should of said 2006 and then going to the interview with Jenson saying he was talking to Jolyon Palmer. Sky need to replace him as i just find him dull and he makes load of errors

Was it that awful? Yes di Resta made an error in discussing running the softs again and Croft said 2016 not 2006 but I can't say I was sat there screaming at their incompetence, I thought it was fine.

I thought di Resta did a solid job as stand-in and actually was more interesting and engaged in quali and the race than he was in practice.

I was going to get annoyed at them crashing Ted's notebook again for another dull Hamilton 3rd go interview but Vettel crashing it and the seagull hunt actually made it worthwhile