Yes, TV gold!

Thought Di Resta done really well today. He was far better than I was expecting and I have no problem with him most likely being Brundle's replacement for Baku.

Meanwhile, I caught a tweet earlier from Jennie Gow saying that both London Formula E races will be live on ITV.

https://twitter.com/JennieGow/status/742096808269189120

Not a fan of Di Resta, he is OK but a touch soporific with practice commentary but I thought he was very good with qualy and the race. He also worked better with Crofty, possibly with having more to commentate on compared to practice sessions. Quite happy with him to stand in on more races. He was almost like a very calm Ben Edwards.
One thing that's irritating me is the decision to not show the "written media " (?) press conference, used to be boring most times fair enough, but when something happens in the race worth discussing I would rather watch it than see a screen in the commentary box showing it whilst Crofty reads out usually inane tweets. It is very rare for a general tweeter to have anything worthwhile to say about anything. Typically its numbnuts that hate Lewis retweeting stuff that reinforces their mindset or numbnuts that love Lewis doing the same. Boring now that twitter is no longer a novelty.
The other annoying thing is making the drivers rush to stand to attention for the national anthem - it was better before when drivers had more time to hang around for gridwalk interviews and stuff - it should be changed back.
I don't like the ad break immediately after the anthem either - ruins the atmosphere.
Apart from all that - really enjoyed the F1 today.

Yes, I was a little perturbed that Sky thought Di Resta an acceptable replacement for Brundle.

Martin is so good because he communicates his passion for and in-depth knowledge of the sport with excitement and enthusiasm, something that Di Resta seems to lack in almost every area.
I get the feeling Martin would've been more on top of the ferrari strategy and less on the fence when it comes to the first corner incident of Rosberg too.

I don't think it matters really, Martin's true successor will be Button when he retires, if he'd gone any of the many times he'd threatened to previous to this I'd have imagined the higher viewing figures would've tempted him to the BBC but now C4 only have the sport for such a short time, I imagine the extra money offered by Sky will be more tempted despite playing to a smaller crowd.

Or maybe there's Top Gear...they'll probably shuffle that line up a few more times.

That race was a hard one to get through on sky. OK it was dull on track bar a few sprinkles of action but neither Crofty or Di Resta seemed that enthused and they were scraping the bottom of the barrel for pundits too with Damon and Martin away.

I'll watch it again tomorrow on Channel 4 to see if they do a better job but I doubt anyone could've made that race enthralling.

Well it was probably a race that benefitted from the highlights format but I really enjoyed it on C4. Ben and DC seemed to have a great race to me, full of enthusiam, and were on the ball throughout - although I was surprised they didn't think straight away it was risky Ferrari again making the same strategy call with both drivers (although Karun then came on and made exactly that point). DC was especially good - he was pointing out live a number of things the world feed missed and then replayed later (It seemed like looking out of the commentary box window was doing a better job of catching the action live than the FOM director).

Day before I had made the mistake of going with Sky rather than C4 for Quali. Now I know others have criticised that broadcast already so I'm going to try and resist the temptation to go on and rant*, but wow - that was probably the worst broadcast of F1 in the UK since the final dark days of Blundell on ITV. And that's being hugely generous to Sky. It feels like they're the ones who have lost the rights to broadcast F1 - it's pretty damn clear the subscribers and advertisers money isn't going towards the F1 coverage. It felt very cheap, partly because of a lack of features to fill the airtime but mainly because of the small below par (un-sky like?) team. Herbert is even worse then I remembered, as others have pointed out he's hugely inconsistant in his punditry. Now Di Resta I like as a pundit but as a co-commentator he was making a number of mistakes - Martin really does hold the commentary together and without him Crofty was worse too. Simon did an OK job trying to stop the ship[ from sinking but it was so so poor. You look at C4's team and think if DC wasn't there then there's a few names they could call on that could do a good job. Webber and Karun especially (Not Prost!). How is it the free TV, 50% delayed highlights operator (here for 3 years only) can build a strong resiliant team when Sky seem to suffer so much? A few weeks back at Barcelona what I saw of Sky was great. Particularly Ant Davidson whose skypad work that day was probably the best piece of F1 broadcasting this year. To not have Damon, Ant or Martin and think you can get away with just adding Di Resta and getting Herbert to speak a bit more is shocking. People pay for this? If this weekend is the standard Sky think they can get away with when C4 only have late highlights then what's it going to be like when C4 are gone?

* - ok I admit I completely failed not to go on and rant...

Im impressed you thought you wouldn't rant LOL

And agreed entirely.
The Sky coverage was a joke beyond belief today. Herbert again showing why he needs to go and Sky trying to have 90 minutes of build up before light out is also showing how badly stretched the coverage from them as become!
Crofty was a mess throughout and Di Resta was shaky too.
But its the same really with Sky as a whole. They never refresh their coverage of anything, its the same old crap and they expect viewers, subscribers, to be happy with it!
Their NFL coverage gets hammered, their football coverage of the PL gets the same treatment and the cricket - Same faces for well over 10 years!!!!!
So F1 on Sky has a Sky-template to follow, and that is to be the same, be as bland as it is now and expect us all to be happy with it!
I don't watch post-race coverage from Sky anymore. Once the podium interview is done, its off!
I'll try and catch Teds Notebook either later or on SkyGo as thats about the only thing worth giving my time for in Sky's post-race stuff!

I don't think the coverage on Sky was *that* bad last weekend, although I do feel their 90-min build-up is overlong, but then I guess they want to include the driver parade live which is their excuse for having such a long build-up.

I thought di Resta wasn't too bad in commentary, at least not in the race, but the Pre-show was pretty poor. I'd say he was dull as dish water but alongside Stoffel Vandoorne he looked interesting.

Post show was great yesterday, mostly due to Vettel and Hamilton it has to be said (since when have they been so pally?).

I don't really understand the Sky bashing. It did miss Brundle a lot, and without Hill too it was a weak line up, but no weaker than C4. Plus having to wait until midnight to see highlights is like the bad old days of BBC2 Grand Prix.

Thought di Resta did a good job during the race alongside Crofty.
Sure because hes done a practice and qualy he had a quick grounding of how it all works.
It was a race with a lot of discussion points and that helped keep the mind and commentary focused..
Would have no problem for them to do another one.

Just loved the seagulls, VT team worked extra hard there to find them. Great Tv!
Seb and Lewis gel very well together, would like to see them as Ferrari teammates.

Indy was a nice washout. The pre race forecasts all thought that the worst weather had moved away, not so. So they now have three weekends in a row from August.

Just seen the highlights. Hamilton should have been DQ'd for a move that could have killed Nico Rosberg.

I managed to catch that segment this morning, with the seagulls and it was funny to watch. Its on Sky catch up called Suicide Seagulls for anyone who hasn't seen it,

I have never noticed how pally Lewis and Seb are before and it could be because normally Nico is there, and when Lewis and Nico are together the mood always seems a bit more serious, plus Nico and Seb usually chat together.

Couldn't be bothered to stay up that late for C4 highlights.

Looks like this is the list of available on-board feeds for Le Mans on the WEC app & website:

What an utterly bizarre (and unprovable) thing to say. I'm an enormous fan of both. I wasn't aware however that you know all F1 fans and know their preferences with regards sport.

But he wasn't as there was nothing wrong with his driving yesterday, commentators, drivers and the stewards agree.

As for the move which could've killed Rosberg?? Did something happen in the race yesterday we all missed? I remember Rosberg taking to the grass after trying his luck around the outside of Lewis, don't remember some life and death move though.

Back on topic: I thought the coverage was ok all round from both broadcasters, it's hard to make 90 min pre coverage exciting.

I thought Di Resta was ok, though I did (like everyone else) note the blunder re only having to use the soft tyres (we all know you have to use 2 compounds). Apart from that I thought he was ok without being brilliant. Didn't help that it wasn't the greatest race, but it could've been worse, we could've had that numpty Herbert co-commentating!

What is it about Lewis that causes people to get so hysterical over him. So the two of them banged wheels going in to turn one, they hardly took each other out like they did in Spain or the Saubers did in Monaco.
Nico can't really complain, he did pretty much the same thing back in 2014.

I said MOST, not all...

It was bad that he didn't know the tyre rules (anyone would think he was employed by Williams), but terrible that Sky didn't get David to correct him. It's bad for the sport for the wrong rules to be discussed as viewers will get confused - especially as this commentary is taken worldwide, and not just shown to super fans on Sky Sports.

Same far too late should have gone with this as LIVE race, i watched on Sky live first time in ages despite having a subscription, prefer C4 presentation.

Thought Sky had improved a little, pre race feature with Brundle at Maranello with Kimi on fuel saving. Part 2 or 3 of the feature i think. Also the retro feature wasnt bad, some documentary they are doing on 60/70s. Herbert no thanks, wasnt too bad this race but cant take seriously, didnt watch post race aaprt from podium with Douglas random, but he was good knew enough to get him by.

Croft was better, seems to have calmed down, Di Resta was decent though agree the compound mistake was a bit poor.

Will be going back to C4 for European GP, as i have that in HD (just SD for Sky Sports). See what Eddie Jordan is like alongside Steve Jones and how he handles him.

Just for clarification Alex Brundle's dad is racing in the 60 minute LMP3 'Road to Le Mans' support race on Saturday (10.10am-ish) for the United Autosports team, by virtue of being classified as a 'Silver' driver.
Le Mans 24h - Saturday schedule
Sportscar365.com - Martin Brundle: “It Just Seemed Like a Golden Opportunity”

It did remind me of Spain a little when Hamilton was over-agressive. Although in that case Sky suggested that Rosberg should have let Hamilton past because his front wing was just alongside Rosberg's rear wheel. This time Rosberg was ahead of Hamilton and Hamilton drove Rosberg off the road, but according to Sky, that was "fair enough"

Not a DQ but maybe worth a reprimand IMO

Hamilton just understeered into Rosberg; he said as much post-race. Also I don't think Rosberg really needed to take to the escape road, though perhaps if he hadn't there might have been more damage.

Quite comfortably the worst weekend of Sky F1.

- I grew to like Herbert in 2012, but now tired of him.
- Di Resta was fine but nothing special in comm box. Best co-comm outwith Martin (and lesser extent DC) I have heard in past 16-17 years ironically probably Blundell when he filled in. Although Jenson was good in Monaco a number of years ago.
- Crofty mistake central yesterday
- Vandoorne was very poor in his small stint! Questions thrown at him a bit though on James Hunt and he didn't really have a scooby how to answer.

Simon Lazenby did an amazing job I thought to keep 2 strings together, Liked his chat about bullseye before the race and him with Hamilton/Vettel was good. Pelters on Ted's shirt too!

I've said it before but (not just this weekend) the whole montage padding wears thin. We hear / see the same bits of action/incidents from different races each weekend, with a bit added on after each race and it means races/commentaries become less memorable. Compared to delving into say 10 years ago as we didn't see a lot of things like that so I can delve into the 2000's and watch a full race and enjoy, where as if I go to something from last few years (BBC or Sky) I feel scunnered.

Sometimed Jim Rosenthal, Tony and Mark in a studio format seems like a great thing to me, add an Ant type figure with a Sky Pad (and obviously unlike ITV days, live coverage of practice etc too) - what more do you need?

It is also a shame watching some old A1GP how good Ben Edwards was, I just generally haven't found him enjoyable to listen to on BBC/C4 F1, can't put my finger on it. I didn't know much about him until the early 2000s and the BTCC and loved him there.

You can't even prove that it's most. It's just pathetic nonsense with nothing to back it up. At all. The least you could do is not spout unproveable tosh like that when you haven't got a clue.

Watch out! You'll get called rude and nasty.