Pisses me off when people call the Sprint Cup 'NASCAR'. That's like saying: "I love FIA, I watch every race" or "Did you see the FIA race last weekend?" or "Nico Rosberg's a great FIA driver"

People calling the Sprint Cup Nascar is no more weird than people referring to the Premier League as football, especially in the UK where stock car racing as a sport is an entirely different thing to Nascar.

Also Kyle Busch races in the Sprint, Xfinity and Truck series, so referring to him as a Nascar driver rather than just a Sprint Cup driver is factually correct as he participates in multiple Nascar series.

It'd be much more ridiculous for somebody to be a fan of a broadcaster rather than the actual sport that broadcaster covers increasingly poorly.

It's like saying I watch football for the cameramen and not the actual football!

I think FOM should consider using Di Resta for the GP2 coverage, it hasn't really worked that well so far relying on a guest every race since Palmer's promotion.

I actually watch football for the international feed graphics package (which too many local broadcasters are bastardising with their own scoreboards) and the camera angles used (especially when comparing the HD and 4K feeds)

Even so, I don't know anyone who refers to football solely as the Premier League. Surely everyone knows that football is the sport and Premier League is a particular football championship?

Otherwise i'd like to congratulate Wales on beating Russia in that Premier league match last night

Or people referring to Association Football as Football rather than Soccer when there are many different codes of Football from around the World

In that case, it's like people calling football 'FIFA'... As FIFA sanctions many different codes of football (both association & otherwise)...

Really, didn't know that, what other codes? Rugby Football Union, Rugby Football league, Australian rules Football? Certainly not the Football that is most popular in North America

Gaelic Football.

FIFA has nothing to do with Gaelic football, same as it has nothing to do with Aussie Rules Football.

well maybe not types such as rugby & american football, but I'm sure it sanctions stuff like futsal etc.

OK so it appears FIFA only sanctions Association Football, Futsal & Beach Soccer.

Football authorities - the verdict: 2016 season

Anyway, back to F1...

Interesting comments from Alain Prost here, about camera angles and the perception of speed in the coverage from Baku:

Alain Prost “really bored” by Baku and calls on F1 to shake up its TV coverage
https://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2016/...s-tv-coverage/

On camera positioning and angles making the cars look slow:

On modern on-boards sanitising the appearance of how hard it is to drive the car:

Pleased to see such senior figures in the sport noticing what some of us have been saying for some time.

FWIW I thought the coverage at the previous race in Canada was great.

Its time for inhelmet cameras,

Prost might have a point but he seemed a bit vague on what the answer is, unless he's suggesting we go back to 90's tech for our onboards.

I did like the seance of a car bouncing around and being on edge with those old on boards.

With the close walls Canada lends itself to great high speed shots, as does Monaco. Baku didn't seem to do that, which was strange.

Which brings up another question: if it's safe to have high speeds between concrete barriers at Baku why do places like Silverstone situate the fans and cameras half a mile from the action?

Because health & safety laws, risk assesments etc. are more restrictive in places such as the UK. Also insurers in the UK are probably more cautious too. An insurer in Azerbaijan is probably going to have different ideas of risk (especially when they've probably got the Azerbaijan government looking over their shoulder to ensure the race goes ahead no matter what) compared to one in the UK (Because our government doesn't give a toss about motor racing it seems ).

Regarding Prost's comments about the onboards last weekend, It's funny that for the last two races in particular, more of the on-board camera angles have been changed from the standard T-CAM shot to an over-the-shoulder shot more reminiscent of the early 90s angles, including on Hamilton's car.

Not convinced by that argument; Just watching the BTCC racing from Croft last weekend and the crowds are a lot closer to the track with no high catch fencing. A flying heavy BTCC car will likely cause just as much mayhem as a faster but lighter F1 car.

I am a massive cynic when it comes to such matters, and tend to think it all comes down to cash.

I think if a circuit/sponsor/government isn't putting the expected amount into Bernie's back pocket then you start hearing about "dull race" "poor facilities" "unsafe corners" and "the need for modernisation of the track" etc. etc.

And then when someone comes along with a bucket full of notes his principles disappear and it's "the close walls make it exciting" "having a pitstop in a chicken shed is a new challenge" and "it doesn't matter if there is no room for grandstands or decent camera positions" and "can you help me carry this cash, I only have short legs"

As I said, I am a massive cynic.

The bends on the back straight caused Canada to have an awful tyre chicane for a year before it was changed to the gentle kink that it has now. The old layout was far safer looking that the final Baku bendy straight.

I'm not sure why Hamilton's onboard camera in Baku looked so bad, the quality was poor and it didn't really give any sensation of speed or show much of what he was doing in the cockpit, even though positionally it was similar to good 80s onboards.

Not sure the world feed move to widescreen in 2007 has helped with the sense of speed. Everything was much more 'enclosed' as such by the narrower field of view on some shots. Nowadays, trackside objects are on screen longer, so seem to be going by slower.

There's an interesting premium article on Autosport suggesting that Bernie mostly definitely sees Le Mans as a rival to F1, indicating there are likely to be deliberate clashes going forwards.

Nico Hulkenberg was told not to keep speaking about it.

http://www.autosport.com/premium/fea...reatest-weapon

That article makes Dieter Rencken's pieces sound positively bubbly tbh lol