One thing that is annoying in this session, the sky iPad race control has its eight onboards, on board mix, quad mix, pitlane, tracker, timing screen and the main feed.
Split screen is available for all 14 of them.
But, everytime there is a red flag off they go, fair enough but they do not come on straight away when we get the all clear.

Why does Di Resta keep calling Jolyon Palmer "Julian"? I don't remember him doing it before this weekend but he's done it a few times now.

Probably just me but I feel Rachel Brookes drags the arse out of some of these questions. Usually once or twice a weekend too she asks a question which the driver has already mentioned (like just now Button mentioned he was up by 3 tenths in his last lap before the yellow flag... few secs later Rachel asked if he was up in his final run)

Just noticed something pretty interesting: as we have all seen during Q1 the onboard replay of Ericsson's crash had a lot of break-ups and was pretty much useless. However, the picture was fine and had no break-ups at all during the worldfeed highlight reel after the session...

I guess they must record to internal storage as well as transmitting live and FOM can download that once the car is recovered. I really hope they address the break-up issue soon, it's so much worse than on the previous generation of equipment.

Very nice Susie Wolfe today...both talking and looking

i) I realise UK / C4 commentators can in the main only add to the pictures they get, and they probably do lean more to UK drivers/teams
ii) I dont know if there is any particular anti-Rosberg feeling in Hungary
iii) There was plenty of action on track when qualifying was actually underway - cant show all cars simultaneously.

Im no special Rosberg fan, but I do feel we were noticeably short changed on seeing his runs today, not least his last winning one.
I do hope they will redress the balance tomorrow with coverage pre-race of the fastest man in qualifying.

I think its just ben edwards losing the plot. He cant hide is hamilton/verstappen bias. at the end of q3 he was certain ham had pole even though dc said nico had a good middle sector. and why does he act so suprised in mixed conditions when multiple drivers go top when it changes all the time. He just trys to ramble on for ages without actualy making a point. in 2012 his commentary was great now its just terrible

She's okay but she never really comes out with anything particularly interesting or insightful in the way that Webber or Jordan do. I also find her teeth quite distracting

Karun is still C4's stand out analyst/pundit/reporter for me, closely followed by Lee.

On the downside, C4 didn't half labour the point about the radio regulation changes in today's qually build-up. It got very tedious.

Something that is really starting to irritate me is Croft's absolute obsession with track limits. Yes it is an issue & yes I'd like to see them enforced better but he just seems to almost get into a tirade about it & do nothing but talk about track limits for half the practice session to the point where he starts to make the whole situation far more confusing than it actually is.

I generally like Croft's commentary but there are certain issues like that sometimes where he gets on his soap box & does nothing but go on & on about it for lengthy periods of time & it really does irritate me sometimes even if/when its something I actually agree with him on.

As for track limits.... Track > white line > kurb > 2m strip of real grass > Tarmac or gravel..... Simple!


In terms of FOM, The shot where they look through the armco at the second to last corner is a nice artsy shot to use every now & again, But I feel there using it far too often.

Got annoying after a while.

Not sure I really noticed it as being annoying, but after previous GPs where it did shake up the qualy sessions, I think he was getting prepared. With all the red flags, they had to talk about something...

One thing I do think Croft does well, is he has had quite a mixture of co-commentators like Ant, Di Resta on and off and he really has no problem with any of them and keeps the flow.

Some good GP2 and Gp3 this weekend so far.
Loved Ted and his sheep and cows. He is not up on his Mercedes road cars then, re the drivers road cars
Red bull drivers do well mind.

Haven't seen the GP2 Sprint race yet but thought the direction for the Feature Race was pretty ropey - didn't seem at all interested in following the battles down the field and missed some action as drivers were coming out of the pits side by side with guys who made their stop earlier.

The timing graphics are just so mediocre as well, I wish they would improve them.

I was referring more to the practice sessions rather than qualifying.

On & off over FP3 he seemed to spend almost half of the session ranting about it & managed to make the issue for this weekend with the timing loop in the kerbs sound far more confusing than they actually are.

Is it just me or Simon, Brundle, and Dir Resta are dressed really badly with most of their buttons undone on their shirt, feel like they should wear a suit..

Also interesting grind lineup graphic update on Sky..

I'm sure they would look so much better sweating to death in a suit.

Should Rachel be wearing a suit too, or is it just the blokes that need to suffer in the heat?

Definitely agree about the GP2 (& GP3) timing. It's a bit "here's what we did 15 years ago". They've done a lot to improve the series - adding more onboards and team radio etc. - but the timing graphics have got left behind. Not a major drama. GP2 is a good series overall though, there's been a number of weekends recently I've thought let's just rename the GP2 series F1, paint the cars in F1 colours and have some fun for a change.

Thought it was interesting what Brundle was saying yesterday about the potential for SC-starts in wet races but once the SC comes in the cars line up on the grid and you get a proper start. Not a bad idea in some respects, but on the other hand it's stupid that Charlie is happy to sit there and wait as long as he wants to start qualifying sessions and take as long as he needs to get them done in full but the race MUST start on the dot even if it involves pissing about behind the SC for ages.

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Separately, no, I don't think they should be wearing suits on the grid and I do think they look fine.

I don't get a chance to watch F1 that much and this weekend has been my first time watching the C4 coverage. I have to say I find it very good. It seems more informal than the BBC was. Would it be fair to say C4 aims its coverage to the more casual viewers? Steve Jones isnt that bad as a presenter considering that he hasn't had much sports presenting experience previously. The C4 graphics are fantastic and i don't mind the ad breaks that much in the build up coverage. The only thing that brings the coverage down for me is Ben Edwards. He gets far to excited way too easily. A commentator doesn't need to yell about a lock up. It isn't that big a deal. He also talks way too fast for my liking. But maybe im being too critical here.

They look smarter like that to me too, suits and ties for me are always a turn off and just look so dated. Made me laugh in the last cricket test, in those hot temps, some of the sky team were wearing there piece suits, good grief.
For me its many decades of working for a large IT company who supplied tons of branded t-shirts and dress down Fridays and smart casual wear rules. All my high end presentations internal and to customers, even at enterprise level done that way too. If you turned up to work wearing a suit or tie in my team, Id send you home to change into something smart casual. I did recently to one of our apprentices.

On the gp2/3 graphics, they are done by someone else are they not and have been like that for sometime.
They do the job, but I have always found that whether its Jacques or old Will, its so easy to follow gp2/3 with the close racing or with their good commentary, that the graphics are just surplus, not like F1. But they could be made to look a little more modern.

Susie's shorts are giving me strange thoughts that I've never had before about her!
About the radio regs coverage: there was a very rare thing yesterday- Karun managed to get Charlie in front of a camera to put the FIA's point of view across. Never seen that before...
On the suits thing; at least DC is wearing a jacket!

First time I've used the red button since I got Sky Q, Is it normal for the Pit Lane channel to be in a tiny box at the top left with the WF taking up most the picture?

Seems a wierd choice considering Id like to see the pitlane channel?

Lex specialis, thanks Crofty, was going to hit rewind to get my head round it, but just setup the race control to sync up. He explained it nicely, I think

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/br...ce-801833/?s=1

Not sure we can say this when the Sky 2019 deal comes into place, certain the attendance will not only fall on TV but also possibly at the GP's.

The GP2/3/Porsche Supercup/TCR graphics (part of a 'generic' FOM support race graphics package - the colour just changes depending on the series) date from 2005, and at that time, FOM was using the 2004-2008/9 F1 graphics package that was designed by the design agency DixonBaxi. Whether the support race graphics were designed by them as well, I don't know.

Maybe, although you have to say the trend in the Silverstone crowd numbers doesn't really appear to correlate much to the TV viewing numbers and/or broadcast landscape of the past few seasons.

Just a guess but is it more just a Hamilton effect (and Button, to an extent)?