A bit of a f**k up by Channel 4 regarding Zanardi. Presumably he agreed to do a feature later in the year and was rightly surprised to see himself as 'part of the team'. Aside from that I'm impressed with the team they've assembled, plenty of different personalities on rotation should keep the punditry fresh across the lengthy season. Some good paddock links too with Prost, Coulthard, Wolff, Webber, Hamilton and Jordan all having close working and personal relationships with teams and drivers which could turn up some interesting features, insight and maybe the odd scoop.
My only concern is the lack of a technical/engineering voice with F1 experience. It was missing from the BBC when Anderson departed and it's not something Sky touch on outside of Ted's Notebook and pre-season. A few features or appearances over the season detailing the usual innovations or grey areas being exploited in the rules would do. Sam Michael would have been a good shout for this bringing the added benefit of experience in a number of roles in his career.
As for Sky, same old same old. Di Resta is a much needed addition with Chandhok & Senna departing and Davidson making very few appearances last season. However the same problems appear to remain with Herbert somehow remaining despite bringing nothing to the coverage and the Hamilton focus looks unlikely to shift. Unfortunately it also appears Sky's pre-race show remains at an unnecessarily long 90 minutes despite struggling to fill it with worthwhile content.
Originally Posted by stefmeister:
“BTW its disappointing to see that all of the classic races Sky are showing over the next week are races that have been shown several times before over the past 2 years.
1994 Japanese Gp & 1986, 1994, 1996, 2003 & 2010 Australian Gp's.
When they announced they were showing classic races they said they had access to everything going back to 1981 & there are a lot of races from that time which they have not shown yet. It would be nice to see some new races put into the rotation instead of seeing the same one's repeated over & over.
To be honest I'd love to see them stop showing random races & start showing full seasons. Start with 1981, Show a race a day or something & work through each year, Including full races where possible.”
Absolutely agree. There has been no variety in Sky's classic races since inception and they've barely scratched the surface of the archive available. By comparison the BBC's huge library of Classic F1 shown online and the red button since 2009 puts Sky's efforts to shame.