Another interesting race, there was more than enough action to keep us occupied, the start was brilliantly frantic. The race could have been even better had we not lost Vettel. But still shows that we didn't just get lucky in Melbourne- hopefully we'll be in for a season of good/great races.
Onto the coverage side of things, for the first time since the launch of Sky F1 I found myself watching something over than Sky F1 (in terms of when they were both live together). I imagine a large part of this was curiosity on my part, about C4F1 but they still did more than enough to capture my attention throughout their pre-race and post-race show. I still switched over to Sky for the actual race as despite the C4 commentary team being very strong, I have a personal preference for Crofty, Brundle and Ted. Back I went to C4 for post-race and will give more on that in a minute.
Just want to focus on Sky, for a second, they are so lightly spread when Anthony and Damon are not there and that- you imagine- will be somewhat of a regular occurrence during this season. Johnny's not a pundit I'm a fan of- he speaks in pretty basic, unimaginative concepts and then came out with that bizarre Alonso stuff. Have to say I quite enjoyed C4F1 taking the mick out of that on Twitter! Di Resta is decent but seems more limited in what he's willing to say this year as he has a formal F1 role.
Now onto C4:
Pre-Race- The build up to qualifying and the race were both very good shows, jam packed with features: it's very clear that they are committed to F1 despite the fact they only have it for three years. It was busy but they weren't afraid of focussing on the politics of F1, even if it may not have necessarily appealed to new viewers.
DC Presenting- I liked this, the split presentation crews with Steve Jones and Susie Wolff in one place and DC and Mark in another. DC looks very comfortable in camera and looks reinvigorated in his bigger role. Reminds me of Brundle when he first joined Sky in 2012.
Steve Jones- 'I mean wow' Once he stops throwing to pundits with this phrase- he'll be fine. He's very comfortable live on air it seems- not being thrown by anything too much and getting in and out of the links ok. Live TV presenting is obviously very difficult especially in an F1 climate and he did a decent job. The only concerns I have are about whether he has enough knowledge/ understanding of events to be able to effectively interview a team boss/driver without the support of DC/Mark/Susie/EJ. He's still got plenty of time to develop, it's a shame really that C4 don't have another live race until Spain. I wonder who they will have in China as a pundit? Or if they'll just have DC.
Susie Wolff- Thought her explanation of the start using the steering wheel was better than the one Sky did on Friday and she was generally better than I thought she was going to be. Yet she's quite quiet and isn't very good at getting her voice over the engines- although the sound mix for C4 seemed a bit odd in both the pre-race and post-race sections today, not just for SW but the rest of them.
Gridwalk- Loved this, was a bit of carnage but quite fun carnage- it may have worked better with two cameras if you were going to split it. I don't really see the need for DC and MW to walk around together but it was still quite funny. Their chemistry is amazing, the start of the grid walk where they walked into each other was very funny- showing the sort of energy and liveliness in C4's that was lacking in Sky's coverage this weekend.
Post-race- the most difficult part of the weekend but they handled it capably covering most of the key points and using a lot more driver interviews which was interesting. It seems to be a clear approach that they are taking: focus on the personality more than the strategy. There was still enough time for all the key talking points to be discussed. I'm sure it's something that will evolve and improve as the season progresses.
But overall, C4 have a very strong punditry team. One that can only be beaten by Sky if they have Brundle, Davidson and Hill all at a race weekend.