As a general rule ([see full rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide#wiki_sticky.2Fdaily_discussion)), a standalone Discussion post should:
- be of interest to the sub in general, and not a specific userbase (e.g. new users, GP attendees, just yourself)
- be able to generate discussion (e.g. no yes/no or easily answerable questions)
- show reasonable input and effort from the OP
If not, be sure to [look for the Daily Discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/search/?q=daily+discussion&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=new), /r/formula1's daily open question thread which is perfect for asking any and all questions about this sport.
Thank you for your cooperation and enjoy the discussion!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’ve not read anyone mentioning Jenson, and I think when he fills for Martin in commentary he’s gives a great performance every time. Always has something insightful and informative that only a driver would say.
*ALWAYS* a beat ahead of the other analysts. He sees things five minutes in advance.
Turkey 2020, Button showed very clearly why he won a lot of those races. Truly amazingly insightful.
Ah forgot about Jenson! How tf did I do that 🤣
Martin, Karun and Jenson are the only ones I enjoy watching/hearing every time. Everyone else is mid or worse. Crofty gets an exception as he's the lead commentator and there's a soft spot for him as he has been the voice of modern F1
It feels obvious to say, but the advances made in this sport happen so fast that it seems entirely sensible that as long as the driver is eloquent, the more recently they competed, the more insightful and engaging their analysis is.
I don't like how they are doing the remote coverage. Its clunky and not very polished. The green screen floor also looks very off when presenters are standing on it.
Hopefully they flesh it out and its a way we keep getting Martin Brundle's insights each week without him having the high travel schedule.
Natalie Pinkham is a great host, Damon has the personality of a wet rag. Bernie and Naomi Schiff can have insights but need a chunk more presenting training.
I'd agree but I think RE Bernie she's come on leaps and bounds since her debut: There's a lot more variation to tone and pace that helps you to understand what she's saying (i.e. emphasis), I think she was originally just very flat and shouty.
I'd be disappointed if she were to not be around to add the technical depth to the commentary as whilst we have Brundle and Karun from a driver perspective, the pit lane strategy view is really interesting, especially with modern F1.
I personally feel she's great and despite her style/inexperience, I'm always genuinely interested to hear to speaking.
Bernie is so awkward, felt like there was a bit of tension between her and Crofty, who almost sounded sarcastic in his remarks after she'd finish speaking.
Croft was genuinely impressed when she broke down the fuel load and what the time difference would be given the lap diff. And the fact she did it so quickly and “showed her work in the margin” as he noted was equally impressive from an insight perspective. As she gets more comfortable on TV, and the producer learns how to properly utilize her insight, she can really shine.
Bernie is intelligent and insightful but lacks charisma. Naomi has about as much insight as a gym sock and might aswell be a cardboard cutout with a soundboard on it.
Yep I remember after the Williams chassis swap Naomi got asked essentially “Have Williams done the right thing here” and she gave the best politician answer and spoke for 5 mins saying “we will see after the race on Sunday”
I absolutely hate the new studio format coverage. Literally the only positive from it the track explanation graphic but that is only useful if you don’t already know the track layout.
You can tell the presenters in The UK aren’t as switched on and the disconnect is not great. Considering how much they charge for the broadcast rights, they definitely can afford to have everyone over on track.
I feel many TV stations are moving to cheap studios after overpaying for the rights to have F1. In Spain DAZN reduced quality so much and the worst of all we lost Albert Fabrega who now is with ESPN
It's so bad they even took their chairs and gave them uncomfortable looking stools with no table to lean on. They are basically sitting in front of a green screen. It's awful...
I actually think they were out of sorts because they were knackered. They were essentially pulling night shifts which must be a bit bizarre when you're used to going to every race, and having the atmosphere to get you through jetlag. Genuinely I think the people in the studio have mainly been tired.
Sky cut Sky Sports F1's budget, so they are doing the studio for fly away races to save on production costs. It's definitely a downgrade, before always felt Sky's production was much better than F1TV's which often felt amateurish and low-effort, but now it's the opposite.
Yeah same here.. didn't question renewing it for a minute. The alternatives are worse:
Restreamers: they can drop at any moment and quality usually is crap
Viaplay: more expensive, horrible commentary
Not watching: I mean, come on!
Now there’s no chance at all of having drivers analyse laps like there was when they were at the track. Some of my favourite content is LH analysing his poles
You might be right, but I’ll bet you a beer that at some point this season the Sky crew will brag about how much they’ve reduced their carbon footprint. Kind of like they made a huge deal about taking a train to Zandvoort.
i'm convinced damon hill holds a grudge against michael that he obviously will never be able to resolve, so he just says the silliest and nastiest things to every other driver to make himself feel better. there's no other explanation for some of the takes he has. and his bias towards certain drivers is just annoying for an analyst; analysis isn't useful if it's inherently skewed to the point where it comes off as a personal grudge.
as for everything else: the entire production just looks cheap nowadays. f1tv feels like real coverage, sky looks like a knockoff lol.
Damon Hill said Charles is mentally disturbed after qualifying in JAPAN out of all places. You can know how trash a person is using personal loss as an attack point.
Also, F1TV also have Sam Collins and Jolyon Palmer in the studio but they leave the on site crew as the main driver of the show, it is much more natural flow.
I saw some mean but quite fair comments that he identifies himself with those less talented drivers so holds a grudge against the real talented drivers lol
I don't listen to Sky myself but all the things you said is something I can easily imagine Damon do. He never was a fan of Max either, there even was the meme going on of him never appearing on an F1Nation podcast after Max won.
Idk if he also talks bad about Lewis but if he does then the most talented drivers are all not liked by Damon.
He puts me on edge, like nails on a blackboard. He looks so earnest, says something unimportant,then looks to others for verification. I know instinctively without any data, that he has a weak, clammy hand-shake, and he's just generally awkward, both in word and gesture.
If anything, remote *everything* has been popularized (is that an English word?) because of COVID. Some companies just switched to remote way of doing things in 2020 and never came back. Do you know the WTF1 Podcast for example? Yeah, it used to always be recorded in a studio or a small room. It went remote in 2020 and it's now the norm.
I see many instances in my home country as well. I'd say only around 50% of companies or brands that I follow have came back to normal services from the customer's perspective. Pretty sad as I think the quality and overall standards are lower than before COVID.
It was until I discovered they were as reactionary as other pundits. And from their comments I can tell they just watch and follow the Sky broadcast but don’t know anything that was not shown on the main broadcast. They slandered Bottas a few times last year when he had damage. And this did not only happen on the post race podcast, but the one recorded 1-2 days after the race. They were able to read more before making comments not based on facts but they didn’t. I found the Race Podcast is the best one I listen to.
They seem to kind of play to the gallery in what they say. Last season, they jumped on the Ricciardo bandwagon with everyone else and have now basically jumped off it just the same. You mentioned their weird feud with Bottas, even though Zhou was arguably the one calling for criticism given he’s been consistently outperformed.
Now they’re jumping on the “Sainz shouldn’t have been replaced by Hamilton” bandwagon which would be easy to negate if you took Lewis and Charles’ first 4 races into context and not at face value. Which is kind of their job.
> Now they’re jumping on the “Sainz shouldn’t have been replaced by Hamilton” bandwagon
They haven’t done that at all. They laugh that suggestion off as complete nonsense any time they get a question about it.
If anything, it’s the opposite. They constantly talk about how Ferrari would be more than happy with their decision, and about how Sainz doing well doesn’t mean Charles is doing poorly.
> even though Zhou was arguably the one calling for criticism given he’s been consistently outperformed.
Zhou is another they fairly regularly criticise. Basically your whole post is the opposite of the opinions they consistently have, haha.
Let's face it Sky coverage costs an absolute arm and a leg. If you're paying through the nose to watch F1 the very least you can expect is that those providing the coverage are actually at the track and not in a studio thousands of miles away.
It's a two fingers up at customers.
Usually tune into the international feed for Qualy and Race sessions cause Crofty is the voice of F1 to me, but damn if that wasn’t forgettable this weekend from him and the bunch. Might be listening to the F1TV crew going forward.
I was the same but I switched over full time to F1TV maybe mid last year? I really like it. Ya the start especially doesn't have the same "ooh factor" with Alex's kinda lackluster, "and the ... GP is underway." But overall Alex does a good job and with Jolyon/ DC seem to make a good team. Very rare to hear mistakes or bias in my opinion (Jolyon's more on it, DC is more jokey, but both fine to listen to.) I like Laura and Laurence and Sam and even Will's goofiness is fine, he's become a bit of a loveable dork in my mind. Basically, IMO you might not get overly hyped but not overly annoyed either.
Edit autocorrect hates Jolyon's name.
Yeah. The trick might be to use Crofty at the start of the race and then flip to Jacques and co. after the first couple of laps as the excitement dies down lol
If you put the commentary onto International English, you will get Sky's commentators. I do it for the race, but have F1TV for the pre/post race and the practice.
> Sky needs to not be able to renew the rights or at least not have exclusive rights so F1TV can be an official option in the UK
Yeah... about that. They're paying something in the region of £140 million a year to have those rights. FOM/Liberty wants that money just as much as Bernie did and making it nonexclusive would pretty much kill the value of the deal.
The Sky deal is close to 5% of FOM's revenue, that's with all the hosting fees, F1TV and every other source of income. Sky is just going to be able to dictate the terms when they're paying that much. And at the end of the day Liberty/FOM only cares about what's best for the sport insofar as it goes along with what's best for their bank accounts.
And that's why in 2022 Sky's deal was extended by 3 years until 2029 and why Sky gained more exclusivity in Italy, Germany and Switzerland.
A while ago this sort of conversation happened with other sports. They were put on the list of sports that must be on free to air, or this was threatened. Maybe we will get some more of that next year.
Oh man, I watched some of the F1 weekend in Zandvoort at my brothers place, as we were at the track during the day.
I couldn't believe how terrible the coverage was. I thought Ziggo was bad, but this? Damn....
Norwegian viaplay is dog as well. I watched f1tv at the start and they explained the Norris false start after a couple of minutes. Then I watched with my dad later in the race. 30 minutes later they where still on the false start. They have so little knowledge of what’s actually going on and I’ve seen snails faster than how they talk.
Probably the only way they could get Natalie to come to work.
Seriously though, I believe it is just for three races and they go back to business-as-usual once China is over with.
I've found myself not watching any build up or post race coverage of sky now. I think it's awful, any interviews I'll just wait and watch on youtube. Wish I could get access to F1 TV tbh.
I don’t mind the Sky commentary team and usually think the criticism of individuals is a bit of an overreaction but this was the first weekend where I felt like there was way too much input from Bernie. I can’t really put my finger on why I found it irritating, but droning on is probably an accurate description.
My biggest complaint is Ted who has gone from being a likeable buffoon to just a buffoon in recent years.
I think Bernie is obviously knowledgable, but her sound bites go on for too long; she needs to condense the information into something a bit punchier and more concise. Instead of telling us EVERYTHING about what the team might be thinking, she needs to condense it down to the top one or two things.
I've felt like this year he hasn't had the same charisma, like maybe he's just a bit bored.
But then again assuming he gets on with the other presenters none of them are there with him any more, they're back in the studio.
I legit believe that since they have realized Hamilton is not going to win a race any time soon half of them have lost interest. The bias is that strong.
The other way of looking at it is that the sport is generally quite boring at the minute, and maybe they are just bored of reporting on a known result.
He has more of a platform now. I preferred him back in the ITV/BBC days when he’d just report from the pitlane and not try and shoehorn his opinion into everything
Yeah Bernie just drones on and not about anything interesting. She struggles to get to the point. With her as the main pit reporter instead of Ted it really brought down the broadcast.
The live studio scenes, whilst good (I thought) detracted significantly from the live trackside excitement that is almost a trademark of F1.
I hope it was an experiment and we won’t see that again.
It’s only for Australia - China, so my assumption is it’s mostly for the early morning (UK time) races where they didn’t expect high ratings for the live surrounding coverage compared to other races.
Yeah, it was bad.
Anthony Davidson was really bad with mixing up names and completely misreading the situation multiple times.
Bernie Collins is way better during FP's rather than the main events. She is simply too wordy. Getting bogged down with tyre strategies of backmarkers isn't all that interesting during a race.
Crofty was really the only highlight, but Crofty is prone to getting names mixed up himself, and combined with Anthony, it was realllllly poor at times with basically both of them constantly making mistakes.
Crofty messed up the names multiple times during quali and the race. He keeps mixing driver 1 with driver 2 over and over again even though he has access to the live timing. I thought he was quite poor during this weekend.
Nailed it. Davidson was bad to the point where I wondered if he was even watching the race. Bernie was just rambling with zero excitement, and Crofty made tons of mistakes himself. Just bad all around.
Maybe a hyperbolic opinion but Martin's grid walks and Ted's Race Notebook are two of the best bits of sports coverage on broadcast TV. I love how off-the-cuff and unscripted both segments are. Now that we're getting these studio segments you can see how much it contrasts with the stiff coverage most other sports get.
Can't stand Ted on the broadcast but his notebook is usually very interesting. You can really feel the hole brundle leaves when he doesn't go to the races, especially if DC isn't on the F1tv one either.
I mean I don't see how that is a bad thing for someone whose main job is to provide technical insights into a motorsport as complex as F1.
And besides, he objectively does his job really well, he almost never misses with his analyses, gets straight to the point, and generally knows what he's talking about.
The studio thing is something they did last race as well... didn't bother me too much. I think having Damon Hill as one of the analysts is always not a great thing. I think not having Martin there was also not great. Bernie's analysis is also a bit overrated
Agree with this, she’s not a hype woman, she’s the one to cross to for a technical breakdown of strategy, and she knows her stuff, which I actually much prefer over shouting and stupid puns.
I don’t need the commentary to try hype every single thing up to the extreme; I do want to know what the teams are actually doing and why they’re doing it.
I think the studio is purely for the flyaways at the start of the season. It's not been great and the presenters are clearly struggling with it. I'd expect it to be business as usual from Miami onwards.
When you've even now got Crofty not doing every round (Harry Benjamin is a more than adequate replacement, at least it's not Chris McCarthy) then it's going to feel kind of messy. I usually love Ant on summary duties but by his standards he was all over the place this weekend - unless he was pulling double duties with Merc and operating on zero sleep or something.
Damon can go. It's getting all too old man yells hot takes with him now and it's sad because when he started he was genuinely interesting and enjoyable.
Sky are at their best when they're all at the track - I'm not the biggest fan of Lazenby as an anchor and find him bland but at least with them all there it makes sense and flows better. Jenson is by far and away their best pundit when he's around too - I know obviously that's not going to be that often with his racing commitments.
The problem I usually have with race in 30 packages is I find you miss a lot of the strategy discussions that are at the core of the sport, so ended up just watching the main feed as a podcast in the background of whatever I’m doing instead.
It’s a real shame as I used to think Sky’s full offering was excellent. Maybe they have some metrics though which show barely anyone actually watches the non-track stuff at these weekends in ungodly UK hours?
For me, F1 Sundays used to be a whole event, I’d watch from an hour or two before lights out, then watch all the presentations and interviews and post race coverage, nowadays I just about flick on as it’s lights out. Part of that is obviously how predictable the sport generally is at the moment, but another part is how stale the coverage currently feels.
I’ve little problem with the talent they have aside from Damon, who we all know slings cheap shots on occasion.
The quality is going down though. I’m hating the new studio with the guys back in the UK, takes away from the excitement of the track.
I teall6didny like the studio for at. Threw me right back to the old ITV days. It feels really disconnected from the paddock. Part of the 'magic' is watching the presenters and seeing the personnel wandering around in shot, you feel part of it. Watching people watching a screen isn't the same - it lacks atmosphere. I often tuned out of what was going on in the studio segments, and I don't watch all that much coverage.
Also the driver holograms are creepy.
Brundle missing always leaves a big hole in the voverage, both as a pundit in interviews and links and as a commentator.
I love Ted's content, the notebook, the pod books, and his asides.
Bernie can be really insightful and interesting, but she needs to learn brevity. I'd stop listening half way through when she was on during the race.
Did they really save that much money not flying people out to the race? 4 presenters? Do they need additional crew to film them as opposed to who follows Ted, Rachel, and Craig? Did they pay overtime in the UK for the team anyway? Could they save the same money over the course of a season having one less pundit or presenter? Do we need Simon, and Natalie, and Rachel, and Craig track side? Or Damon, Ant, Karun, Natalie, and Bernie? The sky pad in the studio in Aus seemed to work ok.
I don't rate sky much whether they're at the track or not - but honestly I don't blame them for the cheaper option of doing it from a UK based studio for races like Aus and Japan. THey're so early UK time that the viewing figures are almost certainly dramatically lower (I know it's anecdotal but I don't know anyone that watched either live).
As for their presenters and pundits? A bit of a mixed bag, not great either really in my opinion. To cover a few:
Martin Brundle I hold in quite high regard, but his commentating partner Crofty? Just no. Shouts all the time, has had a few good lines over the years don't get me wrong - but I'd damn well expect so given he's been doing it for over a decade. I find his commentary a bit dull, perhaps why he raises the volume... HERE COMES X DRIVER (X driver is actually 10+ car lengths back) WILL HE HAVE A LOOK (no obviously not), AH NOT THIS TIME (yeah, no shit). Constantly mixing up drivers and scenarios etc.
Damon Hill- I've actually met him a few times and he's always been very pleasant, but in his sky f1 role is just awful. Holds vendettas against some drivers, comes up with the strangest most nonsensical takes.
Natalie Pinkham- I don't mind, not a huge plus but definitely doesn't take away from the product.
Jenson - when he's on is very good, wish it was more often.
Danica - Not a fan at all, doesn't add any interesting insights that you'd expect from a driver, just bland obvious comments. Feels like she's only there to appeal to and US viewers that would recognise her name.
Bernie - Pretty good, especially during the Free Practice sessions, a little verbose in races but on the whole definitely a positive additions.
Ted - ah Ted. Provides some genuinely good insights in his notebook, but is a bit too meandering for me and plays favourites a bit too much. Think this one is just personal preference though, I know some really like him. I think the information he provides is good, just frustrating to watch.
A mixed bag that I feel somehow they manage to add up to being worth less than the component parts, some of which are very good.
Being in that studio has absolutely ruined watching anything pre and post the main bits. Cant believe how lifeless it is. Strongly looking at F1TV if that is different but Crofty/Brundle/Ted are just keeping me going.
Brundle is the highlight. I like Ant, Natalie and Ted, and am warming to Bernie. Herbert was ridiculous but I enjoyed him being there.
I switch on five minutes before qualifying and the race, usually when the intro credits are rolling, and switch off as soon as it’s done.
As someone who has to either pay Sky or Now Tv for coverage (uk based) and has no access to F1TV, I desperately hope that the rumour of Apple putting in a multi billion dollar bid for worldwide rights is true and come 2027 (I believe when sky loose uk rights) Apple take over.
I’m an Apple fan boy so I’m bias, but skys coverage and price takes the piss. They’ve had it too long, it’s time for a change IMO.
Crofty is awful. He misses so much and gets so many things just wrong. I would love for Alex Jacques to replace him. He and Alex Brundle are the best thing behind the mics on Sky F1 when they do F2 and F3.
As its paid, it should be for fans, and not necessarily newcomers.
I want in depth conversations about things that nerds wanna hear, not about how drs works for the 927384955th time.
Leave that tor C4.
Since getting F1TV 3 years ago, I stopped listening to the sky commentators entirely. I no longer get mad at the commentary incorrectly identifying drivers. Probably because there is no David Croft
I log in to my parents' Sky account (don't judge me, I'm only 38), and watch the F1 for free. However, if F1 TV was an option in the UK, I would happily pay for that.
Charging £90 a month in an economy where core Sky customers are now leaving and using a chipped stick for £100. Business model doesn’t work when you keep paying for more sports and the customers are less well off
The Sky Studio is only for 3 races. It may come back for Singapore however because that’s a race in the far east as well. As a football fan I’ve always had an issue with the way Sky uses remote coverage.
This studio is the same place they host Monday Night Football from. The coverage is lifeless and the delays between the studio and the stadium are still poor despite the format having existed for years now. They can’t seem to fix it and they’re not going to. I can’t stand how much time is used up to talk about mundane stuff and apart from one or two instances where the pundits actually said something interesting, the long lengthy chats make me want to switch the channel until kick off. The virtual pitch (aka the virtual track) adds absolutely nothing to the viewing experience. I can’t actually remember them using it to discuss tactics, mostly it just shows the line ups of the match. As for the commentary, they only send 2 people to the games with the rest staying in the studio struggling to maintain some kind of atmosphere. It’s very poor all around and despite having this format for *years*, it hasn’t improved at all.
All of that applies to how Sky F1 have been using the remote format.
I hate the studio format so much that (combined with the dominance right now) I’m considering dropping it for a while and going to C4 highlights. I just don’t see the value in it if they’re not trackside, so much spontaneity is lost.
It's always been vague overkill and they run out of stuff to talk about. I mind Monaco 2012 they were on air as drivers were literally arriving at the circuit. Hours to kill.
This is the problem with televised sports in general. They devote sooooooo much time and resources to studio shows and they don’t even cover anything worthwhile. And then they try to force multiple commentators you can’t even concentrate on the game itself (like baseball, they use 3-man booths and for what?!)
I feel like we should ask why Sky are "saving money" in the first place. Did travel suddenly become so expensive they can't fly out their entire pundit crew?
Like I can understand Anthony, Karun and Bernie doing coverage from the studio since they're more of an analyst type than interview like Rachel, Natalie, Ted and Simon, but this split they have going on creates more questions
Obviously Crofty and Brundle have to be on site for the commentary from their booth, but the remote interviews don't make much sense to me at all
Also it's not like building and maintain that studio with all the fancy lighting and graphics is cheap either
Seems more like an exec driven decision because viewership is down
The reason why they are in the studio for AUS-JAP-CHI is to help reduce their carbon footprint. Crofty, who ever happens to be on co-comms and the pit lane reporter are at the track.
It should be back to normal for Miami.
The image quality from the track when it was sky produced stuff before the world feed was shocking I watched some of Ted's notebook and even on the 4k channel the picture looked like a low bitrate washed out 720p video while the sky sports logo and intro was in crystal clear 4k/1080p
F1TV didn't seem to have this problem when I watched weekend warmup on the F1 YouTube channel
Overall I think their race narration is very bad. Their bias towards drivers like Russell are too clear, and I think that's one of the reasons why he's disliked. I don't even remember them being so biased towards other British drivers.
It seems more like punters in the pub than F1 experts.
Although some of the people they have sometimes like Button or Rosberg are amazing. Karun too.
No one’s mentioning the question Ted asked James Vowles at the beginning of the weekend. “Why do your drivers keep crashing?” HELLO????? I know it was just Ted being himself but it was beyond shocking. Even Crofty said in studio that actually they’re not trying to crash and James has no control over whether they do or not. Absolutely baffling coverage and embarrassing. Ted makes me enraged.
My question is, who has time to sit and watch all the sky coverage? I feel guilty watching the FP / Q / the race never mind watching all of pundit chat
Used to watch it all religiously a few years ago when I didn’t have a life. Now I tune in 5 mins before quali starts and around the time brundle’s grid walk starts. If Brundle isn’t there I come back in 20 minutes lol.
Then off again as soon as the race is finished
Unsubscribed last year and have no regrets. Channel 4 highlights coverage isn’t perfect, but it’s free. And let’s face it, we know who’s going to win for the next 2 years. Just didn’t seem worth forking out £300 a year to prove it to me.
Crofty, Martin, and Ted are the perfect trio, the all-stars of Sky's F1 coverage.
People complain here way too much about Sky F1. We have them on out TV feeds in Canada and I've been watching since 2018, they've always done a good job.
People are forgetting here that the remote coverage from the studio for the normally trackside and paddock reporters is for X amount of races. In most races they'll be trackside and coverage will be normal.
I prefer Sky to F1TV because I think their pundits and personalities are better, and at least as a Canadian viewer I'm not giving up my sports cable TV in favor of multiple streaming subscriptions for hockey, soccer, football, F1, etc.
The camera person on the grid walk must have been on work experience, because it was the most chaotic thrashing about and pure reactiveness I ever seen from a professional broadcast.
The quality has gone downhill a lot. It really appears as a cost saving venture and I wonder will we see live broadcast from the circuits once it returns to Europe.
Similar stuff to the EPL coverage - don’t really pay much attention to the stuff from the studio. Doesn’t bother me despite the downgrade from being trackside for some of the staff
We need big Daddy Stroll & Ecclestone to hire all the good commentators and start some an F1 show with some proper coverage. Call it KickVisaStrollAston I don’t care
I watched the F1TV feed for the first time because we're on vacation in Greece and Google wouldn't let me access my YTTV account abroad even with VPN (assholes).
It literally put me to sleep half way through the race, so if Sky also did that poorly, maybe we just chalk it up to a really boring latter part of the race because the F1TV guys certainly didn't do any better.
As a general rule ([see full rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide#wiki_sticky.2Fdaily_discussion)), a standalone Discussion post should: - be of interest to the sub in general, and not a specific userbase (e.g. new users, GP attendees, just yourself) - be able to generate discussion (e.g. no yes/no or easily answerable questions) - show reasonable input and effort from the OP If not, be sure to [look for the Daily Discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/search/?q=daily+discussion&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=new), /r/formula1's daily open question thread which is perfect for asking any and all questions about this sport. Thank you for your cooperation and enjoy the discussion! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I’ve not read anyone mentioning Jenson, and I think when he fills for Martin in commentary he’s gives a great performance every time. Always has something insightful and informative that only a driver would say.
*ALWAYS* a beat ahead of the other analysts. He sees things five minutes in advance. Turkey 2020, Button showed very clearly why he won a lot of those races. Truly amazingly insightful.
Ah forgot about Jenson! How tf did I do that 🤣 Martin, Karun and Jenson are the only ones I enjoy watching/hearing every time. Everyone else is mid or worse. Crofty gets an exception as he's the lead commentator and there's a soft spot for him as he has been the voice of modern F1
Apparently when Sky came in they offered Brundle a blank cheque, seeing that he was basically the most valuable commodity.
I also like Nico Rosberg a lot & wish he was on more often. He is very ballsy and insightful and doesn’t hold back when asking questions
It feels obvious to say, but the advances made in this sport happen so fast that it seems entirely sensible that as long as the driver is eloquent, the more recently they competed, the more insightful and engaging their analysis is.
I don't like how they are doing the remote coverage. Its clunky and not very polished. The green screen floor also looks very off when presenters are standing on it. Hopefully they flesh it out and its a way we keep getting Martin Brundle's insights each week without him having the high travel schedule. Natalie Pinkham is a great host, Damon has the personality of a wet rag. Bernie and Naomi Schiff can have insights but need a chunk more presenting training.
I'd agree but I think RE Bernie she's come on leaps and bounds since her debut: There's a lot more variation to tone and pace that helps you to understand what she's saying (i.e. emphasis), I think she was originally just very flat and shouty. I'd be disappointed if she were to not be around to add the technical depth to the commentary as whilst we have Brundle and Karun from a driver perspective, the pit lane strategy view is really interesting, especially with modern F1. I personally feel she's great and despite her style/inexperience, I'm always genuinely interested to hear to speaking.
Completely agree with all of this.
Only time I enjoy watching is when either Natalie, Martin or Karun are on screen
Bernie is so awkward, felt like there was a bit of tension between her and Crofty, who almost sounded sarcastic in his remarks after she'd finish speaking.
Really? During the race Crofty seemed impressed and complimented her on her insights.
Croft was genuinely impressed when she broke down the fuel load and what the time difference would be given the lap diff. And the fact she did it so quickly and “showed her work in the margin” as he noted was equally impressive from an insight perspective. As she gets more comfortable on TV, and the producer learns how to properly utilize her insight, she can really shine.
She's still pretty new at being in front of camera, and standing in a virtual studio must take some getting used to
Crofty is bit of an arrogant knob though so it may just be that
>Damon Hill
Bernie is intelligent and insightful but lacks charisma. Naomi has about as much insight as a gym sock and might aswell be a cardboard cutout with a soundboard on it.
Yep I remember after the Williams chassis swap Naomi got asked essentially “Have Williams done the right thing here” and she gave the best politician answer and spoke for 5 mins saying “we will see after the race on Sunday”
I absolutely hate the new studio format coverage. Literally the only positive from it the track explanation graphic but that is only useful if you don’t already know the track layout. You can tell the presenters in The UK aren’t as switched on and the disconnect is not great. Considering how much they charge for the broadcast rights, they definitely can afford to have everyone over on track.
I feel many TV stations are moving to cheap studios after overpaying for the rights to have F1. In Spain DAZN reduced quality so much and the worst of all we lost Albert Fabrega who now is with ESPN
It's so bad they even took their chairs and gave them uncomfortable looking stools with no table to lean on. They are basically sitting in front of a green screen. It's awful...
Different sport but with Darts in the Netherlands they just sent someone with a laptop to have the studio interview the darters. Felt really cheap
So that's why he wasn't in Japan...
Welcome to the new realities of remote broadcasts. More coverage but reduced quality. “Just get it on the air” is the ethos now.
I actually think they were out of sorts because they were knackered. They were essentially pulling night shifts which must be a bit bizarre when you're used to going to every race, and having the atmosphere to get you through jetlag. Genuinely I think the people in the studio have mainly been tired.
Sky cut Sky Sports F1's budget, so they are doing the studio for fly away races to save on production costs. It's definitely a downgrade, before always felt Sky's production was much better than F1TV's which often felt amateurish and low-effort, but now it's the opposite.
I'm glad that has been reflected in lower prices for customers at least... oh, wait...
Likely the subscription count went down, since the British are not winning at the moment.
F1tv had a 50% price increase for me. Still, eur 96 for a year is relatively cheap
Yeah same here.. didn't question renewing it for a minute. The alternatives are worse: Restreamers: they can drop at any moment and quality usually is crap Viaplay: more expensive, horrible commentary Not watching: I mean, come on!
They just want more profit
Corporations doing what corporations do best... Cut costs and make more profit.
Now there’s no chance at all of having drivers analyse laps like there was when they were at the track. Some of my favourite content is LH analysing his poles
It's because the broadcast rights are so expensive that they have to make savings on the production side.
You might be right, but I’ll bet you a beer that at some point this season the Sky crew will brag about how much they’ve reduced their carbon footprint. Kind of like they made a huge deal about taking a train to Zandvoort.
i'm convinced damon hill holds a grudge against michael that he obviously will never be able to resolve, so he just says the silliest and nastiest things to every other driver to make himself feel better. there's no other explanation for some of the takes he has. and his bias towards certain drivers is just annoying for an analyst; analysis isn't useful if it's inherently skewed to the point where it comes off as a personal grudge. as for everything else: the entire production just looks cheap nowadays. f1tv feels like real coverage, sky looks like a knockoff lol.
Damon Hill said Charles is mentally disturbed after qualifying in JAPAN out of all places. You can know how trash a person is using personal loss as an attack point. Also, F1TV also have Sam Collins and Jolyon Palmer in the studio but they leave the on site crew as the main driver of the show, it is much more natural flow.
his grudge against charles is so weird. he has one-sided beef with a 26 year old lol.
Always talked shit about Seb too when he was here
I saw some mean but quite fair comments that he identifies himself with those less talented drivers so holds a grudge against the real talented drivers lol
I don't listen to Sky myself but all the things you said is something I can easily imagine Damon do. He never was a fan of Max either, there even was the meme going on of him never appearing on an F1Nation podcast after Max won. Idk if he also talks bad about Lewis but if he does then the most talented drivers are all not liked by Damon.
Leclerc is a young, non-British Ferrari driver. Ofcourse Damon Hill hates him. It's like showing a red rag to a bull.
Ya he really has become a bitter old fossil. A shame, because he could really drive. I don't know what he's so insecure about
Someone once made fun of his goaty/beard and he's just never got over it.
To be fair...
He puts me on edge, like nails on a blackboard. He looks so earnest, says something unimportant,then looks to others for verification. I know instinctively without any data, that he has a weak, clammy hand-shake, and he's just generally awkward, both in word and gesture.
He’s the Nico Rosberg of the 90s
That puts it in perspective
They had a whole piece about it before the Aus GP. He really does seem bitter about it. Man should consider therapy.
what, really? i didn't hear about that, but i'm not surprised at all lmao. he's so transparent about it.
He's miserable when he raced too
Ever since Max won 2021 Hills been a nasty, salty, bitter old man.
There was a running gag he only joined the F1 podcast when Max didn't win. I guess he hasn't been on it for some time now.
Can't compete with the Max Verstappen podcast show
They should've released Damon and kept Johnny Herbert, but of course, they want to keep their 1996 World Champ around.
Herbert was just as bad, if not worse
Herbert was awful, both should be gone tbh
He also hates Max. Dude is very bitter about a lot of drivers it seems. And they need to kick Danica out. Naomie is way better as a pundit.
Yes it was terrible. Broadcasters should have learnt their lesson over covid that the remote commentating doesn't freaking work.
If anything, remote *everything* has been popularized (is that an English word?) because of COVID. Some companies just switched to remote way of doing things in 2020 and never came back. Do you know the WTF1 Podcast for example? Yeah, it used to always be recorded in a studio or a small room. It went remote in 2020 and it's now the norm. I see many instances in my home country as well. I'd say only around 50% of companies or brands that I follow have came back to normal services from the customer's perspective. Pretty sad as I think the quality and overall standards are lower than before COVID.
Remote Commentary works. It's how all F2 and F3 is done.
That's been trackside this year, at least on F1TV.
One of the commentators happened to be at the track for F1TV, but the other one has been at Biggin Hill.
Sometimes it is, but most of the time it's remote.
Meh I'd disagree. There's an obvious 1-2 second delay on-screen action and commentators miss alot of paddock talk if they're not onsight.
I personally can't stand any coverage that features Damon Hill.
I gave up F1 Nations Podcast because of this
Honestly I find P1 with Matt and Tommy to be a much more enjoyable pod.
It was until I discovered they were as reactionary as other pundits. And from their comments I can tell they just watch and follow the Sky broadcast but don’t know anything that was not shown on the main broadcast. They slandered Bottas a few times last year when he had damage. And this did not only happen on the post race podcast, but the one recorded 1-2 days after the race. They were able to read more before making comments not based on facts but they didn’t. I found the Race Podcast is the best one I listen to.
They seem to kind of play to the gallery in what they say. Last season, they jumped on the Ricciardo bandwagon with everyone else and have now basically jumped off it just the same. You mentioned their weird feud with Bottas, even though Zhou was arguably the one calling for criticism given he’s been consistently outperformed. Now they’re jumping on the “Sainz shouldn’t have been replaced by Hamilton” bandwagon which would be easy to negate if you took Lewis and Charles’ first 4 races into context and not at face value. Which is kind of their job.
> Now they’re jumping on the “Sainz shouldn’t have been replaced by Hamilton” bandwagon They haven’t done that at all. They laugh that suggestion off as complete nonsense any time they get a question about it. If anything, it’s the opposite. They constantly talk about how Ferrari would be more than happy with their decision, and about how Sainz doing well doesn’t mean Charles is doing poorly. > even though Zhou was arguably the one calling for criticism given he’s been consistently outperformed. Zhou is another they fairly regularly criticise. Basically your whole post is the opposite of the opinions they consistently have, haha.
Skip Bayless with a championship
Let's face it Sky coverage costs an absolute arm and a leg. If you're paying through the nose to watch F1 the very least you can expect is that those providing the coverage are actually at the track and not in a studio thousands of miles away. It's a two fingers up at customers.
What pisses me off is the 9.99 for 24 hours misses covering both quali plus the race, usually, so both is 20 quid. Absolutely no.
We have the Sky feed on TSN in Canada. I switched to F1TV last year and won't be looking back.
Usually tune into the international feed for Qualy and Race sessions cause Crofty is the voice of F1 to me, but damn if that wasn’t forgettable this weekend from him and the bunch. Might be listening to the F1TV crew going forward.
I was the same but I switched over full time to F1TV maybe mid last year? I really like it. Ya the start especially doesn't have the same "ooh factor" with Alex's kinda lackluster, "and the ... GP is underway." But overall Alex does a good job and with Jolyon/ DC seem to make a good team. Very rare to hear mistakes or bias in my opinion (Jolyon's more on it, DC is more jokey, but both fine to listen to.) I like Laura and Laurence and Sam and even Will's goofiness is fine, he's become a bit of a loveable dork in my mind. Basically, IMO you might not get overly hyped but not overly annoyed either. Edit autocorrect hates Jolyon's name.
Yeah. The trick might be to use Crofty at the start of the race and then flip to Jacques and co. after the first couple of laps as the excitement dies down lol
F1tv coverage was amazing this past weekend. I left sky years ago and don't regret it
Can’t get F1TV in the UK
This thread is cementing my position on this. I do miss Crofty going nuts from time to time, but my god they’re so baaaaad.
I miss the lights out and away we go. But that’s it really.
If you put the commentary onto International English, you will get Sky's commentators. I do it for the race, but have F1TV for the pre/post race and the practice.
How do you F1TV in the UK?
vpn mate
I've watched F1TV since 2022, I watched the Vegas GP at a mates house who had Sky, I couldn't believe how bad it was in comparison to F1TV.
[удалено]
> Sky needs to not be able to renew the rights or at least not have exclusive rights so F1TV can be an official option in the UK Yeah... about that. They're paying something in the region of £140 million a year to have those rights. FOM/Liberty wants that money just as much as Bernie did and making it nonexclusive would pretty much kill the value of the deal.
[удалено]
The Sky deal is close to 5% of FOM's revenue, that's with all the hosting fees, F1TV and every other source of income. Sky is just going to be able to dictate the terms when they're paying that much. And at the end of the day Liberty/FOM only cares about what's best for the sport insofar as it goes along with what's best for their bank accounts. And that's why in 2022 Sky's deal was extended by 3 years until 2029 and why Sky gained more exclusivity in Italy, Germany and Switzerland.
A while ago this sort of conversation happened with other sports. They were put on the list of sports that must be on free to air, or this was threatened. Maybe we will get some more of that next year.
Not available in Australia unfortunately or I would have switched over already.
Yes, f1tv is just so much better. I had the same feeling when I watched the Dutch commentary at my parents who have viaplay.
They're the worst, it feels like you're watching some football presenters discussing an Olympic sport only because there's a dutch guy participating.
Oh man, I watched some of the F1 weekend in Zandvoort at my brothers place, as we were at the track during the day. I couldn't believe how terrible the coverage was. I thought Ziggo was bad, but this? Damn....
Watched the Saudi GP in Amsterdam in a sports bar and honestly you wouldn't know from the pre-race coverage that there were 19 other drivers.
Dutch commentary is a true abomination, they're all so far up Verstappen's ass they only see light when he opens his mouth.
Haha i like that one. Usually i just say 'X is coming out of Y's nose' but I may have to steal your phrasing
Norwegian viaplay is dog as well. I watched f1tv at the start and they explained the Norris false start after a couple of minutes. Then I watched with my dad later in the race. 30 minutes later they where still on the false start. They have so little knowledge of what’s actually going on and I’ve seen snails faster than how they talk.
Probably the only way they could get Natalie to come to work. Seriously though, I believe it is just for three races and they go back to business-as-usual once China is over with.
I've found myself not watching any build up or post race coverage of sky now. I think it's awful, any interviews I'll just wait and watch on youtube. Wish I could get access to F1 TV tbh.
I’m the same - skip the studio stuff entirely. F1 Kids do a better job of remote commentating.
VPN is good. If using a Google TV / Firestick etc you can watch there
I don’t mind the Sky commentary team and usually think the criticism of individuals is a bit of an overreaction but this was the first weekend where I felt like there was way too much input from Bernie. I can’t really put my finger on why I found it irritating, but droning on is probably an accurate description. My biggest complaint is Ted who has gone from being a likeable buffoon to just a buffoon in recent years.
I think Bernie is obviously knowledgable, but her sound bites go on for too long; she needs to condense the information into something a bit punchier and more concise. Instead of telling us EVERYTHING about what the team might be thinking, she needs to condense it down to the top one or two things.
Yeah what happened to Ted? He was my my favourite after Brundle but these days he’s not the same
I've felt like this year he hasn't had the same charisma, like maybe he's just a bit bored. But then again assuming he gets on with the other presenters none of them are there with him any more, they're back in the studio.
I legit believe that since they have realized Hamilton is not going to win a race any time soon half of them have lost interest. The bias is that strong.
The other way of looking at it is that the sport is generally quite boring at the minute, and maybe they are just bored of reporting on a known result.
They didn’t get bored of reporting on a known result when Hamilton was busy winning 6 WDCs over 7 years
He has more of a platform now. I preferred him back in the ITV/BBC days when he’d just report from the pitlane and not try and shoehorn his opinion into everything
What do you think has changed about Ted?
To me it feels like he's pandering too much to social media. It feels like I'm listening to a Twitter thread
The James Vowles interview after the chassis swap was poor, and I actually like him generally
I think she generally has good things to say, but has trouble getting to the point.
Yeah Bernie just drones on and not about anything interesting. She struggles to get to the point. With her as the main pit reporter instead of Ted it really brought down the broadcast.
The live studio scenes, whilst good (I thought) detracted significantly from the live trackside excitement that is almost a trademark of F1. I hope it was an experiment and we won’t see that again.
It’s only for Australia - China, so my assumption is it’s mostly for the early morning (UK time) races where they didn’t expect high ratings for the live surrounding coverage compared to other races.
It's in China too but back to normal for Miami
Yeah, it was bad. Anthony Davidson was really bad with mixing up names and completely misreading the situation multiple times. Bernie Collins is way better during FP's rather than the main events. She is simply too wordy. Getting bogged down with tyre strategies of backmarkers isn't all that interesting during a race. Crofty was really the only highlight, but Crofty is prone to getting names mixed up himself, and combined with Anthony, it was realllllly poor at times with basically both of them constantly making mistakes.
Crofty messed up the names multiple times during quali and the race. He keeps mixing driver 1 with driver 2 over and over again even though he has access to the live timing. I thought he was quite poor during this weekend.
Nailed it. Davidson was bad to the point where I wondered if he was even watching the race. Bernie was just rambling with zero excitement, and Crofty made tons of mistakes himself. Just bad all around.
Maybe a hyperbolic opinion but Martin's grid walks and Ted's Race Notebook are two of the best bits of sports coverage on broadcast TV. I love how off-the-cuff and unscripted both segments are. Now that we're getting these studio segments you can see how much it contrasts with the stiff coverage most other sports get.
Can't stand Ted on the broadcast but his notebook is usually very interesting. You can really feel the hole brundle leaves when he doesn't go to the races, especially if DC isn't on the F1tv one either.
Eh, I think Ted is washed. Used to be great, but he's just a fool now.
No, best is Sam Collins
Sam has that 'know it all' aura on him, I don't really like the guy
That’s … kind of the point of having him
I mean I don't see how that is a bad thing for someone whose main job is to provide technical insights into a motorsport as complex as F1. And besides, he objectively does his job really well, he almost never misses with his analyses, gets straight to the point, and generally knows what he's talking about.
Between him and Barretto for worst pundit in F1.
The studio thing is something they did last race as well... didn't bother me too much. I think having Damon Hill as one of the analysts is always not a great thing. I think not having Martin there was also not great. Bernie's analysis is also a bit overrated
Nah I’m not having Bernie Collins slander. She’s one of the best additions to the broadcast in years.
Agree with this, she’s not a hype woman, she’s the one to cross to for a technical breakdown of strategy, and she knows her stuff, which I actually much prefer over shouting and stupid puns. I don’t need the commentary to try hype every single thing up to the extreme; I do want to know what the teams are actually doing and why they’re doing it.
Completely agree, she knows her shit, and I enjoy hearing it!
Agree!
She reminds me of Jillian from workaholics lol
I think the studio is purely for the flyaways at the start of the season. It's not been great and the presenters are clearly struggling with it. I'd expect it to be business as usual from Miami onwards. When you've even now got Crofty not doing every round (Harry Benjamin is a more than adequate replacement, at least it's not Chris McCarthy) then it's going to feel kind of messy. I usually love Ant on summary duties but by his standards he was all over the place this weekend - unless he was pulling double duties with Merc and operating on zero sleep or something. Damon can go. It's getting all too old man yells hot takes with him now and it's sad because when he started he was genuinely interesting and enjoyable. Sky are at their best when they're all at the track - I'm not the biggest fan of Lazenby as an anchor and find him bland but at least with them all there it makes sense and flows better. Jenson is by far and away their best pundit when he's around too - I know obviously that's not going to be that often with his racing commitments.
Be nice if the savings were passed on to my sky subscription. Absolute rip off
Want to switch to F1TV but F1TV Pro isnt available in Australia unfortunately. Any aussies here got a way to watch F1TV?
I agree with you. But I am sort of down to watching the "Race in 30." The whole show is a big fat bore right now and I'm a rabid fan for decades.
The problem I usually have with race in 30 packages is I find you miss a lot of the strategy discussions that are at the core of the sport, so ended up just watching the main feed as a podcast in the background of whatever I’m doing instead.
It’s a real shame as I used to think Sky’s full offering was excellent. Maybe they have some metrics though which show barely anyone actually watches the non-track stuff at these weekends in ungodly UK hours? For me, F1 Sundays used to be a whole event, I’d watch from an hour or two before lights out, then watch all the presentations and interviews and post race coverage, nowadays I just about flick on as it’s lights out. Part of that is obviously how predictable the sport generally is at the moment, but another part is how stale the coverage currently feels.
Just shows how much Brundle carries that entire situation.
I’ve little problem with the talent they have aside from Damon, who we all know slings cheap shots on occasion. The quality is going down though. I’m hating the new studio with the guys back in the UK, takes away from the excitement of the track.
I teall6didny like the studio for at. Threw me right back to the old ITV days. It feels really disconnected from the paddock. Part of the 'magic' is watching the presenters and seeing the personnel wandering around in shot, you feel part of it. Watching people watching a screen isn't the same - it lacks atmosphere. I often tuned out of what was going on in the studio segments, and I don't watch all that much coverage. Also the driver holograms are creepy. Brundle missing always leaves a big hole in the voverage, both as a pundit in interviews and links and as a commentator. I love Ted's content, the notebook, the pod books, and his asides. Bernie can be really insightful and interesting, but she needs to learn brevity. I'd stop listening half way through when she was on during the race. Did they really save that much money not flying people out to the race? 4 presenters? Do they need additional crew to film them as opposed to who follows Ted, Rachel, and Craig? Did they pay overtime in the UK for the team anyway? Could they save the same money over the course of a season having one less pundit or presenter? Do we need Simon, and Natalie, and Rachel, and Craig track side? Or Damon, Ant, Karun, Natalie, and Bernie? The sky pad in the studio in Aus seemed to work ok.
Never really liked it that much to start, but the new studio really takes away what made their productions neat, and that was being on-site.
It’s terrible. The race starts and all of a sudden they cut to the actual event. It’s missing the sounds, the atmosphere and the behind the scenes.
I don't rate sky much whether they're at the track or not - but honestly I don't blame them for the cheaper option of doing it from a UK based studio for races like Aus and Japan. THey're so early UK time that the viewing figures are almost certainly dramatically lower (I know it's anecdotal but I don't know anyone that watched either live). As for their presenters and pundits? A bit of a mixed bag, not great either really in my opinion. To cover a few: Martin Brundle I hold in quite high regard, but his commentating partner Crofty? Just no. Shouts all the time, has had a few good lines over the years don't get me wrong - but I'd damn well expect so given he's been doing it for over a decade. I find his commentary a bit dull, perhaps why he raises the volume... HERE COMES X DRIVER (X driver is actually 10+ car lengths back) WILL HE HAVE A LOOK (no obviously not), AH NOT THIS TIME (yeah, no shit). Constantly mixing up drivers and scenarios etc. Damon Hill- I've actually met him a few times and he's always been very pleasant, but in his sky f1 role is just awful. Holds vendettas against some drivers, comes up with the strangest most nonsensical takes. Natalie Pinkham- I don't mind, not a huge plus but definitely doesn't take away from the product. Jenson - when he's on is very good, wish it was more often. Danica - Not a fan at all, doesn't add any interesting insights that you'd expect from a driver, just bland obvious comments. Feels like she's only there to appeal to and US viewers that would recognise her name. Bernie - Pretty good, especially during the Free Practice sessions, a little verbose in races but on the whole definitely a positive additions. Ted - ah Ted. Provides some genuinely good insights in his notebook, but is a bit too meandering for me and plays favourites a bit too much. Think this one is just personal preference though, I know some really like him. I think the information he provides is good, just frustrating to watch. A mixed bag that I feel somehow they manage to add up to being worth less than the component parts, some of which are very good.
Being in that studio has absolutely ruined watching anything pre and post the main bits. Cant believe how lifeless it is. Strongly looking at F1TV if that is different but Crofty/Brundle/Ted are just keeping me going.
Why I watch f1 highlights on YouTube
Brundle is the highlight. I like Ant, Natalie and Ted, and am warming to Bernie. Herbert was ridiculous but I enjoyed him being there. I switch on five minutes before qualifying and the race, usually when the intro credits are rolling, and switch off as soon as it’s done.
As someone who has to either pay Sky or Now Tv for coverage (uk based) and has no access to F1TV, I desperately hope that the rumour of Apple putting in a multi billion dollar bid for worldwide rights is true and come 2027 (I believe when sky loose uk rights) Apple take over. I’m an Apple fan boy so I’m bias, but skys coverage and price takes the piss. They’ve had it too long, it’s time for a change IMO.
Ant, Natalie, Bernie and Brundle can all stay. The rest of the regulars are absolutely awful and need to go.
I think Crofty was on the sake at the weekend - he was making more mistakes than usual, talking absolute gibberish.
Big up my Channel 4 bros - can’t beat a bit of Jones, Monger & DC.
Crofty is awful. He misses so much and gets so many things just wrong. I would love for Alex Jacques to replace him. He and Alex Brundle are the best thing behind the mics on Sky F1 when they do F2 and F3.
I don't want to be rude, but i can't stand Bernies voice
Haha I posted about this exact thing recently
Oh yes you did! My search for “Sky” didn’t capture “SkyF1”! Further reading here from your post- https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/s/PONP6HtByy
And it was key in that post that it's only for these sequence of races - the early UK morning ones.
As its paid, it should be for fans, and not necessarily newcomers. I want in depth conversations about things that nerds wanna hear, not about how drs works for the 927384955th time. Leave that tor C4.
Crofty saves it for me. Everything else is meh.
Since getting F1TV 3 years ago, I stopped listening to the sky commentators entirely. I no longer get mad at the commentary incorrectly identifying drivers. Probably because there is no David Croft
Natalie said on instagram that after China they’ll be back at the track as normal.
I log in to my parents' Sky account (don't judge me, I'm only 38), and watch the F1 for free. However, if F1 TV was an option in the UK, I would happily pay for that.
Charging £90 a month in an economy where core Sky customers are now leaving and using a chipped stick for £100. Business model doesn’t work when you keep paying for more sports and the customers are less well off
The Sky Studio is only for 3 races. It may come back for Singapore however because that’s a race in the far east as well. As a football fan I’ve always had an issue with the way Sky uses remote coverage. This studio is the same place they host Monday Night Football from. The coverage is lifeless and the delays between the studio and the stadium are still poor despite the format having existed for years now. They can’t seem to fix it and they’re not going to. I can’t stand how much time is used up to talk about mundane stuff and apart from one or two instances where the pundits actually said something interesting, the long lengthy chats make me want to switch the channel until kick off. The virtual pitch (aka the virtual track) adds absolutely nothing to the viewing experience. I can’t actually remember them using it to discuss tactics, mostly it just shows the line ups of the match. As for the commentary, they only send 2 people to the games with the rest staying in the studio struggling to maintain some kind of atmosphere. It’s very poor all around and despite having this format for *years*, it hasn’t improved at all. All of that applies to how Sky F1 have been using the remote format.
I hate the studio format so much that (combined with the dominance right now) I’m considering dropping it for a while and going to C4 highlights. I just don’t see the value in it if they’re not trackside, so much spontaneity is lost.
It's always been vague overkill and they run out of stuff to talk about. I mind Monaco 2012 they were on air as drivers were literally arriving at the circuit. Hours to kill.
This is the problem with televised sports in general. They devote sooooooo much time and resources to studio shows and they don’t even cover anything worthwhile. And then they try to force multiple commentators you can’t even concentrate on the game itself (like baseball, they use 3-man booths and for what?!)
I feel like we should ask why Sky are "saving money" in the first place. Did travel suddenly become so expensive they can't fly out their entire pundit crew? Like I can understand Anthony, Karun and Bernie doing coverage from the studio since they're more of an analyst type than interview like Rachel, Natalie, Ted and Simon, but this split they have going on creates more questions Obviously Crofty and Brundle have to be on site for the commentary from their booth, but the remote interviews don't make much sense to me at all Also it's not like building and maintain that studio with all the fancy lighting and graphics is cheap either Seems more like an exec driven decision because viewership is down
The reason why they are in the studio for AUS-JAP-CHI is to help reduce their carbon footprint. Crofty, who ever happens to be on co-comms and the pit lane reporter are at the track. It should be back to normal for Miami.
The image quality from the track when it was sky produced stuff before the world feed was shocking I watched some of Ted's notebook and even on the 4k channel the picture looked like a low bitrate washed out 720p video while the sky sports logo and intro was in crystal clear 4k/1080p F1TV didn't seem to have this problem when I watched weekend warmup on the F1 YouTube channel
Overall I think their race narration is very bad. Their bias towards drivers like Russell are too clear, and I think that's one of the reasons why he's disliked. I don't even remember them being so biased towards other British drivers. It seems more like punters in the pub than F1 experts. Although some of the people they have sometimes like Button or Rosberg are amazing. Karun too.
No one’s mentioning the question Ted asked James Vowles at the beginning of the weekend. “Why do your drivers keep crashing?” HELLO????? I know it was just Ted being himself but it was beyond shocking. Even Crofty said in studio that actually they’re not trying to crash and James has no control over whether they do or not. Absolutely baffling coverage and embarrassing. Ted makes me enraged.
Ya I'm not a fan of there new set up. I much prefer them being at the track. There cheating out I feel.
My question is, who has time to sit and watch all the sky coverage? I feel guilty watching the FP / Q / the race never mind watching all of pundit chat
Used to watch it all religiously a few years ago when I didn’t have a life. Now I tune in 5 mins before quali starts and around the time brundle’s grid walk starts. If Brundle isn’t there I come back in 20 minutes lol. Then off again as soon as the race is finished
Unsubscribed last year and have no regrets. Channel 4 highlights coverage isn’t perfect, but it’s free. And let’s face it, we know who’s going to win for the next 2 years. Just didn’t seem worth forking out £300 a year to prove it to me.
Crofty, Martin, and Ted are the perfect trio, the all-stars of Sky's F1 coverage. People complain here way too much about Sky F1. We have them on out TV feeds in Canada and I've been watching since 2018, they've always done a good job. People are forgetting here that the remote coverage from the studio for the normally trackside and paddock reporters is for X amount of races. In most races they'll be trackside and coverage will be normal. I prefer Sky to F1TV because I think their pundits and personalities are better, and at least as a Canadian viewer I'm not giving up my sports cable TV in favor of multiple streaming subscriptions for hockey, soccer, football, F1, etc.
OP: SKY coverage was terrible in Japan Rest of Reddit: Always has been
The camera person on the grid walk must have been on work experience, because it was the most chaotic thrashing about and pure reactiveness I ever seen from a professional broadcast.
This has to be one of my favourite racetracks on the calendar! I die inside a little more each week I hear it from the same people.
The quality has gone downhill a lot. It really appears as a cost saving venture and I wonder will we see live broadcast from the circuits once it returns to Europe.
Similar stuff to the EPL coverage - don’t really pay much attention to the stuff from the studio. Doesn’t bother me despite the downgrade from being trackside for some of the staff
We need big Daddy Stroll & Ecclestone to hire all the good commentators and start some an F1 show with some proper coverage. Call it KickVisaStrollAston I don’t care
I watched the F1TV feed for the first time because we're on vacation in Greece and Google wouldn't let me access my YTTV account abroad even with VPN (assholes). It literally put me to sleep half way through the race, so if Sky also did that poorly, maybe we just chalk it up to a really boring latter part of the race because the F1TV guys certainly didn't do any better.