The official 2009 Belgian Grand Prix thread ***SPOILERS***

Is it me or are we all regretting James Allen from stepping away from the Commentary box. I'll get flamed for this but; I want James Allen back

As dull as Legard can be, he doesn't make me want to staple my ears to a moving train.

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he did go way over the top with jenson etc. but i stopped listening to bbc commentary after about the 4th race. legard is beyond dull. croft is 100% better than legard.

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Monza972 Wrote:
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> Is it me or are we all regretting James Allen from
> stepping away from the Commentary box.

Nope, I think it's just you..

To be honest, those of us who get the UK commentary were spoilt with Murray and Martin, they set the bar so high, it'll be a tough job to meet that standard.

That said, Croft isn't half bad, I'd like to see BBC do AT LEAST a trial run with him and Martin.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/2009 10:41PM by Team CLR.

I would rather have Allen than Legard any day of the week. However, I would rather have Croft over both of these. Allen made it a good spectacle to watch and kept you interested in the race but he would always make stupid comments every now and then (his latter days were much better than when he first started, although the blatant favouritism never went away).

Legard doesn't compel you to watch the race, he just churns out the stats and irrelevant stuff that no one really cares about. "Its Brawn from Red Bull from Red Bull from Ferrari from Brawn from Toyota" "Track Temperature is this, ambient temperature is that" "But is it good enough?" "Here he is then...round this...corner...braking now down...into the left hander...20 seconds...was the gap...last time...round". It also really annoys me as well the way he shouts at the end of the race "He's done it!" at the top of his voice, trying to make it sound exciting but knowing full well that it's going in the highlights reel...

I urge you all to listen to five live commentary during Monza just to see how much better it is. Croft is just naturally better and more articulate at getting across what he...is saying...over the course of a...sentence. It saddens me that such great coverage by the BBC as shown in the video below can be brought down by the role many people would consider to be the most important, Lead Commentator

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Circuit Thermalito

Liverpool Waterfront Circuit (WIP)

Just been going through the FIA tech briefing, (cool find, thanks Vesuvius) and I see the left front wheel fairing on Alonso's car was changed on Thursday too. Seriously, these things are more trouble than they're worth.. good riddance.

Legard over relies on the pictures, he needs to be much more descriptive than for example saying 'that'll do' when Trulli went p2 in q1 in Belgium listening to classic Murray you notice how descriptive he was when there was no need, it just adds to the theatre of it.

Croft did the same thing in the gp2, just didn't work as hard when he had pictures, also Croft and Davidson sound like muppets at the back of a class room.

Sauber89 Wrote:
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> Legard over relies on the pictures, he needs to be
> much more descriptive than for example saying
> 'that'll do' when Trulli went p2 in q1 in Belgium

That's the thing, he's a radio commentator, so on radio he's used to describing things (including the F1 a few year back) to the viewer - painting the picture as it were. It's like he's gone too far the other way.



I've got the Stop the Cock t-shirt and even I'm in agreement with those saying Allen is better than Legard - far better when you take into account the banter (of which there was actually some). But Croft is miles better than both. He and Ant, and for that matter Ian Phillips and Maurice Hamilton (not as good as Croft and Ant, but better than Legard), just chat about it as if they were your mates, sat there having a beer with you, casually discussing the racing, placing the stats in there rather than basing 1 1/2 hours on them. It's about 8 zillion times better.

I hope the BBC listen to the feedback and stick Croft in there, because every forum around is saying the same thing. Don't bottle it like ITV did and just stick with people the viewers didn't like (thought hindsight is a wonderful thing...).

I can honestly say that, although these last few race weekends I've found myself wishing Legard would be more enthusiastic, I still haven't got annoyed at him once. He can be very dull, and isn't the most knowledgeable F1 commentator ever, but you can't imagine him shouting "JENSON! BUTTON! WIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNS!!!!" or describing a car with a problem as "a wounded sparrow", and that's still the deciding factor for me. I find dull apathy tolerable without fail, but pretentious smarmy smugness annoys the hell out of me.

For me the best descriptions of Allen are all still Sniff Petrol's ones. :P

But I agree, it would be a great idea to have Crofty in the Commentary box for the main commentaries. The practice sessions I've watched have had very informed and enjoyable commentary from him.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/2009 11:59PM by EC83.

It's odd, because watching the GP2 last season, I didn't think it would be possible to have a worse commentator than Croft. He was absolutely atrocious. I thought he was fine on the radio (he was doing the F1 on 5 Live too), as you couldn't spot the mistakes, but on TV he was dire - barely a sentence would go by without a facepalm moment.

Perhaps he just wasn't up to GP2 though, or didn't have much in the way of facilities with ITV, as he's been fantastic with the F1 on the beeb, even managing to sit in between the radio and TV viewers and making it work for both, which can't be easy.

Maybe it's that good radio commentators don't translate to TV well or need more than 1 season to adapt to the role.

Also the "Ian Phillips and Maurice Hamilton" situation, I cannot stand them at all, I'd rather have Legard and his pet cat commentating than those two.

Brundle has definitely gone downhill in the past year or so (whether it's because he's been paired with a commentator who isn't as enthusastic as Allen/Murray were or he's lost heart for F1 after Mosley threatened to sue him).


What I would do next season is:

Put Legard in as the lead commentator on Five Live (I think he is miles better as a radio commentator than a TV commentator)

Give David Croft the TV gig (Considering apparently the BBC are putting the production rights out to tender it could be the same company that produces the coverage for Five Live)

Get Davidson to be the "go to" guy (even if he's got a drive, he can still help out with things during the race weekend, like features and stuff)

Oh FFS. Not everybody is in the UK. I don't want to plough through 3 million posts about how awful your commentators are every time I open a race thread. Get a seperate thread or something.

Double post






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2009 01:07PM by micky-cannonball.

Those commentators are no match for Certified F1 Commentator of ESPN/Starsports - Steve slater + Chris goodwin = TO THE MAX!

Nickv Wrote:
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> Oh FFS. Not everybody is in the UK. I don't want
> to plough through 3 million posts about how awful
> your commentators are every time I open a race
> thread. Get a seperate thread or something.


That time of the month eh? !

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

What did Mosely try and sue Brundle for?

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He suggested the FIA had a witch hunt against McLaren.

Do anyone think Nakajima need to be replace, his yet hasn't score a point and Rosberg have 30.5, not pretty bad for Rosberg.
He not doing any favor for himself and the team. I hope Nakajima won't be in the Williams in 2010

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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2009 03:50AM by SAMF1.

SAMF1 Wrote:
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> Do anyone think Nakajima need to be replace, his
> yet hasn't score a point and Rosberg have 30.5,
> not pretty bad for Rosberg.
> He not doing any favor for himself and the team. I
> hope Nakajima won't be in the Williams in 2010


Nakajima is not worst. infact his a decent driver and consistent through out his performances, that's all. However his isn't enough competitive f1 driver, i mean guys like this are good, sure they same as everyone else on the track but they're just slow and their's more room for improvement for guys like this and they just can't unlease it(ex. piquet jr). and i think he should be moved to lower class of formula series, and he should do well on that, rather than ruining his reputation and outpaced by a european driver consistently in f1. anyways, why asians aren't good enough in racing(i hate asians though). hope someone from asia will dominate the f1 someday... time for new entertainer






Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2009 04:04AM by micky-cannonball.

SAMF1 Wrote:
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> Do anyone think Nakajima need to be replace, his
> yet hasn't score a point and Rosberg have 30.5,
> not pretty bad for Rosberg.
> He not doing any favor for himself and the team. I
> hope Nakajima won't be in the Williams in 2010

Toyota.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/03/2009 01:24PM by The Lopper.