QUALIFYING
DCr: One DRS detection zone for the race, but you can open that DRS throughout your qualifying session, Martin Brundle, if you dare. And I daresay on your run up to the box today, you opened the DRS flap quite a lot yourself? That was an impressive time!
MB: I said to Kimi [Raikkonen] after free practice 3, "the car looks okay, yeah?", and I got six words back, which I think means he's incredibly excited about it!
DCr: That's a proper conversation, isn't it?
...
MB: Let's not forget, of course, that Raikkonen has a five-place grid drop for having to change the cog-box - the gearbox at the back - out of sequence.
MB: Ricciardo's only 16th, Vergne the first one out - I would have lost a lot of money on that.
DCr: Nico Rosberg was talking at the start of the week about the compromise between their qualifying pace, which we think they've got with this 'super-duper' - in inverted commas - DRS, and their race pace, which wasn't what they expectd in Melbourne.
MB: It may be 43 degrees out on the track, but the Iceman set a good benchmark there. That's a properly quick time, a 1:36.7 .
DCr: A bit of work to be done down on Pastor Maldonado's car there. A bit of debris attached itself to the barge-board, there.
MB: Gravel rash, it's known as, inside the teams.
(Introducing Q3)
DCr: McLaren have never been on pole in Malaysia. Will that record be broken today? Will they rediscover their winning streak?
MB: And will Jenson Button be on pole position for the first time in 50 races - his first time for McLaren? Have Red Bull got what it takes? Were Mercedes-Benz hiding...I don't know! Do you? I really don't know!
DCr: Haven't got a clue, to be honest. It's like I'm sat down watching University Challenge. I couldn't answer any of those questions, cos nobody knows!
DCr: It's Hamilton again who has laid down a very impressive marker in this high-speed-stakes and game of poker!
THE RACE
(Ted discusses the Mercedes rear wing)
TK: We explained how air comes in through the DRS, down the rear wing endplates, and then into this rear wing beam. But look! The car was uncovered! And we can see a little bit of piping!
(Perhaps this one is in the delivery; I've gotta love a guy who's so incredibly enthusiastic about his job and the information he's sharing with us. -Ed)
(Then he takes a nosey at the weather radar)
TK: It says that the large shower located to the north-east is moving towards the circuit, a high probability of rain before the beginning of the race. (He turns to point at the large, evil cloud) There it is, Simon! It's a-coming!
(On the grid with Jenson)
JB: Well, it is starting to rain now, we're probably going to have a wet start to the race.
MB: (very brightly) Really? You think rain's that imminent, is it?
JB: Yeah...s'ppose that's quite obvious, really...
(Martin vs Zee Germans, Round 1)
MB: We've got...a fight going on between TV crews, Owen Wilson the actor here...who's, erm, Lightning Queen from the movie 'Cars'...(Kai Ebel sees Martin sniffing around and turns Wilson around so Martin's looking at the back of Wilson's head)...Kai here at RTL, and, er...(Martin pulls a face)...I'll take a step back, then...(he tries to jump in after Kai and gets brushed off quickly) That's always interesting to know. So!
(The rain comes down, the safety car goes out)
MB: So Vergne is still on the intermediates then, and Vettel's gone off on the full wets. How on earth is Vergne getting round the racetrack on those? "Slowly" would be one answer - but he's still there, isn't he?
MB: Remember I said on the grid, the safety car's got about 125 kilometres of fuel - probably a bit more, probably 140 in full wet conditions.
DCr: Have they got a spare?
MB: They have a spare. You weren't listening to my gridwalk, Crofty!
...
DCr: To be honest, I was listening intently to the gridwalk, but I was still chuckling at your int-er, altercation with Owen Wilson down there, which has to be the shortest Hollywood interview ever.
MB: Hah, when he's treading on my toes!
DCr: The view that Fernando Alonso just hasn't got, even behind the Safety Car! It's just like driving down the M1 without your windscreen wipers on - which you should never, ever try.
(The red flag comes out and it's time for more Ted)
TK: Yes, I'm getting slightly damp down here, guys. The teams have their own ways to avoid getting damp. Particularly enterprising I thought were the Mercedes team, who brought two gazebos - they look like the sort of gazebos that you'll get in your common garden warehouse. There's McLaren, they've got one too, don't wanna be outdone by Mercedes, and they've set these gazebos up over their cars, as you can see. I wonder if that's the lesson they've learned...Everyone's got a gazebo! There we go! Learnt a lesson from Canada, where everybody just got completely wet and it got in the computers and everything like that. So there you go, you never know when your local DIY shop is gonna become useful. Maybe a Malaysian one has done particularly good business this week.
MB: Do you know, I've been racing for 40 years, and that red flag countback situation, I've never got my head round it.
MB: Ferrari...
DCr: They've found a gazebo!
MB: Bit slow with the gazebo. Bit like the car this year, unfortunately.
MB: You're living on your wits when you can't really see out the front of the car, like passing a truck on the motorway when your wipers have failed, and your windscreen's obliterated, and what happens is you start listening for the car in front, your peripheral vision heightens, and you start finding new reference points. (A strange replay comes in.) Er, that was a classic shot, wasn't it? Felipe Massa's dad with a cardboard cutout of Felipe Massa, wasn't it, in the middle? Was it? It wasn't the real thing, was it? I mean, I caught it out of the corner of my eye.
DCr: They do have those cardboard cutouts! There's one of Fernando Alonso, complete with silly beard as well, trust me.
(Ever alert for a cheap way of filling in time, Ted zeroes in on more gazebo chat...)
TK: Hello, yes, and you join me - I should say "Ahoy!" - Jonathan Neal, in the McLaren garage. What's your radar saying?
JN: Everybody's radar shows a large green and blue splodge right in the middle of yer screen there, for the last half an hour.
...
TK: As we can see there, Vettel's got a gazebo, you've got a gazebo, did you buy this locally or bring it out from Woking?
(He explains how it was discussed with the FIA and FOM and gazebos are now specifically permitted as long as they don't have sides)
TK: Don't you love that? So Formula One! There's even a technical discussion between the teams and the FIA as to whether they're allowed a tent on the grid!
DCr: Yeah, we had one person Tweet us saying "Is this now the most expensive car boot sale in history?"
MB: I think it would be if a few more of them had run into each other, but impressively, there's not much carbon fibre lying around to sell cheaply, is there?
MB: When I came off the grid and it started to rain, it smelled like steam, it smelled like an old kettle.
DCr: Jean-Eric Vergne just oozes cool, doesn't he?
MB: His boots won't be wet, because he obviously walks on water, doesn't he?
(Natalie Pinkhsm grabs Norbert Haug)
NP: I would have thought a man of your stature would have a direct contact to God?
NH: Ha ha, if I had a direct contact to God, Michael wouldn't have been spun round on the first lap.
(Ted once more, as the restart time is announced)
TK: Where Jenson Button was in the McLaren hospitality area having a cup of tea with the Whitmarshes.
(Martin talks about driving the 2010 Ferrari)
MB: It was a Raikkonen seat. I couldn't get in an Alonso seat - his hips were too girly.
MB: DRS is still disenabled...er, "disabled" is the word I was looking for...
DCr: "Not working."
MB: [Button] is a heating engineer right now, and he's not able to keep his front tyres warm.
DCr: This could be Sauber's best ever race. Ted?
TK: Didn't Sauber win a race?
DCr: No. (Crickets) Maybe when they were BMW...
MB: Always be on the right tyres at the right time.
MB: If you're going to let the leader through, let him positively through! Don't loiter on the racing line like that!
MB: We have some new heroes in Formula One. Sergio Perez, I'm adding Bruno Senna to that list.
MB: You put your thumb into the side of these Pirelli tyres, especially this year's spec, and it'll just go right through.
MB: I feel happy for Sauber, but I think it's the race they should have won. I really do think it's the race they should have won.
MB: There's that controversial pull-rod front suspension. Didn't seem to be too bad today, did it?
...
Suddenly those ugly noses don't look quite so ugly when they're in the winner's circle, do they?
(The cameras show the cars' empty cockpits after the drivers have left)
MB: It looks so peaceful in there after all that activity, doesn't it?
SL: There are some very, very, very happy Italians around me!
Showing posts with label Sky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sky. Show all posts
Monday, 26 March 2012
Tuesday, 13 March 2012
Martin Brundle's Friends - Ted Kravitz
The first thing that you need to know about Tango Echo Delta is that his name is not, in fact, Ted Kravitz. A while ago, a two-line Daily Mail column claims that he took a stage name rather than using his birth name, "Theodore Slotover", because "Ted Kravitz" was more Formula One-y. Or something. I have to say, he's not wrong there. "Slotover" just makes me think about Scalectrix (even though I had the Aurora set).
After an early career in general sport with radio stations, he joined Chrysalis in 1996 and then joined the new ITV team in 1997, initially as a producer. When James Allen left the pit lane a replacement was required, and somehow Ted managed to wangle the job - and a good thing too. I'm a big fan of his; he's an expert at being funny and informative with very limited airtime, and the information he's able to wheedle out of the garages is almost always extremely good and useful to know. Last year he began spreading his wings a little with a series of ten-minute post-race videos on the BBC website rounding up some of the stories (o9ften the more peripheral ones) of the day and tying up loose ends; the move to Sky will afford him the chance to do more of the same.
Ted should not be affected by the move to Sky; his job isn't to editorialise, it is to inform.
TED'S WEB PRESENCE
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/tedkravitz
After an early career in general sport with radio stations, he joined Chrysalis in 1996 and then joined the new ITV team in 1997, initially as a producer. When James Allen left the pit lane a replacement was required, and somehow Ted managed to wangle the job - and a good thing too. I'm a big fan of his; he's an expert at being funny and informative with very limited airtime, and the information he's able to wheedle out of the garages is almost always extremely good and useful to know. Last year he began spreading his wings a little with a series of ten-minute post-race videos on the BBC website rounding up some of the stories (o9ften the more peripheral ones) of the day and tying up loose ends; the move to Sky will afford him the chance to do more of the same.
Ted should not be affected by the move to Sky; his job isn't to editorialise, it is to inform.
TED'S WEB PRESENCE
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/tedkravitz
Monday, 12 March 2012
Martin Brundle's Friends - David Croft
David Croft (not to be confused with the other David Croft) is the man who will be the voice of Formula One on Sky, and will likely be responsible for releasing carefully-planned doses of Martin Brundle into our living rooms. Here is a potted summary of his career.
When he's not taking part in ill-advised photoshoots that make him look http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflike a Top Gear reject, Croft is from a similar career background to Jonathan Legard, a BBC journalist who had plenty of experience covering a wide range of sports before landing the F1 gig. He's covered the Olympics, darts, cricket, golf and football for the BBC, as well as freelance jobs in boxing and (allegedly) parkour. He also has a mildly amusing page on his agent's website:
http://www.harveyvoices.co.uk/profile/view/david_croft
As a commentator? I've not had cause to listen to F1 on the radio too ofhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giften; but on the occasions that I have, I've been able to follow how the race is going and he's not made me want to throw the radio out of the car. Someone on Youtube made a rather uncharitable (but still valid) comparison between Legard and Croft at Turkey in 2010:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikasr6UkqY8
So on the face of it, there's no reason why he can't be a success for Sky - except there's the issue of the medium. Inasmuch as commentary of any kind can be easy (it's not), radio commentary is relatively easy because if you're stuck for anything to say, you just pretend you're on Catchphrase and say what you see, and you're giving out useful information. Telly you can't necessarily do that; there's a lot more interpretation than description - and while Martin will be doing the lion's share of interpretation, there's still plenty of room for the main man to editorialise.
The other factor that might come into play is the danger of catching Sky-itis. Anyone who watches Sky regularly knows that they have a simple rule - you can say that individuals, or teams, aren't doing so well and have made mistakes; but the quality of the event as a whole must be talked up at all costs. Every SKY SUPER SUNDAY football match is a FANTASTIC AFFAIR or a GREAT BATTLE or even a COMhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifPELLING ARM-WRESTLE (because otherwise, according to the Sky mindset, the viewer might be tempted to think "why am I paying large amounts of subscription fees to watch this dross?"). By comparison, the BBC feels free to say "actually, that race was a bit dull", because we're not paying for it (yes, O pedants, technically we are, but not in the same way). Brundle I'm sure will not succumb to Sky-itis; he knows that he's achieved the position he has due in some part to saying when things are wrong and poor, and it'll fatally compromise him to start toeing a party line now. Without such a public profile, Croft may feel the pressure to conform. I hope not.
DAVID'S WEB PRESENCE
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/croftyf1
When he's not taking part in ill-advised photoshoots that make him look http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giflike a Top Gear reject, Croft is from a similar career background to Jonathan Legard, a BBC journalist who had plenty of experience covering a wide range of sports before landing the F1 gig. He's covered the Olympics, darts, cricket, golf and football for the BBC, as well as freelance jobs in boxing and (allegedly) parkour. He also has a mildly amusing page on his agent's website:
http://www.harveyvoices.co.uk/profile/view/david_croft
As a commentator? I've not had cause to listen to F1 on the radio too ofhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giften; but on the occasions that I have, I've been able to follow how the race is going and he's not made me want to throw the radio out of the car. Someone on Youtube made a rather uncharitable (but still valid) comparison between Legard and Croft at Turkey in 2010:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikasr6UkqY8
So on the face of it, there's no reason why he can't be a success for Sky - except there's the issue of the medium. Inasmuch as commentary of any kind can be easy (it's not), radio commentary is relatively easy because if you're stuck for anything to say, you just pretend you're on Catchphrase and say what you see, and you're giving out useful information. Telly you can't necessarily do that; there's a lot more interpretation than description - and while Martin will be doing the lion's share of interpretation, there's still plenty of room for the main man to editorialise.
The other factor that might come into play is the danger of catching Sky-itis. Anyone who watches Sky regularly knows that they have a simple rule - you can say that individuals, or teams, aren't doing so well and have made mistakes; but the quality of the event as a whole must be talked up at all costs. Every SKY SUPER SUNDAY football match is a FANTASTIC AFFAIR or a GREAT BATTLE or even a COMhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifPELLING ARM-WRESTLE (because otherwise, according to the Sky mindset, the viewer might be tempted to think "why am I paying large amounts of subscription fees to watch this dross?"). By comparison, the BBC feels free to say "actually, that race was a bit dull", because we're not paying for it (yes, O pedants, technically we are, but not in the same way). Brundle I'm sure will not succumb to Sky-itis; he knows that he's achieved the position he has due in some part to saying when things are wrong and poor, and it'll fatally compromise him to start toeing a party line now. Without such a public profile, Croft may feel the pressure to conform. I hope not.
DAVID'S WEB PRESENCE
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/croftyf1
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Who's Who in 2012
So, here are the runners and riders in the 2012 British Television F1 Commentary Handicap Stakes. It seems reasonably obvious that the BBC hold an advantage in pre- and post-race, but during the race itself the calibre on Sky will be very hard to beat - and IIRC it's the Sky commentary that will be taken by most English-language channels who've historically taken UK commentary.
FOR THE BBC
For me the BBC's pre and post-race shows have been extraordinarily consistent and good since 2009. Jake Humphrey, Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard established a quick and easy chemistry that's very easy to watch and listen to, even when EJ goes on one of his patented minute-long questions that turn in circles about eight times and it's impossible to work out how he's expecting the interviewee to answer. To this established group (and they'd be crazy to break it up when they need stability, although perhaps DC will do less work on that front and focus on the commentary box) they're adding a mildly left-field choice in the ex-Jordan designer Gary Anderson. Although more casual fans might not know what to expect from him, he has written an Autosport column for some time and worked for Irish television, so he's not without experience as a pundit. Lee McKenzie remains and will now be the BBC's primary pit lane reporter - it will be interesting to see whether she can get useful information down there while Ted Kravitz is still on the scene working for a different channel.
So to the commentary box. Ben Edwards was the obvious choice with no experienced BBC man to promote. I very much like the work I've heard from him on touring cars and A1GP; just because you go loud and talk fast when exciting things happen, that doesn't mean you're a witless Murray Walker clone, as I've heard some people suggest. I didn't think Brundle was a huge success in the main seat last year - he actively killed exciting moments for me by being very quiet and reserved and ooohing and aaahing carefully when exciting things happened. Maybe I'm just unimaginative, but I like to hear commentators get excited by what they're seeing, as long as it doesn't cause them to start talking bollocks. Coulthard had a good start in the other seat; this is his chance to spread his wings a little and show us what he can do in the box without the training wheels of being able to fall back on matey banter with Martin if he runs out of things to say.
While the BBC only has 10 live races, they do also have all 20 on the radio. An apparent talent vacuum has led to the job apparently trickling downwards to James Allen by default, as the only remaining candidate with any significant experience. Anyone even remotely familiar with F1 prior to 2009 will remember James; and a significant percentage will not do so fondly. Let's get something clear about him - the guy knows what he's talking about, else he wouldn't have held down his job with the Financial Times, and the blog that he has run since 2009 has been extremely well-recieved. For me he was a good pit-lane reporter; but in the commentary box, he never quite learned the knack of being able to show that he knew what he was talking about. He presumably will also commentate on free practice. Of all the losses to Sky, perhaps Anthony Davidson hurts the most here - there's no announcement that I know of on who will replace him, or even if anyone will replace him. Jennie Gow joins that team as the radio pit reporter.
The other question mark for them is how they deal with the issue of gridwalks. The BBC did experiment with two-man gridwalks and Brundle-less gridwalks last year - will they just push DC and EJ alternately onto the grid and see how many times they can trip over Kai Ebel? Where Martin really excelled was spatial awareness; not just bouncing from car to car, but picking up interesting people to talk to along the way like Hamashima-san of Bridgestone then Paul Hembrey of Pirelli, being a face that Bernie was usually willing to talk to, and grabbing anyone else that happened to wander across his path.
FOR SKY SPORTS
Well, let's start with their strengths. They have Martin Brundle. They also have David Croft, the former BBC radio commentator who was frequently rated far better than Jonathan Legard and must have been annoyed when he was passed over for the BBC box in 2011. Rumours have hung around for the past few years that somehow the two don't like each other and that it's prevented them working together. However, this would appear to be the dream pairing (barring a new miraculous medical procedure that could re-age most of Murray Walker's brain to about 50 years old while leaving his memories intact); and at the risk of being hyperbolic, let's remember that Murray and James "Enjoying The Sponsor's Product Plentifully" Hunt didn't get on for quite a while at first after they were thrown together.
Brundle has a roving brief to "divide his time between paddock, pit lane and commentary box", whatever that means. Most practically it opens a space for Anthony Davidson to join Croft for free practice (the BBC are using James Allen and Ben Edwards), in a move that perhaps smacks a little of "because we can". Ted Kravitz returns in the pit lane and will get a chance at more airtime doing presenting work on shows to fill up the F1 channel - he's joined on raceday by Natalie Pinkham (me neither) who presumably will spend her time getting scowled at by retiring drivers while Ted flits between the prat perches finding out interesting things.
Rather like ITV, the further you get away from the race, the dodgier things look for Sky. The anchor is dull Sky man Simon Lazenby, who IIRC has done live studio work for rugby and other "minor major" Sky things. The only-slightly-less-dull Steve Rider is hanging around the place like a bad smell; the press release indicates only that he will be "conducting a series of interviews with big names". Sky appear to have thought that they could go with the cricketing approach of tapping up famous big-name British drivers to fill out time (I watched a very interesting programme where Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell and Murray Walker spent an hour reminiscing, and doubtless there will be 40,000 more opportunities to see it on the new F1 channel) - except that they're the only two who aren't ancient, dead, or still driving. Are Jackie Stewart and Stirling Moss going to start appearing? I doubt Eddie Irvine is interested (or coherent) and I doubt they'd pop for DI Mark Blundell. Will we see the lesser-spotted Jonathan Palmer again? What are they going to do for a pre-race show, anyway? Are they going to be in the paddock or a studio in Isleworth?
Oh, and apparently Georgie Thompson is coming over from Sky Sports News to work on the stuff they have to make up to fill time between races. Which is a thing that is happening.
A lot of unanswered questions there, clearly. Only way to find out how this all shakes down is in Melbourne.
FOR THE BBC
For me the BBC's pre and post-race shows have been extraordinarily consistent and good since 2009. Jake Humphrey, Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard established a quick and easy chemistry that's very easy to watch and listen to, even when EJ goes on one of his patented minute-long questions that turn in circles about eight times and it's impossible to work out how he's expecting the interviewee to answer. To this established group (and they'd be crazy to break it up when they need stability, although perhaps DC will do less work on that front and focus on the commentary box) they're adding a mildly left-field choice in the ex-Jordan designer Gary Anderson. Although more casual fans might not know what to expect from him, he has written an Autosport column for some time and worked for Irish television, so he's not without experience as a pundit. Lee McKenzie remains and will now be the BBC's primary pit lane reporter - it will be interesting to see whether she can get useful information down there while Ted Kravitz is still on the scene working for a different channel.
So to the commentary box. Ben Edwards was the obvious choice with no experienced BBC man to promote. I very much like the work I've heard from him on touring cars and A1GP; just because you go loud and talk fast when exciting things happen, that doesn't mean you're a witless Murray Walker clone, as I've heard some people suggest. I didn't think Brundle was a huge success in the main seat last year - he actively killed exciting moments for me by being very quiet and reserved and ooohing and aaahing carefully when exciting things happened. Maybe I'm just unimaginative, but I like to hear commentators get excited by what they're seeing, as long as it doesn't cause them to start talking bollocks. Coulthard had a good start in the other seat; this is his chance to spread his wings a little and show us what he can do in the box without the training wheels of being able to fall back on matey banter with Martin if he runs out of things to say.
While the BBC only has 10 live races, they do also have all 20 on the radio. An apparent talent vacuum has led to the job apparently trickling downwards to James Allen by default, as the only remaining candidate with any significant experience. Anyone even remotely familiar with F1 prior to 2009 will remember James; and a significant percentage will not do so fondly. Let's get something clear about him - the guy knows what he's talking about, else he wouldn't have held down his job with the Financial Times, and the blog that he has run since 2009 has been extremely well-recieved. For me he was a good pit-lane reporter; but in the commentary box, he never quite learned the knack of being able to show that he knew what he was talking about. He presumably will also commentate on free practice. Of all the losses to Sky, perhaps Anthony Davidson hurts the most here - there's no announcement that I know of on who will replace him, or even if anyone will replace him. Jennie Gow joins that team as the radio pit reporter.
The other question mark for them is how they deal with the issue of gridwalks. The BBC did experiment with two-man gridwalks and Brundle-less gridwalks last year - will they just push DC and EJ alternately onto the grid and see how many times they can trip over Kai Ebel? Where Martin really excelled was spatial awareness; not just bouncing from car to car, but picking up interesting people to talk to along the way like Hamashima-san of Bridgestone then Paul Hembrey of Pirelli, being a face that Bernie was usually willing to talk to, and grabbing anyone else that happened to wander across his path.
FOR SKY SPORTS
Well, let's start with their strengths. They have Martin Brundle. They also have David Croft, the former BBC radio commentator who was frequently rated far better than Jonathan Legard and must have been annoyed when he was passed over for the BBC box in 2011. Rumours have hung around for the past few years that somehow the two don't like each other and that it's prevented them working together. However, this would appear to be the dream pairing (barring a new miraculous medical procedure that could re-age most of Murray Walker's brain to about 50 years old while leaving his memories intact); and at the risk of being hyperbolic, let's remember that Murray and James "Enjoying The Sponsor's Product Plentifully" Hunt didn't get on for quite a while at first after they were thrown together.
Brundle has a roving brief to "divide his time between paddock, pit lane and commentary box", whatever that means. Most practically it opens a space for Anthony Davidson to join Croft for free practice (the BBC are using James Allen and Ben Edwards), in a move that perhaps smacks a little of "because we can". Ted Kravitz returns in the pit lane and will get a chance at more airtime doing presenting work on shows to fill up the F1 channel - he's joined on raceday by Natalie Pinkham (me neither) who presumably will spend her time getting scowled at by retiring drivers while Ted flits between the prat perches finding out interesting things.
Rather like ITV, the further you get away from the race, the dodgier things look for Sky. The anchor is dull Sky man Simon Lazenby, who IIRC has done live studio work for rugby and other "minor major" Sky things. The only-slightly-less-dull Steve Rider is hanging around the place like a bad smell; the press release indicates only that he will be "conducting a series of interviews with big names". Sky appear to have thought that they could go with the cricketing approach of tapping up famous big-name British drivers to fill out time (I watched a very interesting programme where Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell and Murray Walker spent an hour reminiscing, and doubtless there will be 40,000 more opportunities to see it on the new F1 channel) - except that they're the only two who aren't ancient, dead, or still driving. Are Jackie Stewart and Stirling Moss going to start appearing? I doubt Eddie Irvine is interested (or coherent) and I doubt they'd pop for DI Mark Blundell. Will we see the lesser-spotted Jonathan Palmer again? What are they going to do for a pre-race show, anyway? Are they going to be in the paddock or a studio in Isleworth?
Oh, and apparently Georgie Thompson is coming over from Sky Sports News to work on the stuff they have to make up to fill time between races. Which is a thing that is happening.
A lot of unanswered questions there, clearly. Only way to find out how this all shakes down is in Melbourne.
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