Well, it is, but the under the condition Maldo kept his seat. Still, even as a paying driver, I think he's got enough talent to race.

BTW good race today, Massa eh? who woulda thunk it?



Just kidding!

My first thought was WTF?, then w@nker , but then I saw this

* checks watch *

Well, I think it's safe to talk about the result of today's race! Despite only watching the BBC highlights, the coverage wasn't as bad as I expected. Good race, plenty of overtaking and incidents and a great result. A shame for Hamilton with the safety car, but happy that Button won it. Looks like Maclaren are hitting the ground running this year, but the competition is pretty close this year if this first race is anything to go by. There's really not much in it at the top end. I'm sure Red Bull will soon close the gap to Maclaren. Ferrari, despite their poor qualifying, showed more promise than their pre-season comments suggested, but it's not a well balanced as the Maclaren or Red Bull. Mercedes, too, are improving - as are Williams (who I'd genuinely love to return to their old form), much of which must be down to the switch to Renault engines this year.

New commentator, Ben Edwards, did a reasonable job, though I did find him a bit too excitable at times - like he was trying too hard (I kept thinking it was a bad Murray Walker impression!). First day nerves I expect - give it time and no doubt he'll calm it down a bit. I do miss Martin Brundle's wit and off the cuff remarks, but I think Ben Edwards and DC will gel quite well as the season goes on. DC seems to have upped his game as well.

All in all, I enjoyed it. What does everyone else think - has anyone watched Sky's coverage? How does it compare to the BBC?

I watched it live from the link provided earlier in the thread.

The race was good, was gutted for Maldonardo though. Crashing off in the last sector of the last lap!

One thing I took away from it is the fact that the Sky coverage is absolute sh*te! They kept taking breaks every ten minutes with a "break" starting with a 30+ second "message from the sponsor" followed by 2 or 3 minutes of adverts.

Also the guy's giving the commentary seemed to not have a clue about F1.

Happy to not be watching that cr*p.

Watching the BBC coverage on Red Button now.

Ohh, that's interesting, I thought Sky were making a huge point of saying there were no ad breaks in the race? Or I suppose they say "A message from our sponsors" doesn't count!!?

Ah, maybe it wasn't the Sky coverage then. Definitely there was Brundle (or whoever it is) commentating... I think.

I couldn't watch live as I had bad internets. I had better access this arvo and torrented the race. It was the sky production and didn't have any ads, but it could well have been edited, although I doubt it as there didn't appear to be any bad transitions. In Oz there are a couple of local presenters for the intro etc. but the main race commentary is taken from the BBC, with adverts interspersed. You could have seen something similar.

Most probably another broadcaster taking Sky's coverage?

Yes I he really has to calm down a little.


I seriously miss martin I always thought he was excellent. I thought the new techie Gary Anderson had some excellent things to say as well.

I was a bit disapointed with him to be honest, I'm sure he's very knowledgeable but I don't think they got the best out of him in that role. I saw this comment on Jake's F1 blog which I thought was cruel, but funny...




Maybe he'll come more into play on the live weekends as a pundit with Jake and EJ before and after the race?

Damon "what was I talking about" Hill leaves a lot to be desired on the Sky coverage. A least he wasn't commentating the race.

I watched it live from the link in the thread, but it wasn't Sky Sports coverage. For a start, there were no Sky graphics on the screen, and the main commentators were two yanks and (from the sound of him) an elderly, Gin-soaked Englishman. The pit lane commentator was also a Brit, although he sounded fairly competent.

There were quite a lot of ad breaks too, as well as some ad breaks and quite a few ad breaks thrown in.

Loved the race though, and I watched the Beeb highlights later. I agree, the coverage was pretty good - I wasn't sure what to expect from the BBC on the highlights races, and was fearing some rehashed Sky footage with studio commentators. So, it was good to see JH/EJ/DC and the gang covering the event as normal.

On the plus side, unless it happened when I nipped out for a tea and a ciggie, I saw neither hide nor hair of James Allen, until we heard him at the drivers conference.

From Gary Andersons Tech review of the race:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17421227

An accurate assessment, in my opinion.

I watched it live on Sky F1 HD and thought they did a really good job -

There were no commercial breaks in it so not sure what others were watching but it wasn’t Sky F1.

David Croft and Martin Brundle did a good job and I think I like the partnership better than MB and DC, no need for Hill though and the plus points are Georgie and Natalie

Malaysian GP qualifying

Front row lock-out for McLaren
Hamilton first, Button second
Schumacher third
Webber fourth
Vettel sixth on hard tyres