I don't know if he has really, or I've just got used to him, but I think JL has improved over the season, working better with Martin Brundle as the time has gone on.

 On the whole, have enjoyed the BBC coverage this season, even EJ's outrageousness!

Your thoughts?

I think the BBC coverage has been excellent, but then again it always was. They have tweaked the format somewhat as at the start there were just too many presenters all over the place. Jake with DC and EJ work very well together. I have to say I have enormous respect for EJ and think he adds another perspective that if not entertaining humorous. Martin Brundle appears to have a little more free leash than he had with ITV and his pit walks are becoming the highlight of the show.

Jonathan Laggard has improved but for me is still the weak link in the line up. His commentary style seems to be from another era that doesn't fit with the rest of the team. He also has little to add in terms of the technical or tactical aspects of the race, just tells us what we can all plainly see for ourselves.

 

I'm just glad I don't have to listen to him say "Abba Dabby" one more time this year... until next year and his verbal dross starts anew. 

andy karter:

I think the BBC coverage has been excellent, but then again it always was. They have tweaked the format somewhat as at the start there were just too many presenters all over the place. Jake with DC and EJ work very well together. I have to say I have enormous respect for EJ and think he adds another perspective that if not entertaining humorous. Martin Brundle appears to have a little more free leash than he had with ITV and his pit walks are becoming the highlight of the show.

Jonathan Laggard has improved but for me is still the weak link in the line up. His commentary style seems to be from another era that doesn't fit with the rest of the team. He also has little to add in terms of the technical or tactical aspects of the race, just tells us what we can all plainly see for ourselves.

 

 

Have to agree, the bbc coverage has been excellant.  At the start of the season i thought it was going to car crash tv with DC and EJ who i despised, but as the season has progressed i have grown to like him.  As for next season i would like the bbc to give us a bit more on the redbull like more on board footage especially during quali where you quite a few times the camera would be following say vettel on his final flying lap wheras behind him is hamilton breaking the time, speed and sound barriers.  As normal Martin Brundle was excellant and Jake Humphries has done a sterling job linking everything up.

All in all great job BBC

I second that. How lucky we are having uninterrupted coverage of such a major sporting event !

then all the features, red button, i mean you can ride whole race with your favourite driver ! What to be fussy about ?!

I think it was briliant.

After a whole season, he still has trouble saying FORMULA. He keeps saying Formlea

Also he seemed amazed that Driver A was running half a second behind Driver B (who was lighter on fuel), even after Martin said that for every 10kgs of fuel you will be 3 tenths slower. (or something like that!)

ON A CHARGE! IN THE WARS! Brawn from Brawn from Red Bull from ...........

 

Thinking back to the start of the season Legard seemed to get a lot of criticism on this forum (and others). I thought at the time that this was rather unfair. However, after giving him the benefit of the doubt I now find him quite annoying!!

I cringe at the awkward silences from Martin that follow some of Legards innane comments.

 

Each to their own I suppose

azbates:

andy karter:

I think the BBC coverage has been excellent, but then again it always was. They have tweaked the format somewhat as at the start there were just too many presenters all over the place. Jake with DC and EJ work very well together. I have to say I have enormous respect for EJ and think he adds another perspective that if not entertaining humorous. Martin Brundle appears to have a little more free leash than he had with ITV and his pit walks are becoming the highlight of the show.

Jonathan Laggard has improved but for me is still the weak link in the line up. His commentary style seems to be from another era that doesn't fit with the rest of the team. He also has little to add in terms of the technical or tactical aspects of the race, just tells us what we can all plainly see for ourselves.

 

 

Have to agree, the bbc coverage has been excellant.  At the start of the season i thought it was going to car crash tv with DC and EJ who i despised, but as the season has progressed i have grown to like him.  As for next season i would like the bbc to give us a bit more on the redbull like more on board footage especially during quali where you quite a few times the camera would be following say vettel on his final flying lap wheras behind him is hamilton breaking the time, speed and sound barriers.  As normal Martin Brundle was excellant and Jake Humphries has done a sterling job linking everything up.

All in all great job BBC

Hi

 

Just a quick note in defence of the BBC’s coverage, when the cars are on track during Q1 – 3 and on Sunday after the F1 logo appears on the screen, just before the start of the race, the BBC have no control over the picture feeds only the sound, the pictures are controlled by the “in-house” studio as is the driver radio inserts.

 

They can, as they did yesterday with the interview with LH, break into the transmission, with their own “off-track” camera, but have no control over the on track shots.

 

Would like to add my thanks to the whole BBC team for a great years coverage (even JL is improving)

 

Regards

 

Racer111 (Fozzie)

 

PS  Before anyone comments, I watch some of the race on “Kangaroo” and yes I do watch the whole race on BBC, when I get home, thanks to Sky+ .

 

I can't get on with Legard at all. He just winds me up. It bugs me the way he keeps asking impossible questions of Martin, like "Will Rosberg go to McLaren next year?", which is so stupid because that move hasn't been announced, so how the heck is Martin supposed to know? I do like Martin's tactic of simply not answering :-)

And what's with the way JL deals with Coulthard? It's obvious that DC sometimes wants to make a particular point regarding something that's happened on track, but instead of just throwing down to DC and letting him say what he wants to say, Leggard always pretends to be boss hawg and says something like "David Coulthard, do you have a theory as to why XYZ driver is slowing down? And do you think he'll be able to go faster in the future. And if he does go faster in the future, will he be able to manage his tyres properly" to which DC can only reply that he was actually going to talk about something completely different!

And what's up with that whole talking thesaurus thing he does? You know, when he says something like "And Hamilton is REALLY pushing on now. Fast. Quick. Rapid.", or "Button made that overtaking move decisively. Determined. Resolute. Unwavering.". It's cringe-worthy stuff! Never use four words when one will do!

Oh, and what about the indiscriminate use of the word "moved", particularly in qualifying. In JL parlance, the phrase "he hasn't moved" could mean 1) the driver is sitting in the pits waiting to make his first run, or 2) the driver previously set a time that he subsequently failed to improve upon. By not stating exactly what he means, he might as well say nothing at all. By contrast, Martin would say "He hasn't left the pits" or "he didn't improve", which actually means something.

So, to Mr. Legard, I say...

Your style of commentary is awful. Terrible. Dreadful. Ghastly. Although I was never a big fan of James Allen, at least he could talk about F1 in a way that was relevant. Pertinent. Applicable. To the point. I'll now hand over to the next forum poster, who should talk about the pros and cons of future F1 races being held on the moon. Will moon dust affect the grip levels? Will they still be able to do that "driving on the ceiling of a tunnel" thing, given the lesser gravity?

I'm going to move now. 

OAC 

I like to think I can say it as it is, for me, Legard has improved a great deal, their is some voom in his voice and now seems aware to what is going on and looks to find out what is happening elsewhere knowing the public are more interested in the pinnacle aspect to what is going on (epscially) in qualifiying...when the camera's are failing to pick up on the pictures we should be watching.

andy karter:

I think the BBC coverage has been excellent, but then again it always was. They have tweaked the format somewhat as at the start there were just too many presenters all over the place. Jake with DC and EJ work very well together. I have to say I have enormous respect for EJ and think he adds another perspective that if not entertaining humorous. Martin Brundle appears to have a little more free leash than he had with ITV and his pit walks are becoming the highlight of the show.

Jonathan Laggard has improved but for me is still the weak link in the line up. His commentary style seems to be from another era that doesn't fit with the rest of the team. He also has little to add in terms of the technical or tactical aspects of the race, just tells us what we can all plainly see for ourselves.

 

I agree the BeeB's coverage has been good but it's never ever been excellent!

Jake is the star of the show next to the ever brilliant Brundle. Personally I've got to quite like DC but Jordan will always be a buffoon in my eyes...the man contributes nothing of worth! What I don't understand is why The BeeB felt the need to infiltrate a third party into MB's grid walk.......Martin obviously has the respect of many fellow 'inner circle' members and rarely fails to provide us with a few minutes entertainment.

 

Who's the Scots girl in the pits?.......what a waste of time. Bring back Louise!!!!! 

 

Legard! I've made no secret of my utter contempt for this man's style of 'commentary'.....you sum him up perfectly andy karter.

 

Overall I think the Beeb have provided an interesting format, different enough to ITV to be noticeable, but no radical changes... just how we like it! Now, get rid of Legard and Little Miss Scotland and all will be well for 2010!

I agree with everything that's been written so far - he has improved, and he works better with Brundle than during the initial races. However, he's still got room for improvement, and isn't as good as David Croft on 5 Live. I also cringe at times when Brundle doesn't answer him, and I'm never too sure if it's Brundle mis-interpreting the question for a statement, or just point blank ignoring Legard! If he can maintain this improvement from the last few months into 2010, though, he'll be fine.

Overall, though, it's been great from the BBC - objective coverage, informative detail, interested (and interesting) presenters, classic F1 as part of the build up, practice sessions, post-race analysis with team principles, commentators, drivers, engineers...a superb job all round.

Cheers, everybody,

SmashTV

Overall, I think the BBC coverage has been superb.  Classics via the red button, practice via web and red button with commentary.

I won't comment on the qualy and race interactive coverage as I always watch it native, mainly due to not wanting to miss out on Martin's commentary, although I think Anthony Davidson has done a superb job for Radio 5 live from what I've heard during the practice sessions.

JL has done a good job, if not brilliant, but then he was never going to be worse than James Allen IMO!

The BBC coverage has been more about F1 than the Lewis-fest that was ITV and for that I'm grateful. Yes, they've talked to him and about him, but it's been balanced and taken into context with the sport rather than the overkill of their predecessors. Also their coverage following Jenson to the world title has been very good, so it isn't just Lewis falling on hard times that has caused their balanced view of the season.

I've enjoyed it and look for more of the same next year!

I agree with other posters, the BBC coverage has been very good indeed.  I have really liked seeing the Classic GPs on the red button, and also the practice sessions.  I think that Jake, DC and EJ make a very good combination.  Jake is excellent, I've been most impressed with his presentation and style.  DC and EJ bounce off each other, I think EJ can be a bit irritating at times, but he provides a good historical perspective.

I enjoy Martin's pitwalks, always something to listen to, makes me chuckle.

As for Jonathan Legard  -  Legard makes me scream and throw things at the set.  He says everything as if it's some great drama, and as others have said, he doesn't seem to have the right knowledge, just stupid dribble.  I always listen to the Radio 5Live commentary, which is brilliant.

I've enjoyed the special items and shows they put on, such as Jake doing his race this weekend (brave man!)  All in all, very well done, BBC, looking forward to more of the same next year.

I think the TV coverage has been the best there has ever been. The Beeb have definately learned their lesson from when they had F1 before (and treat it like the dogs dinner.) Including the forum we can get up to 3 and a half hours of F1 all in one go! Before you'd be lucky to get the whole race.

Theyve built on what ITV did with the coverage and bettered it and of course we dont have the dreaded adverts. I've enjoyed the forum especially, its been good to get the post race interviews and not just the ever repetetive press conference.

Legard has got better, or maybe he's just learnt to keep his mouth shut a bit and stop talking over Brundle all the time, either way i've found him more tolerable the second half of the season. Bonus is if you can't bare him there is a real alternative with the red button commentary from Crofty and Ant Davison (or even the completely inane CBBC commentary is good for a laugh)

The most annoying thing for me was the trying to do interviews in front of the garages before the race, the number of times I sat there listening to intelligale gibberish as the teams warmed up engines or used wheel guns drove me mad. I know theyre trying to convey the atmosphere but ruining decent interviews or pre race discussion is a bit of a no no for me.

special mention goes to Jake Humphrey, didnt think he was the right person for the job but I think he's done really well and managed to appeal to most people by not being too nerdy and walking the fine line between F1 fan and F1 fanatic. I've enjoyed the loose feel of the show and the sort of ad hoc 'make do and mend' coverage, EJ and Coulthard got the double act down fine by seasons end so I hope we see them again next season.