Normal Service Will Soon Be Resumed

Hello everyone. Pitstake (i.e. me) is currently without the internet, and therefore no updates are currently possible. However, this situation will soon be rectified, and the regular mix of driver ratings, comment and Jake Humphrey bashing will be available again soon. I had considered treating this as practice for next season, and asking for money so that you could view half a season's worth of content, but I have relented...

Further Comment: Formula 1 Coverage in the UK

I was rather disappointed yesterday. Not with the Hungarian Grand Prix itself, which was surprisingly excellent (driver ratings to follow once Germany’s are up), but with the attitude shown during the BBC’s coverage, specifically by the imbecilic Jake Humphrey.

On the Saturday qualifying show, there was no mention made of Friday’s announcement, barring a couple of job centre-related jokes from a clearly frustrated Martin Brundle. However, during Sunday’s race build-up, the elephant in the room was finally acknowledged, although not before a smug, self-satisfied Humphrey had introduced the programme as “live, uninterrupted coverage of the Hungarian Grand Prix in High Definition only on the BBC” and made reference to “every single race” being covered for the rest of the season, “every single step of the way”.

Humphrey (who whoever writes his scripts) totally misjudged the strength and direction of public feeling by claiming that the BBC’s coverage is “held in high esteem” and expressing his gratitude to fans who had taken time to email the BBC to express their frustration about the Sky announcement.

The problem is not that the BBC is losing coverage of half the races. Frankly, the BBC coverage is perfectly adequate, in that they show the actual races which are after all what we tune in for, but also has numerous problems (as explored below) and is not what will be missed. The fans are upset because Formula 1 will no longer be available on free-to-air television – whether the BBC, ITV, Channel Five or Dave cover it is irrelevant as far as I am concerned.

To be so arrogant as to claim that their coverage is “dedicated, passionate and under the skin”, as Humphrey did yesterday, and to somehow imagine that it is the loss of this that has got everybody up in arms, goes some way to explaining why the BBC’s coverage has deteriorated in recent times - they clearly think that they are doing a fabulous (rather than an average) job.

No doubt Humphrey would point to the awards gained by the BBC’s coverage, such as a Bafta television award for the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix coverage. However, ITV’s coverage (despite being panned by many critics) also won a Bafta in 2007 for their Hungary 2006 programme. This goes to show that F1 isn’t really that hard to cover correctly and competently, which no doubt Sky will prove next year.

The problem is that many of us will never see the fruits of Sky's endeavours, not that they will struggle to match the BBC. If only the BBC spent as much time gauging the true opinions of the fans as they did boasting about what a great job they have done, perhaps they would realise what the loss of Formula 1 from free-to-air television really means to the long-suffering, dedicated fans who are ultimately the losers from the Sky deal.