And
Peter Windsor is a class A twit. The guy doesn't know what he's on about half the time and talks rubbish whenever he can. Don't listen to what he says whatever you do. I heard he had tried to push the idea that Fisi wasn't trying to win in Spa because he wanted the Ferrari seat and thats why he didn't overtake. What a moron. 👎
Windsor's better than the Australian commentators. Jenson Button crashed out in Spa, and as is standard procedure, the BBC commentators like to talk to retired drivers to find out what happened. Channel Ten cut to an ad break, which is understandable as they're a commercial network, but they like to bookend each segment of the telecast with their own thoughts and feelings (which they shouldn't do because they clearly have
no idea). We came back from the ad break and they started talking about the next round of the MotoGP for whatever reason (probably because they're idiots), and when we finally hooked back into the BBC, all we got was the last five seconds of Louise Goodman talking to Jenson Button. In fact, here's Greg Rust and Cameron McConville's Greatest Hits (and Misses):
- Assuring the Australian public that Mark Webber's victory was a sure thing in both Melbourne and Sepang and that the Brawns, Williams and Toyotas did not pose a significant threat, even after those three teams utterly dominated and Jenson Button won in Melbourne. At least Hamilton actually did stand a chance when Allen did it in 2007 and 2008.
- Cutting off the BBC's commentary in Sepang when the race was halted, and taking the opportunity to talk mostly about Webber.
- Cutting to a commecial break when, in their own words, "Things are just heating up here in Sepang".
- Cameron McConville commentating as if there is no difference between driving a V8 Supercar and a Formula One racer. He might have had a few laps of Motegi in an RA108, but it doesn't make him an expert.
- Treating Legard and Brundle the way Legard and Brundle treat Kravitz and Goodman: namely, people they'll occasionally cut to.
- Asking Peter Windsor infinite variations on questions about Mark Webber and ignoring the more interesting aspects of the event. In other words, generally wasting his time and his knowledge.
- Referring to Brawn, Williams and Toyota as the "Diffuser Three" and making out that everyone in the paddock is using the name they came up with.
- Trying to explain the new rules for 2009, only to cut to Brundle and Legard, who make things much clearer (and make less errors).
- Simply calling out what they see - like "And there's Kimi Raikkonen on the extreme wets!" - as opposed to Brundle, who will detail why Ferrari chose them and the implications of them having made the right and the wrong choice (ie explaining why an extreme wet won't last in dry conditions and what would happen if he were on worn extreme wets when the rain comes down).
- Treating their audience like idiots when the delayed telecast generally means only seasoned fans will tune in.
- Giving no new information in the introduction; their analysis is generally limited to talking about the last race and how Mark Webber will do in this one, usually implying once again that his victory is guaranteed if they don't come out and say it anyway.
- Fundamental inability to describe the circuit in detail during flying laps; for instance, turns twelve, thirteen and fourteen at Sepang are interesting because no two drivers have the same line through those three corners, so it's critical to a lap. All Rust and McConville could tell us was that it was near the end of the lap.
- During the inteviews with drivers in the build-up to the Australian Grand Prix, they asked the drivers some of the dumbest questions I have ever heard out of a commentator's mouth. Webber's reactions in particular were hilarious.
- Calling Vettel's car as being Webber's even when the on-screen graphic reads "Vettel" and the helmet is clearly the German's.
- Ignoring the fact that Webber had a far surperior car to Hamilton when the Australian passed him and instead entoning that Webber had just passed the World Champion.
- Being overly-critical of the other drivers when they make mistakes. The fact that they don't do it to Webber - and indeed, ignore his errors, even when they're worse than the competition - just goes to show they're obviously making Webber out to be a sure thing of victory.
- They have, on occasion, been known to correct Martin Brundle. They're usually wrong.
- Buzzwords. I have heard entire sentences out of their mouths that are little more than a string of buzzwords put together in roughly the right order but mean nothing. Sometimes they even do this during interviews with drivers.
- Interrupting the commentary from the BBC or ITV to update Australia on Mark Webber's progress. This is generally because Webber is the car on-screen and Brundle and Allen/Legard didn't mention him straight away.
- Showing absolutely no imagination in the way they commentate; ie referring to Brawn as being a "fairytale weekend" and other such drivel.
- Describing Button's brakthrough victory as being Hungary 2007. An honest slip of the tongue, perhaps, but anyone who's willing to stay up past midnight to watch the race knows that the 2007 car was junk to begin with and that Button couldn't have won even if God had struck down everyone else on the circuit.
- Criticising Sutil in Bahrain and unspoken criticsm of the stewards. Sutil may have deserved his penalty for impeding Webber, but the Australian commentators suggested that his penalty was not enough and, by proxy, that Webber had been robbed of a sure victory. They never said it, but it was obvious they felt Webber should have been allowed into Q2.
- More Webber-philia at the end of the race, describing him as just missing out on the top ten, as if the top ten is something to be lauded. He was still two places off scraping a single point, guys!
- Hideously mistimed ad-breaks (but you can't realy blame them for that; they don't have a crystal ball).
- Cameron McConville isthe proverbial rabbit staring into the headlinght, while Greg Rust is the master of trying to drum up interest in things that aren't remotely interesting. If only he could be hooked up to a machine that caused increasing amounts of pain every time he says "Australia's Mark Webber" ...
And that's just from Australia, Malaysia and Bahrain. They're such morons that I gave up documenting what they did after that ,,,
I suppose they're better than the days of Darrell Eastlake and Alan Jones ... or worse, when Eddie McGuire hosted the coverage. All the same, why can't Chanel Ten get someone
good, like Roy & HG?
:tup:
