F1 » Murray Walker questions F1 BBC switch

I think Murray is spot on here. The BBC never have (and probably never will) taken any form of motorsport seriously. ITV is a commercial organisation that has to make money out of its coverage. The BBC on the other hand is an organisation that is given in excess of £3 billion every year by licence payers to spend as it sees fit. You only have to look at the ridiculous salaries that it pays to its so called "edgy comedians" to see that there is very little sense of financial prudence. The BBC should not be spending vast sums of money to cover F1 and should leave it to the commercial channels! You only have to look at their poor coverage of Moto GP compared to Eurosport.

ITV's downfall in my opinion is they had way too many commercial breaks during the race. In the build up to the grand prix the commercials were more spaced. Hope Beeb get it right as there are no breaks to spoil the racing

an hour of pre race bull does not equal better coverage, I'd rather see all the race with no adverts, but of course ITV could never do that, so it has to go back to BBC for true uninterupted coverage (and I don't care how many so called experts there are, I just want to watch the WHOLE race!)

the adverts on ITV were always so frustrating...dont get any adverts on the network I watch them on and its brilliant never missing anything as it happens..Thing is the BBC have aquired the rights to the F1 circus primarily on the back of what they see as the saviour of F1 in the UK - Lewis Hamilton...how many extra viewers has he added to F1 in the last 2 years in the UK??? enough to make the BBC scoop F1 up thats for sure. Doubt they'd have bothered if he was fighting it out in a Force India motor and looking for a points finish in what, 2 races out of a season. Also they'll devote more time and resources cause B.E probably has a clause stating they have to be better than ITV in the

cont: contract or he has the right to give ITV back the coverage...you can just see the wee troll doing something like that. Wouldnt be suprised also if he hasnt sat down with a bunch of producers from the BBC and told them exactly what he wants from them and that it should retire any memory of ITV from the first second of braodcasting.

A lot of people seem to wear rose tinted glasses when it comes to the BBC. There previous coverage was never that good, started when the race started ended when the race ended – full stop. Over runs meant changing channel. Delayed starts or races with football up next means no end of race.

Yes with the ITV they did seem to overdo the ads, but someone had to pay for the race to be shown. Not forgetting of course it is not the BBC winning the contract, it is ITV exercising their break clause. No one was watching the races, so advertisers lost interest.

The real problem is not ITV or now the BBC, it is that F1 has lost its way – they no longer do racing so interest has gone away. Even in the UK more people will turn up at Brands Hatch to watch super bike, than can be bothered with F1 at Silverstone.

F1's problems are it equity owners and the car manufacturing teams, that in the end do not understand motor racing as a sport. It's a cash cow, or a marketing exercise to these organisations, not a sport and certainly not motor racing.

BBC used to treat F1 like a ginger step-child. ITV have done a grand job over the recent years, people all too easily forget how crap the BBC used to be regarding F1. They were many times that qualifying wasn't even shown, and some races weren't shown live.

If that happens this time round on the BBC, expect a RIOT!

thing is will we see a return of the classic intro tune....thats surely the most improtant question to be asked about the BBC F1 return

Dear Murray age must be adling your though processes for who wants to watch a high speed motor race that is constanly interrupted by commercial breaks and then they do not bother to fill you in on the action. In the most important parts a break approaching 3 minutes is just so frustrating. They cannot even leave the qualifying alone, Glad it is going back to Auntie.

No ads and no James Allen are the best things about F1 returning to the BBC.

But as for full coverage, why can't they do a deal with Eurosport again? Eurosport used to do weekly inside F1 programmes and show the racing live on fridays, saturadys and sundays if I remember right.