Car-crash television: 'Excuse me ma'am, do you speak English?' 'Yes I do,' replies AMD's CEO Some of us love watching Formula One for the prangs and crashes – but we don't really expect them to happen before the race even begins. Yet, that's the only way to describe a live TV interview at the Chinese Formula One Grand Prix on Sunday, which went embarrassingly wrong. Former Formula One driver and Sky Sports telly …
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Are you sure about that? Back when I used to watch F1 they were often moments they tried to get interviews with people but failed, so they trotted off somewhere else looking for somebody else to grab. Granted that was quite some time ago now
> Might not look scripted, but they've prearranged the interviews and for how long in advance.
Actually you are partially right and wrong. I have worked in outside broadcast at F1. Only certain interviews are lined up. A lot is flown by the seat of the pants.
Pretty much all of the gridwalk interviews is based on spur of the moment judgement, luck and being well-known enough that the drivers want to talk to you.
Brundle is pretty much the king of the art. I do remember one (not by Brundle) where the hopeful interviewer didn't have any luck. the entire gridwalk was basically repeating "Let's go and speak to <x> ... oh, he's gone to the toliet"
Keep it light, and keep doing something. Even if it goes horribly wrong the viewer will hopefully let out a sympathetic chuckle.
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And to be fair to him, it's an international sport with many different nationalities present, in a country where you can't expect everyone to speak your language. It's not someone well known on the track, not a driver or a team boss etc.
To me it seems like a perfectly polite way to check that you can communicate in the language of the people watching on the other side of the world, before launching into a full blown series of questions that they might not understand a word of.
This feels like the result if a slow news day...
You're in ...oh wait....
And given that the average high-educated, high profile Asian might be able to handle english, and sometimes even german in the written form, *nothing* in their education system prepares them for actually speaking it.
As any Fule who' bin there learns to his embarassment..
It's trite to say that Kimi accidentally ran over his team-mate - he did nothing wrong, and went on the go signal. You might as well say the rear jack man ran over his team mate, he didn't signal the tire hadn't been changed, or whatever bright spark came up with the idea that if the wrench spins one way and then the other then the tire has been changed.
Its been like that for a decade now imho. F1 aggressively pushing a pay-for-TV model hasn't helped! In the era where Alonso joined Ferrari, Fux Sports used to show F1 races 4 times a day on race day plus repeats.
Now? Races are rarely live and even then its just once. Nascar gets a higher priority than that, and its even more of a snoozeville. Look, lets see if this season breaks the tedium as its too early to tell. Meantime, Indycar a welcome replacement... As regards Brundle's awkwardness, sign of the times!
Imagine: In parallel universes they must have had amazing F1 seasons. We learned last year Alonso had a chance to join red Bull as Newey was about to peak at car design. But Alonso or his management shot themselves in the foot by insisting on a very short non-committal contract.
And RTL, with Radio5 commentary bring rather good (far better then sky), it's delivered in sync (both available via satellite), it's enough to set up a simulcast and mute the German.
I do this every non live race, and it takes 5 minutes to setup. Well worth the £500 saving, and I'm not funding the sky media machine
Enjoy it while you can, punters. The rationale for F1* is that the technology once proven (supposedly) filters down into the marketplace. But the market is going to electric and autonomous driving. Will there be F1 in 20 or even 10 years?
* Real reason is that blokes like driving fast cars with screaming engines.**
** Real reason for declining popularity is the diminishing need to wear earplugs when watching F1 from the home straight. Now where's the fun if you cannot feel your sternum vibrate when the cars go past? Sheesh - modern pussies!
To me, F1 has been "dead" for too many decades. I go back to Sterling Moss, Phil Hill, Jim Clarrk and others of their ilk during my childhood (not to mention many of the US NASCAR, Indy Car types (though it wasn't Indy Car back then)). No computers watching every foot of travel. No radio comms. Just man and machine vs. man and machine with someone with a sheet of paper in the pits running figures for fuel and speed. Oh.. and noise. Loud those engines were.
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They do need to sort out the media rights again. Hopefully something more along the lines of what Formula E are doing - their emphasis seems to be on fan engagement and large audiences.
An next year's Formula E car looks like something straight out of the Hot Wheels factory http://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2018/january/introducing-the-gen2-formula-e-car/
"what Formula E are doing - their emphasis seems to be on fan engagement and large audiences"
I really want to like Formula E, but I don't. It's boring, way more so than f1. There's not enough power to make it visually impressive, the obsession with remaining charge just makes it feel like a resource management game, a load of failed f1 drivers makes it feel second class and and fan boost - really? Next year's rule change to give points for most economical lap shows that the organisers don't really care about racing. All in all it feels like a FIA PR exercise to the environmental lobby.
Formula E... The "racing" sport that's less exiting than a go-cart race, that gives a random reward to whomever manages to win that weeks social media likes competition, that races over really narrow race courses with super high fences that makes it feel like they are racing through a viaduct and hides any and all ability to view the scenery, that switches camera view every 3 seconds to make it feel dynamic and fast but only makes you nauseous, that can get away with making their cars look like they came from a "Speed Racer" comic because they are so slow the aero doesn't actually do much, that can't actually have a single car complete the relatively short race and needs to switch cars midway through a race. Yeah... No... --> The one with the driving gloves in the pocket -->
All in all it feels like a FIA PR exercise to the environmental lobby
I've said it before - there's a way out of this for F1 and the FIA and it isn't electric cars. It's HICEVs - essentially normal engines fuelled by hydrogen. It's wins for everybody; environmentally, for car makers, and for fans of racing. Doubt it'll happen because of the electric car cabal wasting everybody's time and money though.
They do need to sort out the media rights again. Hopefully something more along the lines of what Formula E are doing
.. giving it to a broadcaster that does not care about it enough to show it consistently. You have to play guess the channel does not lead to audience retention. Will the next race be on Five, will it be Spike or will they find some other channel to dump it on.
their emphasis seems to be on fan engagement and large audiences.
Fanboost needs to die in a fire. Having a popularity contest contribute directly to the available power a driver has isn't racing. Sam Bird is at a massive disadvantage, I reckon most Brit racing fans are traditionalists so he never wins the vote yet he still brings home the points.
An next year's Formula E car looks like something straight out of the Hot Wheels factory
yep, the Gen2 car looks hot hot hot. They actually designed in the halo instead of just plonking it on top like a pile of scaffolding.
I love F1, i also love FE. I don't understand the "it's slower" argument. The cars in an F1 race are going slower than in Qualy yet you don't say there's no point in watching the race. The enjoyment in the race is in watching the drivers getting very close to each other indeed and battling to get past/stay ahead through corners. there's typically much more of that in FE than there is in f1 nowadays. That said, both series were blessed with cracking races this past weekend.
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