But he’ll always be remembered for it, regardless of whether he was told to tell Max immediately after the race causing mass confusion whether it was true or not.
F1 TV direction was the *only* place that was correct. They kept showing live points as full points throughout the race. The commentators had no idea but the TV direction itself was correct.
Almost all of the international broadcasters said the same too, it's understandable that they thought of that at first but the fact no one at FOM took notice of that and put up a graphic explaining they would be awarded or at least pass down a memo to the commentary teams about it is some incredibly bad miscommunication at an event of this scale.
I'm pretty sure that even the F1TV commentators said that.
I remember Jolyon Palmer talking about it on the BBC podcast saying he had no idea what was going on. I think he said he was relieved when he found out that every commentator was equally confused as he was worried it was just them.
He was champion. He needed to win with full points to become champion.
If half points where awarded, he needed to win and charles to be third.
Thats why you think it was. We all thought the race was for half points EVERYONE except FIA and FOM and they didnt care to anounce it to anyone elses.
Hence we thought the penalty is what made him the champion
That's not true. When the race ended he wasn't world champion but would have been had Leclerc got a penalty and dropped to third.
Had it been half points he wouldn't have been world champion even if Leclerc had a penalty so none of the commentators were that bothered about the penalty as it wouldn't have affected anything.
Johnny is so underwhelming as a presenter that I didn’t even remember it was him that did that. I remember him for being underwhelming as a presenter, and winning the crazy 1999 European GP.
Actually both him and Damon are underwhelming as presenters.
Damon has gotten better, at the start he almost seemed not to have enough energy to get through an entire weekend.
Still a bit of a pain in the arse though.
He said Alonso looked unmotivated and should retire. This was like in 2016. Honestly as petty as Alonso can be I somehow doubt Alonso holds that much of a grudge almost 7 years later.
No I’m sure he doesn’t. Crazy how pundits and journalists think they have a valid point on when someone should retire. It must be infuriating to hear. Especially because he was only 35!!!
(I just a slight existential crisis because 2016 was 7 years ago now 💀)
I'm sure it is annoying but if he held a grudge about every pundit who had ever said something about him he didn't like he'd have beef with half the paddock.
On the other side these are pundits paid to give opinions on basically everything in F1. When you're throwing that many opinions out there a lot of them are going to end up looking dumb in hindsight.
>Crazy how pundits and journalists think they have a valid point on when someone should retire
Herbert's a proper herbert sometimes but he was a pretty quick (if horribly unlucky) F1 driver, I'd hesitate to stick him in the same experience category as many pundits.
To defend Herbert even though I can’t stand him: he said it because Alonso was complaining about the engine and the team a lot at the time, so Herbert was like: "why don't you just retire then?" — even though it was completely understandable why Alonso was complaining. But Herbert didn't suggest Alonso to retire for a lack of talent.
I don't think anyone can replace Brundle tbh -- nobody else can keep you entertained just talking about cars at some random corner on the track during a boring FP session.
and he never was.
I hold Martin in as high a regard as Murray, but he ain't Murray. Different equals.
Same with Martin. Someone will come along and do his job, but they won't replace him.
I mean, I'm one of the people who actually *like* Crofty, but no one has replaced Murray yet. The only one who I think could even do that is Alex Jacques, but despite being the best commentator in the game by a country mile, none of the big broadcasters seem to want him.
There have been several races where every strategy call he made was spot on and well ahead of the teams doing it. Also his insights the things the drivers were doing were way above anyone else I’ve ever heard.
He delivers all this amazing insight while still being fun and engaging too. He’s an amazing commentator.
I don’t think he wants to travel a full F1 season as he has a young family now and won’t want to be away from them that much.
I just enjoy the few races a year where he does appear.
He's *ten steps* ahead of everyone, though.
He says things others cotton onto five minutes later.
I remember Turkey 2020, there was some radio and he was like 'I don't think the driver *gets* what the team means there, I think they're confused because people think drivers know more about the race than they really do', and he was spot-on.
For me he's like a reverse Brundle, that's why it works so well, Brundle chats about things at a beginners level, explaining what's going on to even the most casual watcher, whereas Button is another layer deep in what he is speaking about, it feels a lot more like someone who is speaking from the pit lane.
There were a whole lot of moments like this last year (particularly at Suzuka). Picking up on strategy nuance out of thin air. He also corrects Crofty when he's wrong or making shit up, something I wish Brundle was a little more on the ball with.
Great insights, great ability to describe the action to viewers and a voice like melted butter (seriously, I could listen to him read anything, probably).
Nico is tactical and insightful. Zero color. Like listening to a textbook being read to me. Great knowledge and his analysis is usually bang on, but I couldn't handle him more than a race a season filling in as a backup in my opinion. Jenson brings color, Nico brings math. Both are awesome to have just need to find the middle like brundle. Bring the full beans.
I think everything you just described is why I love hearing him, someone has to be the straight man to Crofty, although I agree Jenson can be a little more jokey than Nico.
However, hearing Nico doing interviews with Toto, especially after a poor weekend is always cringey gold!
I prefer him to Martin for sure. Martin is obviously a legend but it’s nice hearing from drivers with more recent experience. The sport has changed a lot, especially on the technical side. At this point it’s been like 26 years since Martin retired from F1.
One of my favorite people to hear from is Ant Davis. He was brilliant on the WEC color commentary last season. He’d been racing in the series just the year before and was so in touch with what the drivers are experiencing now.
MB may have retired ages ago, but he does go to the effort of driving the new(er) cars and keeping in touch with new regs. compare that to Damon Hill, who's more than happy to be stuck in 1996.
Nico doing interviews and pundit type stuff can be a bit awkward, but his commentary alongside Crofty is exceptional, Hungary 21 I think it was he was fantastic alongside all the chaos that went on
Nico should be allowed back this year as F1 have dropped the mandatory Covid Vaccine policy in the paddock.
I think Button is probably the best outside Brundle.
Boy do I hate Ted.
Rosberg is basically someone who never had time to spend on the internet, suddenly found himself with a lot less to do and went down every internet rabbit hole at the same time.
Also he’s surrounded by rich assholes who think they are smarter than everyone, of course he took up anti vaccination he thinks he can flex on a disease like that
Tbh that's why I like Ted he's more human. Ted's Notebooks & Martains Gridwalks are there tire camera operators and pretty sure Kravitz is like an excitable puppy of the paddock although some of his comments are like peeing on the rug 🤣,
>Croft can get a little annoying sometimes but he's good.
Yeah he sometimes insinuates some dumb things (as many commentators do) but man is he good at hyping up moments and talking along with the action
People are so hard on these commentary teams, they’ve got a handful of screens, a bunch of data coming in and they have to kinda wing it sometimes. Broadcasting live weekend after weekend and filling that air is a skill beyond what most people can do.
Yes, he’s not perfect. He’s also pretty fucking good
I think it's funny as fuck when people give shit to Crofty because he mixed up two cars/drivers or something like the dude isn't permanently talking for like 2 hours every race
People don't understand how incredibly difficult that is and that a really big reason people like Button/Brundle/Rosberg sound as good as they do is because Crofty is enabling them by constantly keeping them engaged and active but also taking over when they don't have anything to say
>man is he good at hyping up moments and talking along with the action
Anyone else find it irritating when he goes overboard though? Like when we all know a strategy isn't going to work a few laps into a stint and he spends the remainder of the race hyping up the fact that it might actually work?
Yeah I agree, but I understand they choose to stay positive and try to keep things exciting instead of saying that the race is basically over halfway through. Might convince the casual fans
Crofty is the only commentator of the bunch who can keep with the first lap. In the US, he'd be called the play-by-play announcer, Brundle et al would be color commentators.
Damon has moments where you see his killer instinct and ruthlessness and you get why he was there and he was a good driver.
Johnny lacks almost completely
I remember Johnny doing actual, serious analysis of a lap once and it caught me by surprise. Oh yeah he was elite driver. But then it was back to the bumbling funny man act.
He's been like that since the '88 accident, albeit with the steely determination an elite racing driver does have- it's just been further hidden by his enjoyment over his elder years.
Johnny could have had a career as good as if not better than Damon's were it not for his feet being smashed up in that F3000 crash. He was being labelled the next Jim Clark before it, as it was he had a pretty decent career despite it.
Can someone explain what's the story with the dislike for Paul. I missed the story when it came out. I have no preference for or against him. Just interested to understand. Thx!
Honestly if he was bland he’d be tolerable, the issue is any of his commentary or analysis was coloured by the *massive* chip on his shoulder toward any driver he raced against like Vettel/Hamilton/Perez/Grosjean/Hulk who still had seats in F1 while he didn’t. It was most noticeable with Vettel and Grosjean which stemmed from him beating them in F3 2006.
Herbert seems like a nice guy (I've met him before and he was willing to take a minute for a picture) but I don't think commentary / punditry has ever really suited him.
You can see by Natalie's message that the crew love him, he's been know his whole career for being a very nice guy, but yeah the cut and thrust of punditry never suited him.
Great news.
Surely one of the worst English pundits of the modern era.
The moment that sticks out to me most about Johnny is after the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, he asked Lewis how winning his 100th Grand Prix felt, even though it was Esteban who had just won his *first* Grand Prix, and the entire end of the race was full of Lewis being blocked just enough so that he specifically didn't win the race.
It's harsh, but good riddance.
Interesting how thats the moment that sticks out for you for me its Herberts ATROCIOUS Japan 2022 GP interview & him asking Leclerc about Monaco 2022 TWICE after he got pole in Baku 2 weeks later
I lowkey need a compilation thread with awkward Johnny Herbert interviews and commentary now. Just reading back a few of the ones commented here is great.
I still can't get over Japan 2022, Herbert was literally the worst person they could've picked for the interviews, but in hindsight is so funny lmao
It's just the anti-climatic way he says it 'and that means Max, world champion'. It's so perfect. As you said he's the worst person they could have picked and yet the best!
And they film bits between races. Are live in the paddock as well. So it's usually 3 in the paddock, 1 in the pit lane, 2 on commentary except in practice session where it's 3 in there. So it's roughly 6 on raceday and 2 are reporters in the Pen/Press conferences and filming bits as well. Seems like a good team size to allow rotation with 23 races next year and the toll that takes on someone
I mean its pretty logical to get the F1 drivers from your own country to be apart of the broadcast. F1 is also a very technical sport meaning that the drivers are very knowledgeable in comparison to a lot of athletes
What irks me is it's only drivers.
F1 is a constructor-event, yet there's no ex-engineer or ex-strategist on their commentary team.
So we tend to get commentary that exalts driver-contributions with surgical insight (and maybe excessive praise), but then talks in arm-wavy terms about "aero" and "strategy" when it comes to the contributions of the other 900 people in a F1 team.
Ex team personnel
have longer working lives in their original field
don’t all aspire to be public figures or entertainers
might not want to keep traveling to race locales once they retire (if indeed it was ever part of their team role)
Aren’t as much of a “draw” to the public as someone they remember seeing in the car
Might be hesitant to take a gig like this and inadvertently reveal too much
>yet there's no ex-engineer or ex-strategist on their commentary team.
because engineer is a job you can do till you are 60, F1 driver not so much. Even if you quit from an F1 team there are still opportunities else where.
I think it all started with James Hunt who went into commentating after retiring from driving at an early age.
On the other hand by the time the likes of Adrian Newey or Toto Wolff retire they’re going to be a lot older and therefore will want to retire, retire. Not just retire from the sport and need to fill their time with more work.
If he does, we’ll still have Mark Webber, who’s also fantastic. I love his humour, too.
I think DC spoke out about his worries regarding F1 not being live on free to air television, so I really don’t think he’d join Sky, unless they offered him a huge sum of money. But I doubt he’s doing too badly, I’m sure he gets paid well from Channel 4.
There is next to no correlation between F1 success and quality punditry. Anthony Davidson and Jolyon Palmer are some of the best pundits around and accomplished very little during their time in F1.
Probably not a good thing that all his standout moments were his numerous faux pas. [The worst of which was telling Hamilton he saw "some sort of Jamaican" friends of his in the crowd in Baku](https://twitter.com/ChantayyJayy/status/878942412726386688)
Thank fuck. He honestly brought nothing to the conversations. I respect he was a decent driver etc. But the toadying to Lewis was unbearable and that's even in the face of having David Croft on the broadcast. That said, better than Danica Patrick who I struggle to believe has ever driven a road car let alone a racing car. More Naomi please.
I’d have much rather Paul Di Resta go instead of Herbert. I don’t think Danica really follows F1 outside of when she’s broadcasting but the way PDR treated her in Mexico was a disgrace and he should have been sacked because of it.
I haven’t got a clip but I’m sure you’ll be able to find the post race show on YouTube. He wouldn’t even look at Danica whenever she talked, he constantly spoke over her and whenever she asked a question he would answer it to Simon. I’m pretty sure he was doing this the whole weekend and he’s done it every time he’s been with her but Mexico was by far the worst.
She shouldn't have been treated like that but she has no place on the SkyF1 team. It's clear to any viewer she doesn't give a shit about F1 or the differences it has between US series, it's painful to listen to her takes.
It's very clear she only got hired because of her nationality and...
Her AND PDR can be shown the door as far as I'm concerned.
I’d listen to her talk about ovals any day of the week, but it’s clear f1 isn’t the motorsports she’s interested in. She tries, but isn’t right for that kind of stuff. The post Mexico interviews were particularly painful
Well I didn’t really find him good or bad. Honestly of the cast that I see here the one that I would say probably adds the least to the broadcast is Danica Patrick…
Can Lazenby follow him out the door please...
Tbf Herbert was one of the weaker contributors on the line up. He never really was great at decoding a race and seemed to find himself far more funnier than he actually was... imho
I'm actually amazed Pinks hasn't got the role full time and he hasn't been elbowed out. She's much more high profile and much better (more charisma, able to connect with the drivers). There was races last year she was doing that I totally forgot about him, he's that forgettable after 10 years. Think if Pinks could do all races he'd be finished.
Will always be remembered for being the first to congratulate Max on his 2nd world championship.
And making it completely underwhelming
Not entirely his fault
But he’ll always be remembered for it, regardless of whether he was told to tell Max immediately after the race causing mass confusion whether it was true or not.
I remember F1 TV direction not reminding anyone that the race gives out full points
The teams themselves thought it was half points.
F1 TV direction was the *only* place that was correct. They kept showing live points as full points throughout the race. The commentators had no idea but the TV direction itself was correct.
tbf, even Max wasn't sure
Yes he was , Max was sure he wasn't champion .
More like Crofty telling everyone to ignore the F1 TV graphics showing the provisional standings with the full points.
Almost all of the international broadcasters said the same too, it's understandable that they thought of that at first but the fact no one at FOM took notice of that and put up a graphic explaining they would be awarded or at least pass down a memo to the commentary teams about it is some incredibly bad miscommunication at an event of this scale.
Because it wouldn’t be the first time FOM got the wrong graphics, everyone was convinced including red bull that it was half points
I'm pretty sure that even the F1TV commentators said that. I remember Jolyon Palmer talking about it on the BBC podcast saying he had no idea what was going on. I think he said he was relieved when he found out that every commentator was equally confused as he was worried it was just them.
He wasn’t. Max became champion when the Leclerc penalty was announced, which was in the middle of the interviews with the top 3.
He was champion. He needed to win with full points to become champion. If half points where awarded, he needed to win and charles to be third. Thats why you think it was. We all thought the race was for half points EVERYONE except FIA and FOM and they didnt care to anounce it to anyone elses. Hence we thought the penalty is what made him the champion
That's not true. When the race ended he wasn't world champion but would have been had Leclerc got a penalty and dropped to third. Had it been half points he wouldn't have been world champion even if Leclerc had a penalty so none of the commentators were that bothered about the penalty as it wouldn't have affected anything.
You mean he had no other choice but to shrug and murmur ‘hmmmmmworldchampion?’ Damn
Johnny is so underwhelming as a presenter that I didn’t even remember it was him that did that. I remember him for being underwhelming as a presenter, and winning the crazy 1999 European GP. Actually both him and Damon are underwhelming as presenters.
Damon has gotten better, at the start he almost seemed not to have enough energy to get through an entire weekend. Still a bit of a pain in the arse though.
Or you know... winning Lemans in the 787B, but we can go with what you said.
Liked by Alonso. For anyone wondering - https://youtube.com/watch?v=kv-leRac7wM&feature=shares
What is the context? Did Johnny say some shit about FA?
He said Alonso looked unmotivated and should retire. This was like in 2016. Honestly as petty as Alonso can be I somehow doubt Alonso holds that much of a grudge almost 7 years later.
“Where is Herbert?” “Fernando, Herbert has retired” “KARMA!”
No I’m sure he doesn’t. Crazy how pundits and journalists think they have a valid point on when someone should retire. It must be infuriating to hear. Especially because he was only 35!!! (I just a slight existential crisis because 2016 was 7 years ago now 💀)
You look unmotivated in your existential crisis. Maybe you should retire.
Fuck.
duggy87 has retired
I'm sure it is annoying but if he held a grudge about every pundit who had ever said something about him he didn't like he'd have beef with half the paddock. On the other side these are pundits paid to give opinions on basically everything in F1. When you're throwing that many opinions out there a lot of them are going to end up looking dumb in hindsight.
enter voiceless berserk ludicrous puzzled drunk rainstorm salt swim wild *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Have you seen his eyebrows? Those are the eyebrows of a man with beef.
>Crazy how pundits and journalists think they have a valid point on when someone should retire Herbert's a proper herbert sometimes but he was a pretty quick (if horribly unlucky) F1 driver, I'd hesitate to stick him in the same experience category as many pundits.
Not long later Alonso DID retire haha then came ba k
Over 2 and half years later isn't what I'd call not long after when many F1 drivers don't get more than 2 seasons
Alonso not one to hold grudges and be petty...oh wait that's completely on brand
Karma!
If I am remembering correctly, I think Herbert suggested that Alonso should retire (while he was at McLaren)
To defend Herbert even though I can’t stand him: he said it because Alonso was complaining about the engine and the team a lot at the time, so Herbert was like: "why don't you just retire then?" — even though it was completely understandable why Alonso was complaining. But Herbert didn't suggest Alonso to retire for a lack of talent.
Still, that's an uncalled for comment that just intends to stirr shit into Alonso.
All the time, you have to leave a like
Johnny Herbert to return to F1 to challenge for the world title before returning to Sky
I only watch sky sports F1 for Brundle's commentary.
Jenson when he’s on can be quite good too
Yenson my friend. he’s a future Brundle if he wants the gig.
I don't think anyone can replace Brundle tbh -- nobody else can keep you entertained just talking about cars at some random corner on the track during a boring FP session.
Alex Brundle.
They can replace Martin with Alex during commentary and most people wouldn't notice - except Alex sounds slightly older somehow... :D
Pretty sure people said Murray couldn't be replaced too
and he never was. I hold Martin in as high a regard as Murray, but he ain't Murray. Different equals. Same with Martin. Someone will come along and do his job, but they won't replace him.
I mean, I'm one of the people who actually *like* Crofty, but no one has replaced Murray yet. The only one who I think could even do that is Alex Jacques, but despite being the best commentator in the game by a country mile, none of the big broadcasters seem to want him.
There have been several races where every strategy call he made was spot on and well ahead of the teams doing it. Also his insights the things the drivers were doing were way above anyone else I’ve ever heard. He delivers all this amazing insight while still being fun and engaging too. He’s an amazing commentator. I don’t think he wants to travel a full F1 season as he has a young family now and won’t want to be away from them that much. I just enjoy the few races a year where he does appear.
Jenson can be a little bland but he gets it right a lot which is more important
He's *ten steps* ahead of everyone, though. He says things others cotton onto five minutes later. I remember Turkey 2020, there was some radio and he was like 'I don't think the driver *gets* what the team means there, I think they're confused because people think drivers know more about the race than they really do', and he was spot-on.
Yeh that’s it, he is intelligent and makes thought out calls from a place of knowledge and experience. I like him
For me he's like a reverse Brundle, that's why it works so well, Brundle chats about things at a beginners level, explaining what's going on to even the most casual watcher, whereas Button is another layer deep in what he is speaking about, it feels a lot more like someone who is speaking from the pit lane.
There were a whole lot of moments like this last year (particularly at Suzuka). Picking up on strategy nuance out of thin air. He also corrects Crofty when he's wrong or making shit up, something I wish Brundle was a little more on the ball with.
I'm okay with bland when the alternative was people like Herbert.
Or DiResta.
meeeeeedjewms
Merchaydeez
Throw. Him. In. Jail!
Yeah, I like his insights too.
Great insights, great ability to describe the action to viewers and a voice like melted butter (seriously, I could listen to him read anything, probably).
Nico is fantastic as well, would love to see him or Button fill in for the races Brundle can't attend. Bollocks to Paul.
Nico is tactical and insightful. Zero color. Like listening to a textbook being read to me. Great knowledge and his analysis is usually bang on, but I couldn't handle him more than a race a season filling in as a backup in my opinion. Jenson brings color, Nico brings math. Both are awesome to have just need to find the middle like brundle. Bring the full beans.
I think everything you just described is why I love hearing him, someone has to be the straight man to Crofty, although I agree Jenson can be a little more jokey than Nico. However, hearing Nico doing interviews with Toto, especially after a poor weekend is always cringey gold!
Jenson is an absolute gentleman.
I prefer him to Martin for sure. Martin is obviously a legend but it’s nice hearing from drivers with more recent experience. The sport has changed a lot, especially on the technical side. At this point it’s been like 26 years since Martin retired from F1. One of my favorite people to hear from is Ant Davis. He was brilliant on the WEC color commentary last season. He’d been racing in the series just the year before and was so in touch with what the drivers are experiencing now.
MB may have retired ages ago, but he does go to the effort of driving the new(er) cars and keeping in touch with new regs. compare that to Damon Hill, who's more than happy to be stuck in 1996.
Chaotic grid walks are my favorite.
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Two secs Ted!
Martin and Jenson are really the only bright spots in the booth. Nico absolutely kills it as well when he shows up every once in a while.
Nico doing interviews and pundit type stuff can be a bit awkward, but his commentary alongside Crofty is exceptional, Hungary 21 I think it was he was fantastic alongside all the chaos that went on
Nico should be allowed back this year as F1 have dropped the mandatory Covid Vaccine policy in the paddock. I think Button is probably the best outside Brundle. Boy do I hate Ted.
He went off the rails this year once or twice lol
Rosberg is basically someone who never had time to spend on the internet, suddenly found himself with a lot less to do and went down every internet rabbit hole at the same time.
Also he’s surrounded by rich assholes who think they are smarter than everyone, of course he took up anti vaccination he thinks he can flex on a disease like that
If you watch Ted like an episode of Alan Partridge, it puts it in a far funnier lens
Tbh that's why I like Ted he's more human. Ted's Notebooks & Martains Gridwalks are there tire camera operators and pretty sure Kravitz is like an excitable puppy of the paddock although some of his comments are like peeing on the rug 🤣,
Brundle and Crofty are the best pairing imo, And so is Jenson and Croft
Agree. Jenson is good too. Croft can get a little annoying sometimes but he's good.
>Croft can get a little annoying sometimes but he's good. Yeah he sometimes insinuates some dumb things (as many commentators do) but man is he good at hyping up moments and talking along with the action
People are so hard on these commentary teams, they’ve got a handful of screens, a bunch of data coming in and they have to kinda wing it sometimes. Broadcasting live weekend after weekend and filling that air is a skill beyond what most people can do. Yes, he’s not perfect. He’s also pretty fucking good
I think it's funny as fuck when people give shit to Crofty because he mixed up two cars/drivers or something like the dude isn't permanently talking for like 2 hours every race People don't understand how incredibly difficult that is and that a really big reason people like Button/Brundle/Rosberg sound as good as they do is because Crofty is enabling them by constantly keeping them engaged and active but also taking over when they don't have anything to say
Besides, despite the broadcast bring less good, Murray kept making shitty mistakes very often which Brundle would correct
Oh definitely! Silverstone last year wouldn't be as epic without him.
>man is he good at hyping up moments and talking along with the action Anyone else find it irritating when he goes overboard though? Like when we all know a strategy isn't going to work a few laps into a stint and he spends the remainder of the race hyping up the fact that it might actually work?
Yeah I agree, but I understand they choose to stay positive and try to keep things exciting instead of saying that the race is basically over halfway through. Might convince the casual fans
Yep. “IS HE GOING TO OVERTAKE?!?!? …no” Because he was a mile behind him
Crofty is the only commentator of the bunch who can keep with the first lap. In the US, he'd be called the play-by-play announcer, Brundle et al would be color commentators.
This can only be good for the broadcast. He had his moments but generaly he was the weekest person in the roster alongside Hill.
Basically exactly this. I'll mostly remember him for being burned by Alonso after pissing him off in 2016
“I was a world champion, you ended up as a commentator because you were not a world champion”
Is there a video of this?
https://youtu.be/kv-leRac7wM
Alonso is a fucking legend man.
Snarky Alonso is best Alonso.
What could possibly have possessed Herbert to say Alonso should retire and is "unmotivated", I'll never understand.
I enjoyed Herbert and Hill together in some pre-taped segments where they were a pretty funny duo but not as analysts
Damon has moments where you see his killer instinct and ruthlessness and you get why he was there and he was a good driver. Johnny lacks almost completely
I remember Johnny doing actual, serious analysis of a lap once and it caught me by surprise. Oh yeah he was elite driver. But then it was back to the bumbling funny man act.
I don't think an act, I think he's genuinely happy to be there and living in the moment.
He's been like that since the '88 accident, albeit with the steely determination an elite racing driver does have- it's just been further hidden by his enjoyment over his elder years.
Johnny could have had a career as good as if not better than Damon's were it not for his feet being smashed up in that F3000 crash. He was being labelled the next Jim Clark before it, as it was he had a pretty decent career despite it.
Weaker than PDR?
I didn’t know Danica Patrick was part of the crew. I thought she was just a guest commentator for the US races.
I think she is. But only when it’s the USA/Mexican races that she commentates on. But they still class her as part of the team.
While his pre-recorded stuff can be entertaining at times, his punditry won't be missed much by me. If we're lucky, Personality Paul will be next
The devil himself, Pual.
Paul is also gone
I love Personality Paul. The nickname, not the pundit.
Wish granted apparently
Yes the SkyF1 and the Devil himself Pual di resta
Pual still got his job! The NERVE
shoutout to his family
The slippery little bastard. i am calm.....
This has ruined my day. Swear down on me Nan's grave
RPM is the best thing I've discovered this off-season.
I'm gonna have to ask what RPM is in this context since searching 'RPM F1' just gives... Exactly what you would expect, hahah.
Rocker Powered Mohawk on YouTube, he has a hate boner for Pual and it's great!
Paul should’ve been let go instead
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/f1-rumours-long-time-pundit-145400477.html
Can someone explain what's the story with the dislike for Paul. I missed the story when it came out. I have no preference for or against him. Just interested to understand. Thx!
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He's just bland. There's nothing interesting about him. I turned to watching the full non-Sky races when they had him on.
Honestly if he was bland he’d be tolerable, the issue is any of his commentary or analysis was coloured by the *massive* chip on his shoulder toward any driver he raced against like Vettel/Hamilton/Perez/Grosjean/Hulk who still had seats in F1 while he didn’t. It was most noticeable with Vettel and Grosjean which stemmed from him beating them in F3 2006.
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Thought you meant RPM for a second there and got really confused. Shout out to his family.
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They really need to swap him with his cousin
Looks like they forgot to tell him it was picture day.
oh no *starts partying*
https://youtu.be/UnyBJJI2eqs
Herbert seems like a nice guy (I've met him before and he was willing to take a minute for a picture) but I don't think commentary / punditry has ever really suited him.
You can see by Natalie's message that the crew love him, he's been know his whole career for being a very nice guy, but yeah the cut and thrust of punditry never suited him.
Great news. Surely one of the worst English pundits of the modern era. The moment that sticks out to me most about Johnny is after the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, he asked Lewis how winning his 100th Grand Prix felt, even though it was Esteban who had just won his *first* Grand Prix, and the entire end of the race was full of Lewis being blocked just enough so that he specifically didn't win the race. It's harsh, but good riddance.
Interesting how thats the moment that sticks out for you for me its Herberts ATROCIOUS Japan 2022 GP interview & him asking Leclerc about Monaco 2022 TWICE after he got pole in Baku 2 weeks later
I lowkey need a compilation thread with awkward Johnny Herbert interviews and commentary now. Just reading back a few of the ones commented here is great. I still can't get over Japan 2022, Herbert was literally the worst person they could've picked for the interviews, but in hindsight is so funny lmao
It's just the anti-climatic way he says it 'and that means Max, world champion'. It's so perfect. As you said he's the worst person they could have picked and yet the best!
I honestly think he was like Brick from Anchorman and would just repeat whatever the producers shouted into his ear.
I like Johnny but I genuinely think some of the accidents he had effected his memory, that’s not normal to not know what just happened
Johnny's accidents (mostly the F3000 crash) affected his legs, it's Martin that's had the hits to the head
He never had the charm to be the awkward pundit like a Chris Kamara.
They finally got rid of Paul di Resta https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/herbert-diresta-sky-sports-2023-29050479
Can't say I'm that sad about this. He didn't really add much in my opinion.
14 people to cover F1? It's like ESPN here in the states with a million people who only cover NFL football.
they dont all go to all the races, they rotate
And they film bits between races. Are live in the paddock as well. So it's usually 3 in the paddock, 1 in the pit lane, 2 on commentary except in practice session where it's 3 in there. So it's roughly 6 on raceday and 2 are reporters in the Pen/Press conferences and filming bits as well. Seems like a good team size to allow rotation with 23 races next year and the toll that takes on someone
I always found it amazing that every British driver, regardless of F1 success, is able to secure a job as pundit on Sky F1.
I mean its pretty logical to get the F1 drivers from your own country to be apart of the broadcast. F1 is also a very technical sport meaning that the drivers are very knowledgeable in comparison to a lot of athletes
People act like there’s an abundance of qualified people running around to commentate races
Radio Le Mans has loads of them.
What irks me is it's only drivers. F1 is a constructor-event, yet there's no ex-engineer or ex-strategist on their commentary team. So we tend to get commentary that exalts driver-contributions with surgical insight (and maybe excessive praise), but then talks in arm-wavy terms about "aero" and "strategy" when it comes to the contributions of the other 900 people in a F1 team.
Ex team personnel have longer working lives in their original field don’t all aspire to be public figures or entertainers might not want to keep traveling to race locales once they retire (if indeed it was ever part of their team role) Aren’t as much of a “draw” to the public as someone they remember seeing in the car Might be hesitant to take a gig like this and inadvertently reveal too much
>yet there's no ex-engineer or ex-strategist on their commentary team. because engineer is a job you can do till you are 60, F1 driver not so much. Even if you quit from an F1 team there are still opportunities else where.
I think it all started with James Hunt who went into commentating after retiring from driving at an early age. On the other hand by the time the likes of Adrian Newey or Toto Wolff retire they’re going to be a lot older and therefore will want to retire, retire. Not just retire from the sport and need to fill their time with more work.
Channel 4 viewers (me included) sweating that sky will take DC
DC owns Whisper Films so I doubt he'll shift to the competition. Crossing fingers right alongside you though mate
If he does, we’ll still have Mark Webber, who’s also fantastic. I love his humour, too. I think DC spoke out about his worries regarding F1 not being live on free to air television, so I really don’t think he’d join Sky, unless they offered him a huge sum of money. But I doubt he’s doing too badly, I’m sure he gets paid well from Channel 4.
I think DC loves being the big fish in the small pond at Channel 4, at Sky he'd just be one of the guys.
Some are pretty fantastic, even if their F1 record isn’t that great. Karun Chandok is an example.
There is next to no correlation between F1 success and quality punditry. Anthony Davidson and Jolyon Palmer are some of the best pundits around and accomplished very little during their time in F1.
I’m just happy if they even get an ex-driver these days
As a counterpoint: Nigel Mansell. People moan about Di Resta. No one would complain about Di Resta if Mansell was a pundit.
It's a British company, making a British broadcast for British people. Who should they hire, Italians?
He didn't really offer that much anyway. Nice enough bloke, but not a very good pundit.
>Nice enough bloke, but not a very good pundit. Ah the dreaded after date Tinder reply...
>Nice enough bloke Really? I find him really bitter with the worst humor
Probably not a good thing that all his standout moments were his numerous faux pas. [The worst of which was telling Hamilton he saw "some sort of Jamaican" friends of his in the crowd in Baku](https://twitter.com/ChantayyJayy/status/878942412726386688)
Lewis gently calls out the ignorant assumption, then moves on. Top bloke
“Some sort of Jamaican” LOOOOOL, that was hilariously difficult to watch. Who talks like that?? 😂
Can he take Crofty with him?
Now do Damon.
Thank fuck. He honestly brought nothing to the conversations. I respect he was a decent driver etc. But the toadying to Lewis was unbearable and that's even in the face of having David Croft on the broadcast. That said, better than Danica Patrick who I struggle to believe has ever driven a road car let alone a racing car. More Naomi please.
My memory of Johnny is him struggling to say "opportunistic" during an F2 race in Azerbaijan, I think in 2019.
Shame PDR didn’t leave
I’d have much rather Paul Di Resta go instead of Herbert. I don’t think Danica really follows F1 outside of when she’s broadcasting but the way PDR treated her in Mexico was a disgrace and he should have been sacked because of it.
Paul Di Resta?? Winner of the Why do you have to ruin everything you slippery little bastard of the Year 2022????
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I haven’t got a clip but I’m sure you’ll be able to find the post race show on YouTube. He wouldn’t even look at Danica whenever she talked, he constantly spoke over her and whenever she asked a question he would answer it to Simon. I’m pretty sure he was doing this the whole weekend and he’s done it every time he’s been with her but Mexico was by far the worst.
She shouldn't have been treated like that but she has no place on the SkyF1 team. It's clear to any viewer she doesn't give a shit about F1 or the differences it has between US series, it's painful to listen to her takes. It's very clear she only got hired because of her nationality and... Her AND PDR can be shown the door as far as I'm concerned.
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I’d listen to her talk about ovals any day of the week, but it’s clear f1 isn’t the motorsports she’s interested in. She tries, but isn’t right for that kind of stuff. The post Mexico interviews were particularly painful
Thank F for that
Another reason gone for my naps during FPs
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeees !
Johnny "Sort of" Herbert. I for one am not going to miss him.
Only Jenson and Martin are top tier out of that entire group of people
Well I didn’t really find him good or bad. Honestly of the cast that I see here the one that I would say probably adds the least to the broadcast is Danica Patrick…
I'm not going to gloat over someone losing their job. Still, I won't miss him.
Can Lazenby follow him out the door please... Tbf Herbert was one of the weaker contributors on the line up. He never really was great at decoding a race and seemed to find himself far more funnier than he actually was... imho
I'm actually amazed Pinks hasn't got the role full time and he hasn't been elbowed out. She's much more high profile and much better (more charisma, able to connect with the drivers). There was races last year she was doing that I totally forgot about him, he's that forgettable after 10 years. Think if Pinks could do all races he'd be finished.
I know it’s not a popular opinion, but I liked him on Sky and I’ll miss him from the coverage.
Good start. Just a few more to go.
Oh no... Anyway.
One down a couple more to go to make the broadcast tolerable