BBC to end Formula 1 television contract early

Formula 1's new UK broadcaster Channel 4 has revealed who will present its coverage of the sport in 2016.

C4, which replaces the BBC as the UK's free-to-air F1 broadcaster this year, has chosen Steve Jones - best known for presenting The X Factor USA - to front its coverage.

"There are a lot of elements we will be changing," said Jones. "I am beyond excited to be part of C4's F1 coverage. I am a huge fan so it really is a dream come true."

He joins the previously confirmed David Coulthard, while Ben Edwards retains the lead commentator he previously held at the BBC alongside the Scotsman - who will also appear as 'lead expert analyst'.

Ex-HRT and Lotus driver Karun Chandhok has been named as 'technical analyst', with former Williams development driver Susie Wolff and nine-time Grand Prix winner Mark Webber also taking on 'expert analyst' roles along with Coulthard.

"I'm very proud to be part of C4 team in F1 this season," said Wolff. "The start of the F1 season is not far away and we are all raring to go."

Lee MacKenzie reprises her BBC pitlane reporting role, while completing the rotating line-up of pundits are Eddie Jordan - who is also part of the BBC's revamped Top Gear programme - Bruno Senna, Alain Prost, Nicolas Hamilton and veteran commentator Murray Walker.

It was also confirmed that former Williams F1 driver and CART champion Alex Zanardi will also be making 'guest' appearances on C4's coverage, while current Renault driver Jolyon Palmer will also be a columnist.
 
Senna is no great loss to Sky. I never thought he was that good. Seems Ch4 will be rotating people through the year. I suspect Murray will only be at the British GP for instance. I can't see him flying all over the world every fortnight.
 
But they've acquired Murray Walker, Lee Mackenzie, Alain Porst, Mark Webber and David Coulthard
I like EJ for the comedy value, it's not hard to ignore him.

edit: Obviously though I'd switch Ben Edwards for Martin Brundle every day i also wouldn't mind the old Ted Kravitz back
 
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Ryan-3 said:
If you look at the WEC calendar you'll see that outside of the odd job for Porsche he has some spare time to fill. So why not? :D
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I'm not saying he doesn't have time, I'm saying I'm surprised he wants anything to do with F1 given his apparent views on the current state of it.

Maybe he want to interview Vettel, Horner or Marko and be a complete knob to them :p
 
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Kevin Clark said:
Senna is no great loss to Sky. I never thought he was that good. Seems Ch4 will be rotating people through the year. I suspect Murray will only be at the British GP for instance. I can't see him flying all over the world every fortnight.
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Senna and Karun are easily, by a monumental margin, the best people along with too a lesser degree the Davidson the best technical people to talk during testing/the race weekend.

Senna/Karun constantly gave great insights during practice while Crofty/Ted now just mostly make up complete BS and largely get shut down by the more knowledgeable people.

Sky is losing all their technical people while increasing the nonsense factor. Screaming too complex any time a simple explanation is easy to do and interpreting every look by any driver as some massive statement on themselves, their team or their relationship to whoever happens to be stood near them.

Less technical people with a clue what they are talking about and a greater ratio of idiots like Crofty is extremely bad for the increasingly unwatchable Sky F1 shows.

C4, will have to see. They've got some good technical coverage people, Webber for some Aussie colour. Don't like Mackensie, glad Perry is gone, new presenter is a massive douche. Eddie is at times unbearable but knows too many people and gets, or at least is willing to dish our rumours before anyone else, often really big news he essentially breaks first and isn't remotely afraid to call people on their crap. Coulthard has his moments but can be incredibly boring. Wolff, something rubs me the wrong way about her being treated as a fully fledged driver even though the only reason she got more real driving in F1 compared to Jorda is because she was married to a part owner of the team. She's actually okay on camera but everyone treats her like she had a real shot at driving an F1 car. They did fully fledged segments on Sky following her training or something where as we all accept it would be ridiculous to do the same for Jorda.

Everyone seems to suck up to her, give her more credibility and value her opinion because she is married to Toto and is British. Maybe reading into it too much but they seem to have highlighted drivers within that picture by giving them helmets and somehow Wolff gets a helmet but Karun and Prost don't.
 
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Awfully big cast, should be half that surely.

Mark Webber is a big plus, talks no nonsense straight to the point and witty, but not sure how much he will actually figure?

Apparently there will also be some spin off series with DC & Guy Martin, interested to see what that will be.
 
Nismo said:
Maybe he want to interview Vettel, Horner or Marko and be a complete knob to them :p
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Doubtful given he's still part of Red Bull's driver programme or at least still sponsored by Red Bull.

Shame about EJ and Steve Jones (hoped for Lee McKenzie in the lead, but I'm not going to **** him off yet), but other than that it seems OK.

As said, it will be interesting to see how things rotate.
 
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