Fans Rally To Secure Martin Brundle’s Future
Filed Under: F1 News
In the wake of today’s announcement that ITV will no longer hold exclusive rights to screen Formula One in the UK, fans from across the World have expressed concern over the future of, former F1 driver and existing ITV commentator, Martin Brundle.
Whilst the BBC are yet to reveal the format of their planned coverage for 2009, fans have been quick to suggest that 48 year old Martin Brundle, and his informed, no nonsense approach to commentating, should remain.
Should anyone wish to support the campaign to see Martin Brundle continue to commentate in 2009 and beyond, you can sign the petition at the link below. The fate of the rest of ITV team has also yet to be decided, but reading around F1 related fora, there appears very little support to retain anyone else, perhaps with the exception of host Steve Rider who joined the team during the Bahrain Grand Prix in March 2006.
Martin Brundle petition: http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/17851.html
Discuss this on our F1 Forums: http://www.forumula1.net/forum/
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Piero De Giorgis | Mar 20, 2008 | Reply
It’s about time BBC get the rights back. Anyone but ITV… I along with my F1 friends in Canada have stopped watching the ITV feed years ago. James Allen is not bad but Martin Brundle? Did he really drive an F1 car? Did he ever make a mistake while driving? You wouldn’t know it listening to him during a race. We hear a lot of bias from Mr. Brundle toward certain drivers. I would understand this if the broadcast was in Britain only but the ITV feed is not.
The Speed TV broadcast is much more informative and the commentators give more accurate insight as to what is happening throughout the race weekend with little or no bias. This makes for a much more pleasurable experience. In the last couple of years we only switched to the ITV feed when a commercial was playing on Speed TV. We got a kick (and place bets) out of how many times we heard Jensen Button’s name mentioned during the very brief ITV viewing time (and most times Jensen was out of the race). Now it’s both Jensen and Lewis Hamilton.
Perhaps we will now start to watch the BBC feed next year - That is if Martin Brundle is not a part of it.
Way to go BBC (and for once - Bernie Ecclestone). Hopefully BBC will bring back fair and accurate commentating throughout the race weekend for the worldwide audience - without agent Brundle.
We wish Murray Walker would come back!!!
Piero De Giorgis
Canada
Munx | Mar 21, 2008 | Reply
Murray Walker was very good, however, he too was critisised heavily for his continuous and often embarrasing slurping over Schumacher. This was a catalyst of his demise. Brundle is a British commentator with bias of mostly British drivers, what’s wrong with that? He is broadcasting to mostly British listeners and we like to hear how they’re doing!
Born2Hula | Mar 26, 2008 | Reply
Couldn’t disagree more with Piero. I’m in Canada, and rank ITV’s coverage (viewed via TSN here) as 10 times better than Speed’s. Brundle is brilliant, insightful, intelligent, and witty. The Speed team have no idea what’s going on half the time, as they aren’t on location, are viewing the race from half a world away (Windsor excepted), and only have a fraction of the knowledge of the sport Brundle alone has. Can’t count the number of times I’ve cursed at the TV for Speed’s horrible coverage, usually due to a Steve Machett stupid comment (e.g. claiming Button’s wheel came off the rim on a qual lap several years ago, accounting for the half second lost in time… how the hell would Button do half a lap with a deflated/off-rim tire and still lose only half a second? Clueless!!). ITV puts Speed to shame… just has to be said!
Phil Morris | Apr 1, 2008 | Reply
I omitted to say in my previous post that Martin would be a great asset to the BBC coverage of the F1 season and I siscerely hope that “Auntie” recognises thei fact.
John | Apr 7, 2008 | Reply
I think with a fresh start to coverage should come a fresh start for new commentators. Drop all the ITV team and start a new… they are getting old and boring now.
Candy | Apr 7, 2008 | Reply
Oh please - get a life! If you watch a UK based commentary you are bound to get a totally biased version of events towards UK drivers. If you disappointed in this then watch your own Country’s coverage - don’t bitch about ours, we like it. Martin Brundle has experience, knowledge, keeps up to date with current events in F1 and I for one am much the wiser for listening to what he has to say. I doubt that you would find another to has so much to pass on in terms of knowledge of F1 - on and off the track.
Mark | Apr 9, 2008 | Reply
After the recent Bahrain GP I would like to point out that Martin did not once offer an alternative to the Lewis / Fernando incident. “Must have braked or let off the accelerator” quotes do not show a fair and unbiased opinion on the matter. He was wrong on all his comments and should publicly apologise to Fernando for implying he was to blame. The BBC is known world wide for its fair and unbiased broadcasting. Would it put up with this kind of public slaughtering of an F1 professional? I do not think so.