GP2 Nurburgring

[Kidzer]

Achweel, bit of a rubbish weekend for Ryan, couldve had a better result in race 2 but for having to slow down to avoid nerfing Lopez when he spun

Better in France hopefully

[jondownunder]

Originally Posted by flexible-flyer

kirby is an idiot. im fed up of him calling ryan scott. the least these drivers need id to be called their real names. after all at this stage of motorsport drivers need all the exposure they can get. im sure the IRL star will probably be getting phonecalls congratulating him on his gp2 success......and kirby also gets lapierre mixed up with kovalainen.....

Kirby needs sacking. NOW. How many times, because he had nothing educated to say, did he resort to the word "nightmare" to describe any on-track problems? The guy's a disgrace who clearly knows NOTHING about any of the drivers in GP2. I just get so angry listening to his drivel.

Anyway, fantastic race 2, I really don't remember the last time I saw so much passing at the front. Reminded me of 125cc Moto GP racing...

Hope they get the reliability issues sorted though, this is beyond a joke now and surely detracts from the championship's credibility.

[flexible-flyer]

just rewatched the race and i noticed that if you listened to kirby you would have beleived for a whole lap that marko pantano was in second place....despite the helmet design and car number clearly being that of adam carrolls...

kirby has shown a clear lack of research into the series and thats pathetic for someone who is supposed to be telling us whats going on.

[Jackman]

Originally Posted by flexible-flyer

just rewatched the race and i noticed that if you listened to kirby you would have beleived for a whole lap that marko pantano was in second place....despite the helmet design and car number clearly being that of adam carrolls...

kirby has shown a clear lack of research into the series and thats pathetic for someone who is supposed to be telling us whats going on.

Is Marko Giorgio's brother? That is wayward research.

[Kicking-back]

Jackman - maybe you could do a feature article on the mysterious Carlton Kirby to enlighten us on his background

[Jackman]

I've never even seen the guy - he lives in some box in London, apparently - which would make it a little difficult to write anything about him.

I do feel slightly sorry for the Eurosport commentators - the company won't spend a cent on covering the sport, and they have to talk about something they have no access to, which would be hard. Then again, they are broadcasting in around 19 languages, so it would a little tought to say "we'll take the one who speaks English, but the rest of you can stay in London."

That said, I watched the replay last night and they butchered what was perhaps the best race I've ever seen with their inane commentator (and why do they all have exactly the same voice? It's bizarre) and crazy 'just cut the middle out as one big chunk' editing, so screw them - Eurosport sucks.

[Kicking-back]

I feel sorry for the situation Eurosport (and Motors) commentators are in.

However, most still try to prepare.

Carlton simply doesn't know who the drivers are, makes no effort to learn his car identification, laughs all the way through the race and generally lessens the viewing experience.

[jondownunder]

Originally Posted by Jackman

I do feel slightly sorry for the Eurosport commentators - the company won't spend a cent on covering the sport, and they have to talk about something they have no access to, which would be hard.

I agree it's obviously not the ideal set-up for the commentators, but to be honest all they need to do a passable job is to have the TV pictures in front of them. Some, like Martin Haven, make the best of a bad situation, and still convey their enthusiasm, knowledge and interest in the sport while making sense of the on track action. Kirby just strikes me as a last minute fill-in when he's been doing this for years.

Originally Posted by Jackman

That said, I watched the replay last night and they butchered what was perhaps the best race I've ever seen with their inane commentator (and why do they all have exactly the same voice? It's bizarre) and crazy 'just cut the middle out as one big chunk' editing, so screw them - Eurosport sucks.

This is what I can't stand with Eurosport - if you miss the live coverage, you're screwed. There's no careful editing to make their highlights make sense, you just miss a whole chunk of incidents, crucial developments and even lead changes. The editing team must be total cretins.

[Jackman]

I met Haven in Monaco (obviously he wasn't commentating from there - he was on holiday...) and he told me a few things about Eurosport's approach to coverage - the main problem is they zero budget to cover anything other than to have a man in London talking while he watches the TV. He suggested that they shorten the races because Eurosport have no resources to edit shows and will therefore just cut the guts out and show the start and finish, but thankfully that's not going to happen.

Fortunately RAI, RTL, ORF and TeleCinco all show the second race live now (in place of the second qualifying session), which may put some pressure of Eurosport to cover GP2 a little better. If enough people ring or email ITV then perhaps they'll show it, even if it's on ITV 2 or 3 - RAI reportedly had 2 million viewers on Sunday for the GP2 race, so there must be some interest elsewhere.

[chunterer]

Great coments all round!

I think Eurosport have been having several problems with covergae this year, and not just with GP2.

They must be having problems with budgets for programming otherwise why else would they pull the scheduled programmes and replace them with longer shows of different sports? It's gotta be down to advertising revenue or something!

I think i'm gonna contact Europsort and offer to be the man in the background - do some research for them and hit the commentator every time they mis read the helmet or car number of the driver on screen! So Europsort producers if you're reading this PM me and lets talk!

Joking aside, at least Gareth Rees and Jamie Davies keep us on the ball every time the commentator starts jabbering on a bout something and misses the massive scarp unfolding before his eyes - except it look like Gareth's got fed up with Kirby and packed it in!

David Leslie once told me that with the GT's and WTCC all they can do is watch the little monitor in front of them, with little in the way of supporting info and make the best of it, which is smaller than our TV's at home so it can't be easy for them.

Anyway, GP2 has become a big hit. As everyone's already said, the second race was mega and i don't think that even the halcyon days of 3000 (late 80's early 90's style) was even as good as this!

But what a day of motorsport it was - my backside was knumb by half 9 as i'd begun with GP2 race 2, moved onto Imola GT's, then the GP, then WTCC and then a meag Indy 500 - think it was something like 12 hours non stop, i couldn't believe it!!

Role on Magny Cours for another thrilling 2 bouts of dicing