Sold down the river.

[Ratchet]

“We are absolutely delighted that F1 will remain on the BBC,” said Barbara Slater, director of BBC Sport. “The sport has never been more popular with TV audiences at a 10-year high and the BBC has always stated its commitment to the big national sporting moments.

“With this new deal not only have we delivered significant savings but we have also ensured that through our live and extended highlights coverage all the action continues to be available to licence-fee payers.”

So why are you dumping it you silly cow? Just how late on a Sunday night will the highlights be?

“This is fantastic news for F1 fans and Sky Sports will be the only place to follow every race live and in HD,” said Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports. “We will give F1 the full Sky Sports treatment with a commitment to each race never seen before on UK television.”

Yes and we all know what that means, the full twelve minutes of advertising per hour that is allowed, regardless of what is going on on the track at the time. We all remember what a total balls up ITV made of it.

Sky is not a mainstream broadcaster, people actually don't like Sky's corporate greed. I, for one, will never subscribe to Sky because I object to paying £15 per month to watch commercials. That's why they can afford to outbid everyone else for sport coverage, they get two pay packets.

Message for Bernie. So Mr E, you finally took Sky's twenty pieces of silver and sold your fans down the river. Well it is high time that I found something else to do on Sunday's so why don't you shove your beloved sport where the sun don't shine.

[Woodcat]

I know how you feel Ratchet.... The lousy IRL did a deal here in the states with a new cable channel called Versus, and it is not standard on any cable broadcasters lineup, so again, we have to pay extra for it....
I don't really miss not watching the IRL races any longer. I have found plenty to do with my Sunday afternoons....

[Dirty]

More like £30 a month you mean!!

[MythUK]

Unfortunatly money talks, I like the BBC line up and the way the BBC do things. I would rather watch it on there given the choice.

I do spend a lot of time watching Sky Sports News, which they do well but it does worry me that the race will be filled with adverts.

Damn the money men and Sky's greed of trying to take over everything and put a price tag on it!

[Ratchet]

Looks like Charles Pic will not be the only rookie in the pitlane next season.

With Brundle, Croft, Davidson, Pinkham, Kravitz et all, holding out their hands for Sky's twenty pieces of silver, the BBC will have to send a crew of three (DC,Jake & Eddie) to 20 races next year. Looks like Ms Barbara Slater will have to have a bit of a recruitment drive if, as she claimed, the standard of the BBC coverage will not be lowered.

Any of you petrolheads out there want a job. Apply now to: Ms Barbara (I detest sport, especially if men enjoy it) Slater. BBC, Salford Quays, Manchester, Up North somewhere near Old Trafford. Availability to travel to Manchester every other week and dub commentary over pictures copied from Sky F1.

Of course there is one perfect solution. Jeremy Clarkson as commentator, James May in the pits explaining how things work, Richard Hammond as chief chatter upper and Sir Terry Wogan to be chief summariser.

[Ratchet]

Oh dear. I have just witnessed what F1 is going to be like for those of us that did not allow ourselves to be blackmailed into paying to watch F1.

The Formula 1 site failed, yet again, to have live timing working throughout the entire session.

The BBC put out a radio commentary that was basically crap. I really couldn't give a stuff about surfers on the beach. Who has set a lap time and what is it? In thousandths of a second please. "Button has gone fastest with a lap of 1.25.4" is about as useful as telling me what colour his underpants are today. When was the last time that a lap in a Formula One car was measured in tenths of a second. About as useful as a chocolate teapot. Pit-lane interview beneath a hovering helicopter. Didn't hear a word of what was said. Off air at 07:08. Would have been at 07:00 if Alonso hadn't gone in the kitty litter. All in all BBC if that's the best you can do you may as well not bother.

I will watch the qualifying highlights at 14:00 today as I haven't seen the new cars on track yet. I very much doubt I will bother wasting my time with qualifying highlights in the future. The whole of the excitement of qualifying is in drama as it unfolds live, not eight hours later.

BBC you may have won an award last year for your F1 coverage but this year, on performance so far, I for one will have trouble giving you the time of day.

Save the air fares and hotel bills. Keep your 5 LIVE commentary team in the basement, with a TV set, and let them watch Sky and comment on the LIVE broadcast. Be just as useful to the listeners as that rubbish I heard this morning.