´óÏó´«Ã½

Another great blog Jake,

Really enjoyed the coverage of the two practice sessions this morning, through bleary eyes. Suffering now though!

Looking forward to hearing EJ's and DC's thoughts on the season ahead. I agree with your thoughts on the cars. Very sleek looking, except for the snowplough front wings!

It will be interesting to see how Lewis Hamilton copes with battling in the midfield. Will we see his true driving skill, or will he keep blaming the car?

p.s. I went to school with Cat Deeley!

Great read Jake, really glad to hear you're getting on with the rest of the lads so well.

I've got to say, I don't think many of the new cars are anywhere near as ugly as we thought they might be. Only the front wings, in particular the BMW, spoil things. And the least said about the Renault the better.

Those were 2 extremely interesting sessions, it's hard quite what to make of them, except it looks like one of the teams with the loopholed diffuser should be at the top this weekend.

Ferrari, BMW and McLaren all struggling - but 5/6 of the drivers for those teams have KERS at their disposal! Should be an AMAZING start to Sunday's GP.

I heard David Croft and Anthony Davidson having a bet on how many front wings would be lost on Lap 1. Davidson said 5, and pushed Croft to 7. What are your thoughts Jake? 4? 3? ALL of them?

Hi Jake

Really enjoying reading your Blogs mate! It’s interesting to hear what it is like for an F1 'Virgin' at their first event

Can’t wait till i see Qualifying tomorrow morning, it's going to be very interesting - almost anything could happen but I am still wanting a BrawnGP car to win

Anyhoo, take it easy mate - watch out for EJ, he's a liability!

It all sounds great I am amazingly jealous. Its 3 months till I can be a a race again for real (Silverstone). Enjoying the beeb f1 website much better than I thought it would be - fingers crossed for Jenson although I can't help thinking the Macca's are sandbagging!

You're right aobut that documentary series Churchill's bodyguard, it's brilliant.

I have to say I was really impressed with the commentary and coverage of practice this morning, it was well worth staying up for the first session of the year. Anthony Davidson is great does a great job.

And for what its worth i rekon there'll be 4 wings off on the 1st lap.

Cool Blog Jake

I really enjoyed practice this morning, commentary was good and glad to see that its no longer predictable who is fastest in practice

I think two wings will fall off on the first lap on sunday and as a suggestion it would be really cool if you could get everyone from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ F1 Team in a photo at every race

Keep up the fantastic work Jake

Another good blog Jake - it's really good to get a completely different, relaxed, perspective of what's going on.

I have to say I've been fully impressed so far with the coverage the Beeb has given to F1. The two practice sessions this morning were great, the level of interactivity via SMS welcome and I've been popping back to this site all morning for the latest snippets of news. It's all completely absorbing and I've also noticed there's another half hour slot later on ´óÏó´«Ã½ News channel. All this before the qualifying has even started...

A huge amount of respect and thanks to the entire team for the excellence we've already seen - although I think you owe ITV a debt of gratitude for their 12 season stint.

Congrats on getting the anchor role and enjoy the globe-trotting. One small point have a word about your profile photo - a bit serious Jake !

Hey Jake,

You're right its a geat way to start the season. I was lucky to make it in 02 & 04. If you're staying in St Kilda, you need to get to the Stokehouse (if its still there) I'm sure EJ will take you.

Jake, glad your in Australia and getting ready for the superb coverage your going to do!
I would love to hear EJ's stories and gossip first hand! WOW!
Enjoy your scrambled eggs and get some exercise. St Kilda is the place to do it.
GOOOOOOOOOOO F1
RaptureMoonchild aka F1 Super GEEK

Thanks for the latetest update. Enjoyed the practice coverage this morning. Good luck for yor F1 TV debut.

Its Great to hear you are enjoying your weekend, lets hope it goes well, i just cant wait for 5 am I'm so excited, have you heard any news on what happening with Mclearn... Say Hi to EJ from a fellow member from the K Club, in Ireland... Come on Ferrari

I'm loving the fact practices are on the red button! Means I didn't have to get up too early this morning!

Good luck tomorrow! I'll be getting up to watch!

Hey Jake, hope you get plenty of sleep for qualifying later. Just want to say the Crofty/Davidson commentary on practice 1 was awesome!

itd be amazing if no-one manages to finish the race due to off-course excursions and prangs, reliablity issues and the like. what would be the odds on that?!

Great blog Jake! Can't wait to watch the qualy tomorrow, then up again very early on Sunday not forgetting the clocks go forward too!
My local radio station played 'The Chain' this morning; sent a tingle up my spine!
Did I say I can't wait........!

Cool blog once again Jake. Interesting that you think the McLaren is the best looking of the bunch - I would have said the Ferrari or the Williams, the latter reminding me a lot of the McLaren MP4/13 from 1998. The EJ/DC combo sounds like it's going to be a good laugh and a good insight, really looking forward to that tommorow morning! :)

Hey Jake, loving reading your blogs.

Who is your favourite F1 driver of all time?

Best of luck for the live broadcast later, hope all goes well :)

Good stuff Jake.

Anyone got a list of drivers/cars that will use KERS on race day?

Cheers.

No 19. whatevefor :

The teams to use KERS will be:

Both Renault drivers
Both McLaren drivers
Both Ferrari drivers
Nick Heidfeld for BMW, but not Robert Kubica (due to weight issues and ballast)

Now, the significant thing is, all those teams seem to be below the par in some way. But with KERS they'll almost certainly get the best start off the line and grab places early on, potentially forcing Toyota, Williams and Brawn to fight them for the victory!

Going to be great..

Yes, hopefully the new overtaking measures will pay off....

Thanks for the info Freddy...

wonder whether they've been using the KERS to the full in practice?

What with the "protest three" and the KERS runners having different advantages - no one doing both yet - it does look to be a good mix that could offer interesting overtaking :-)

Great blog Jake,
good luck for your first race as anchor, after hearing the quality of the commentary for the practise sessions I am convinced the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is going to do a better job than ITV did. Crofty and Davidson were brilliant :)

Great to have F1 back on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ no more commercial breaks at silly times & wow what a FANTASTIC job you have done to F1 website & the red button i found very useful this morning as i couldn't manage to stay awake to watch live the first session live :

Great work to ALL thank you

Regards
Peter
Portslade
Brighton
East Sussex

good luck for 2mrw morning/afternoon. ALarm clock already set. Really looking forward to the 5 o'clock start

Hello Jake,

Enjoyed the link to the chat with ´óÏó´«Ã½ East. That was a serious hairstyle you were talking to ... interesting thoughts though.

Good luck to you and the team for the morning. Really looking forward to it.

Thanks again Jake for blogging us.
I cant wait, I got back from work watched Ptarice and it hit me...its Friday and Im watching F1!
I felt shocked about it, after 12 years of just watching it on Saturday and Sunday on ITV , it felt weird to hear David Croft and Anthony Davidson and Maurice Hamilton and the other bloke on Pratice commentary with PICTURES!
Good luck for yourself Jake, make that role your own, dont follow the other greats in the F1 Anchor role (Murray, Rider and Rosenthal)

the amount of years i have looked forward to this weekend of the first grad prix. the years have flown by but its good that the f1 is back on the bbc. Dont like the idea of the season ending in november. since ive watched it it was march-september. Bernie has just gone there for the money

Jake

You've certainly got the blogging down to a fine art. And you have one of the best jobs in the world - I think I speak for everyone when I say how jealous I am.

I'll be up at 5am to watch the first broadcast - and I'm looking forward to seeing the new titles.

And the 2009 Formula One season is GO!!!

Easy on the exclamation marks dude, you sound like a 15 year old girl LOL!!! Still enjoying all the blogs though. Cant wait for the race, this has just got to be a very open season. With Williams and Brawn setting fast times, it means Ferrari, Mclaren and BMW will be playing catch up. Brilliant. Go Jenson!

If your anchorman skills are on a par with your blog delivery, you'll do a good job this year.

So thrilled by having an extra 4 hours of coverage each race weekend this year, loving the idea we'll have no interruptions to coverage and I think it's safe to say the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is ahead of the game on multi-frontier delivery of sport.

With that smoke truly blown up everyone's derrieres :D

Great to see Jenson with an option to prove how smooth and good a driver he can be, nice to see Nico also potentially fulfill some of the early promise he showed.

Disappointed at the diffuser protests - does look like sour grapes from here. Did McLaren not protest because they took it on the chin or because they felt leaving other teams to look like the bad guys was a better PR course of action?

Ambivalent about whether McLaren are sandbagging, maybe they're just not quick - although of course Brawn have a similar powerplant so it's not the engine at fault!

Can't wait to hear The Chain again. Yes we're sentimental about it - but for gawd's sake it is F1!

Forza F1

Morning Jake

Enjoying the blog, Shame I can't see the coverage you'll be transmitting, I'm here for the F1 as well and will be for the year! The cars are fantastic and the noise something else!

Enjoy Melbourne and every other great place in the world you'll visit this season, fantastic job!

Matt

Jake, I am currently LOVING the blog friend. It's great to know that ´óÏó´«Ã½ coverage of F1 is in the hands of a fellow enthusiast!! Good luck for the weekend, you'll be great.

Hi Jake,

Just typing this while waiting for what promises to be the most unpredictable qualifying session in ages. Very impressed with the coverage so far so congratulations to all the team and keep up the good work.

I'm wondering just how hard it's going to be for the likes on McLaren to pull back their performance with the in season test ban. Even with the resources that they have, simulations can only do so much. Do you think they will be able to get back on the pace before too much of the season has gone?

Steev

Hi Jake

Just wanted to congratulate you on your first F1 broadcast. It was a fascinating and exciting qualifying period, and you, along with DC and EJ just brought it all alive.

Loving the banter between DC and EJ.

Also great to hear Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundles' commentary.

Shame about the technical breakdown!! Oops; someone got a little over-excited.

Can't wait for the race proper tomorrow.

Jools

Great coverage. Shame about losing picture part way through. Twitter went a little mad with panic at that point LOL

Gotta say I'm not sure on the opening graphics but I will get used to them undoubtedly.

Also why wasn't the press conference covered properly?

You did a great job though.

Nickie

Hey Jake,

Fantastic job! and a fantastic qualifying.

Get in Jenson! I knew you could do, It's now time to prove to the doubters just how good you are.

Can't wait for tomorrow.

Well what can i say...first things first HUGE congratulations to yourself Jake! there certainly was a freshness to the presenting there and you handled it very well buddy, although i bet you never thought in your wildest dreams in your first F1 broadcast that you'd be apologising for Sir Richard Bransons colourful language! ha ha but you and DC and EJ did a fantastic job..also well done to Jonathon and Martin in commentary.
All 3 Q sessions were very exciting and thats rare as most drivers breeze through the 1st session but not this time.
Personally im gutted as to Lewis's chances this year..his car is a banger and he looks, as does the whole Mclaren Mercedes team, totally dejected and its only the first race. Lewis Hamilton making up the numbers?? Ron needs to sort that out and sort it out soon.
right im off to sleep..i was out partyin last night and have only had 3 hours kip before 5 am this morning.
Well done again Jake..keep up the great work

connors-75

Great coverage of qualifying, but I have to say whilst I am overjoyed to hear the Chain again the opening sequence sucks - the cars are based on last years regulations and to see some shots of drivers or actual cars would be much better. Eddie and DC are already a highlight for me.

Hi Jake,
Great to be back on the Beeb. Your coverage is a welcome breath of fresh air after the cursed ad breaks on ITV.
Just one moan - why oh why can't we have the press conference? ITV used to chop this and it was equally irritating. If it's a qustion of air time, cut some of the 1 hour preamble.
Looking forward to the race....:-)

Hey Jake
Great Job ! ´óÏó´«Ã½ coverage great with one exception in my opinion that is Eddie Jordan. While yourself (Jake) and DC was professional positive and unbiased objective comments I cant say the same for Eddie. Three is a crowd when your commentating between on track action, and if you have a guest such as Richard Branson or Ross Brawn then Eddie should remain quiet as he just comes out with poor questions that are not relevant to future excitement of the sport

Thanks

GREAT JOB Guys (sorry & Girls of course!)

A really good start to the season and a good job done by all of you - I know there was an odd 'tech hitch' or two but it's early days yet and these things happen

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ programme looks good straight out of the box and just like the F1 race teams things will 'smooth & improve' during the course of the season

Well done - a great start!

Cheers
Anton

I tend to agree with rifraf_f1fan. EJ seemed intent on needling DC and only seemed to have eyes/thoughts for his previous drivers (Chello & Shui). Having said that he all but proposed to Richard Branson and monopolised the entire interview leaving you and DC rather sidelined.
Don't get me wrong, I've always liked EJ but he is no anchor man and his contribution should be treated as such.
Still, early days eh? Plenty of time to sort out the wrinkles:-)

Just wanna add to the praise here Jake - great job on your first broadcast bud. Really top job, nice to see the ´óÏó´«Ã½ giving a balanced coverage. Intro titles are fine I think, so good job by the Beeb on that front!

And rifraf_f1fan, I thought EJ was great, it's good to have someone opinonated and not afraid to speak his mind onboard.

Great Coverage Mate.

You and DC make a really good anchor-pundit team. As anchor, you pulled the first broadcast together really well, much more relaxed than ITV! DC's insight is articulate, well thought out and accurate. His experience, along with Martin's, will be invaluable to the Beebs coverage. (long may he remain in the paddock)

I'm not so sure about EJ's input yet, I think he needs to leave the anchorage responsibility to you. Should he have been questionning Branson? I don't think so.

Solid A though, quieten EJ down a bit and that'll be A* coverage (compared to ITV's B)

I'm sure you've silenced any doubters, Jake. Great stuff this morning!

I think the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s coverage was excellent. Yes, EJ was a little overbearing and Brundle & Legard clearly still need to get used to each other so that they build up a rapport where they know when to talk and when to let the other one talk, but that sort of thing will come good in time as everyone settles in.

Overall, it was a breath of fresh air and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.

Well done Jake and the whole ´óÏó´«Ã½ team! Really enjoyed the great quality coverage this morning- so nice not to have the adverts - thank you. Really nice balance of of personalities, good delivery by Jonathan and Martin plus, loved all of the Jake, DC and Eddie banter. Go Button, Rubhino and Ross!!

Jake, you presented the qualifying very well this morning in Melbourne. Its great that you are presenting F1 on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ along with David, Eddie, Martin and the others and hearing the 'Chain' introduction tune again was incredible. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ coverage is great.

Jake, Well done to you and all the ´óÏó´«Ã½ team. The best coverage of the quali's we have had for years. Can't wait to see your presentation of the race.
Your presenting was top class, not many people would have the courage to repremand Richard Branston....... Bang go your Virgin upgrades..........
Seriously the insite given by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ team with the additional banter was a joy to watch.
Looks like an interesting race tomorow and an entertaining season.

hey Jake
thought you were brilliant mate, very cool and professional, just like you have been at all the sports you have covered. Great blog too. Also great to see good banter with DC and Eddie. Have been looking forward to the 1st Qualifying on the bbc for months, is there a better broadcaster of sport??? I think not!!!!
Great job, and congrats to all the team

Well done Jake and the whole ´óÏó´«Ã½ team! Really enjoyed the great quality coverage this morning- so nice not to have the adverts & i love the website layout so much to see & do well done to ALL.
Regards
Peter
Portslade
Brighton
East Sussex

Good work on your first F1 gig Jake.

I'm sure it's a tough gig - Martin Brundle struggled a little with it last year - but please try to keep your facts straight. There were quite a few things you said today that were incorrect and misleading.

For example - the rear diffuser controversy could have a major effect on the season this year and your statement that Toyota had been penalised in qualifying because of their diffuser was very misleading. In fact they have been penalised because their rear wing was found to be too flexible - a totally different issue. If it had been the diffuser that could have been serious for Brawn GP and Williams too.

Otherwise the coverage today was excellent and I think you all did a great job.

Well done Jake, who'd have thought Sir Richard would be the one swearing on live tv (like he didn't know he was on!) when you had DC and EJ there? Unlike many I have never been a great DC fan but I have to say he surprised me with how slick and professional a job he did as pundit, first class. Can't say the same about EJ, I find him annoying and you don't need 3 of you just for the banter. Brundle was brilliant as ever, and I'll have to hope that Legard finds his feet, he sounded nervous and hesitent alot of the time and spent far too much time looking at the timing screen and missing what was actually happening on the track, Martin did a good job of nursing him through it I thought, sorry to be harsh but listen to the end of Q3 when all the cars had crossed the line for a good example of what I'm on about. Ted might make a good commentator.. He was always way less annoying than James Allen. As for yourself Jake, great professional job!

Just wish to congratulate you Jake and the team for an excellent presentation.

from the opening new credits.... fantastic
to the great interviews and commentary.

F1 has come home.

Well Done.

Congrats, I really enjoyed your presenting. I have to say I wasn't sure before (mainly as I didn't know who you were!) but your style is the perfect foil for the sometimes slightly too serious and self important F1 world.

I have to agree with SayNoTaSilva on EJ. He just doesn't come across well on screen. His views are a little arrogant and his questioning of guests seemed slightly self interested rather than informative to the viewer. Seemed to me Dc was a little rattled by him as well!

DC was good (when EJ let him get a word in!) Good questions and insight.

More Brundle please, he is a jewel and I think confining him to the commentating box (and a freezer!) was a bit of a waste of talent.

I also caught on to SayNoTaSilva's comments regarding Legard missing track action through over talking. This is one of Brundles great skills. If JL had in fact been listening to Brundle he might not have made the Q3 gaff. Apparently he made a similar gaff at Brazil last year, not realising the inportance of Hamiltons pass on Glock, wheras Brundle was straight on it. Still, it's better than James Allen (though thats not hard!)

Anyway, more good than bad in all, and it was day 1 for everyone. Keep up the good work Jake, irreverence rules! Roll on the race.

Hi Jake,
just watched the re-run of qualifying at 1pm, fantastic show very well presented.
Congratulations to all involved, particularly enjoyed hearing the thoughts and views of David and Eddie.
Great to see F1 back on the Beeb.

Hi jake

good to see F1 back where it belongs like you've (´óÏó´«Ã½) never been away, jake are you planning to bring out a book at the season end could be good winter reading alf muttley surley coulthard would be better commentator than Brundle

Hi Jake, first of all, a huge congratulations on your first broadcast in F1.

You did a sterling (moss!) job and yourself and DC seemed to have an instant rapport. DC appears to me much more intelligent and articulate than I ever got the feeling from him as a driver. As for EJ, I'm not 100% sure.. While it is fantastic to have someone who will voice their strong opinions he could do with toning it down a little and just kicking back now and then - you and DC seem to have a strong pairing here.

OK - Now for a couple of gripes!

First up, I have to admit I don't particularly like the new F1 opening titles - it feels far too contrived and not particularly representative of the sport or it's massive history. It is great to have the Chain back but the hyper-modern feel of the intro didn't feel like a great success to me.

Second, and, admittedly, finally, why, oh why, oh why, did your director/editor/whoever decide to cut away from the Press Conference and switch to Richard Branson? He was only there to promote his sponsorship and then made it a 100 times worse by swearing unnecessarily. Hearing from Button, Barrichello and Vettel would have been much much more interesting, seeing as all 3 of them have found good quali positions hard to come by over the past couple of years. If it's an airtime issue, surely that's why we have the Red Button? Football often gets extended analysis and reaction after a game on the Red Button, so why can't F1? After a qualifying session there is plenty to talk about, and lots of people to talk to who are directly connected with the race cars themselves, rather than a entrepreneur talking about his company.

Overall, some improvements to be made, but a good job considering it's your 1st GP. Once again, congratulations, have a great race tomorrow.

Fantastic to watch the Qualifying this morning. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ have successfully taken on F1 and already made the award winning ITV coverage look positively amateur. Superb presenting work by all the team, especially you, Jake. You looked relaxed and completely unfazed by the whole F1 circus. Brilliant work.

Just like to say fantastic f1 coverage, but can someone clear something up for me. I could not seem to work the red button interactive service. Was it available during quali or is it just the race. Really happy for Jenson and Brawn GP with the 1-2, but really hope lewis gets someting out of the race (points).

Hello Jake,

Great stuff this morning from you and the team,

I really enjoyed the new feel and was really impressed by not only how much you took it all in your stride but by DC and Eddie. I thought they both looked at ease and came across really well. For me, Eddie was the real star, particularly when he was talked to Sir Richard Branson.

Really enjoyed the commentary and how it all pieced together. Really looking forward to the race now.

Keep up the good work!

Brilliant job, Jake, congratulations to you and the whole ´óÏó´«Ã½ team!

Just thought I'd give you a pat on the back for today's broadcast and kudos for hanging around the track till midnight to give us an update! Time to enjoy a great season.

I see you went for very casual dress but did a decent job. David Coulthard is brilliant, much better than Mark Blundell.

I still wish the ´óÏó´«Ã½ had brought over James Allen. Johnathan Legard doesn't have that same distinctiveness to his voice as Allen and Murray did. I'm sure he'll get better though as he and Brundle did talk over each other a lot which will go when they get used to each other. But it did seem that the commentators weren't actually looking at the screen as drivers were going off the track and were instead just reading times out. Brundle was fantastic though.

Should be a good race though as it is unpredictable. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ are lucky that in the same year they get F1 the racing is much less predictable than usual. Let's hope it doesn't go back to the same old boring F1 of previous years.

Cracking job on the presentation of your first show Jake, looked at ease with both DC and EJ, should mature into a great team as the season progresses. MB and JL did a great job on the commentary for their first session of the season and as with the others I'm sure this pairing will get better with time, keep up the good work for the rest of the season...

I've been waiting until I could see the coverage of the first race to say Congratulations Jake. It has been a long time since I last saw you at the Anglia TV studios on rapture, but your career has been on an express train. I was not overly interested in Football but had seen you when channel hopping. I had no interest in the Olympics so I didn't realise you'd been presenting that. However - F1, Now you're talking!!

Previous presenters were good - but I am chuffed to bits that you'll be presenting F1 now. Your presenting this morning was fantastic, and you certainly have all the presence needed to control the show.

Congratulations Jake, looking forward to the whole season.

Damion Lee

Huge Congratulations Jake for landing the job!! You did a great job today. Keep absorbing all the knowledge you can and hold that team together!
You've come so far since Fram & its great to see. Keep inspiring and moving on up and most of all ENJOY IT!!
Sarah

great job today again jake..you should be very proud of yourself.
really enjoyed the F1 forum on the red button.

nice one!


connors-75

What a great show! Not just the exciting race but the way the whole presentation team performed - great again from those who were good on Saturday and improvements from all the others. The uninterrupted coverage really made the race so much more absorbing. To see the whole press conference and especially the time from the race ending through the podium presentations and the press conference unfold naturally without too much chat or any cutaways made such a change from recent years. The red button section was great too, I have nothing bad to say! Oh... just ditch the CGI in the titles, but that's it! Well done all.

Just wanted to pop in and say a huge well done Jake for this weekend, been extremely enjoyable to watch every single session live, the interactive forum was great and your performance was faultless

Great start for the ´óÏó´«Ã½...

Well done Jake and the team on a job well done.

It's clear you already have more knowledge and enthusiasm for the sport than previous hosts (on another channel) and the post-race 'chat' was great, although it seems not everyone agrees with EJ, by the looks of DC and Martin...

I really enjoyed the coverage and think you all deserve a good night to celebrate before the sauna in Malaysia.

Cheers!

I really enjoyed this morning's coverage - such a shame that all day yesterday various ´óÏó´«Ã½ programmes were giving conflicting times for the start of the race and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ coverage.

At varying times we were told that 5AM, 6AM and 7AM were the start times. Yes, things were not helped by the change from GMT to BST but the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s own F1 Qualifying show yesterday kept referring to the start of the race and not the time the ´óÏó´«Ã½1 coverage started which, confused further by BST begining, was not a good start in itself.

I mean, why bother to put out a programme for an hour or so beforehand if you keep telling people the race start time and not the programme start time? Murray Walker would not made that mistake and the ITV coverage used to go out of their way to point out what time the race started and what time their coverage started so that no one missed out! The ´óÏó´«Ã½ needs to get their act together on this.

That aside, I really enjoyed the ´óÏó´«Ã½ coverage.

I thought Brundle was his usual superb best telling it like it is. Enought said.

I enjoyed Legard's commentary although, several times today and yesterday, he kept chatting away with some train of thought or other as if on radio when the TV shots had changed to completely different action. Commentating on F1 on TV is very much about stopping what you are waffling on about and changing thought to whatever pictures the millions of viewers are seeing - this is one reason why Brundle is so good - but it is early days and no doubt Legard will get the hang of it. Again, one reason Murray Walker was so brill was because he could change tact and thought the instant the pictures cut from one shot to another and, well trained, Brundle follows in his footsteps.

I enjoyed the combination of DC and EJ also - EJ in particular telling it like it is, although I did cringe when he interviewed Branson. Although, someone needs to tell both DC and EJ that they don't need to eat the microphones in order for people to hear them. I think they could get away with actually holding the mics below their chins so that we can see their faces a bit more often.

The forum at the end was a real plus and I thoroughly enjoyed the 60 minutes of after-race discussion by Brundle, DC and EJ. Again though, the presenter said that it was available if you pressed the red button but if you have Virgin, and I also think Sky as well, the red button does not work. Luckily, I found it availble amongst the ´óÏó´«Ã½ radio channels on freeview and, again, the presenter should, assuming that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ wants an audience for this show, be able to tell all viewers how to find the discussion programme whether it is on terrestrial, freeview, Sky or Virgin. If you can't be bothered doing this then I assume the audience figures will be much lower.

A fantastic race, lots of excitement, a great fight at the end resulting in a thankfully no-one hurt collision and, amazingly, Button actually winning his second GP. I honestly thought he would never win another GP and I have to say what a great start for him, Rubens and the Brawn team.

Looks like we may have two competitive Brits on the grid this year!

Well done.

Jake, you pulled off the first race broadcast fantastically. What a start to the season. EJ seemed to be more toned down during the live coverage, quashing any scepticism I had about his input yesterday. The forum on the red button was brilliant, utilising the skills and experience of a very good broadcasting team, as well as respected members of the paddock.

A fantastic race, with lots of overtaking, a new F1 order and a very deserving winner - Jens and BrawnGP. F1 in 2009 is looking very bright. Outstanding coverage like we had today will only add to the F1 experience. Keep it up - Roll on Malaysia

Jake, I just wanted to say well done on your first F1 raceday broadcast, a seamless performance. I'm sure its no where near as easy as you made it look. Really looking forward to next weekend.

Jake Im living in southern ireland and since the days of the great Schumacher i never enjoyed race as much this mornings for its complete and un interupted broadcast, well done to jenson but rubins should have been driving a bumping car,,again well done

Just wanted to say great stuff this morning, brill action, brill presenting, style of show and features, the Forum was extra good (worked on my Virgin TV box, by pressing red as advertised at the end of show).
My 7 yr old daughter loved it to, tho it was difficult trying to explain why the safety car looked different to the other cars and wasn't over taking anybody.
Jake I hope you keep going with the blogs and photo's as these are very good to read.
Looking forward to the rest of the season, the blogs, coverage and forums keep i up...Oh and welcome back "The Chain"...

Hi Jake

Just want to add my congratulations to the whole ´óÏó´«Ã½ team, it was a great job well done!

One thing I would like to suggest to your producer though: "Two's company, three's a crowd" - IMHO it is a waste of resources having you DC and EJ on all together

Eddie is a loveable guy, highly regarded by most people in the paddock and one of the best 'schmoozers' in the business! Why not let him loose on his own to roam the pits and paddock with a camera crew to talk to his old mates and get the inside info and the controversial comments?

He's too useful not to be doing his own thing

That's my 'sixpennyworth' for this week anyway!

Looking forward to next week already

Cheers
Anton

I was most impressed with the coverage of the Grand Prix Prix this morning, (No Ads) but the commentators were a little slow to relay relevant information or incidents that have happened.
Another point that I would like to clarify is that Wolf Racing was the last team to win their debut Grand Prix in Argentina in 1977. The driver was Jody Scheckter later to become World Champion with Ferrari in 1979.
Jenson Button for World Champion!

Hi Jake, love your blog. Real chatty stuff and the photos are a highlight. I'll be logging in often. Totally love F1 and great to see it back on the Beeb.

Congratulations for the coverage today. I particularly liked the F1 forum - very interesting to have DC, Eddie & Brundle together!

Just also want to say that Ant Davidson was excellent.

Well Done the ´óÏó´«Ã½ team. A fantastic first GP of the season coverage. Liked the format very much particulary the forum afterwards with all the additional interviews. My only adverse comment is, smile a bit more Martin. You are a key member to the proffesional team but at least look like you are enjoying it (or arnt you?)

The forum was excellent. There is one problem though - it should be on iplayer. Cant find it anywhere.

The forum really is effective its brilliant. Is there any chance of showing a clip of eddie jordan after one of his cars had retired. his face is hillarious. great race though looking forward to malaysia very much. P.S Tell DC i liked his shoes during the forum!!!!

Really enjoyed the coverage, and the eye candy (Jake and DC)!

Jake,

Well done. Great job. If you read this its Alec from Wales, we used to go on holiday together and I can tell you all the Snidle's are proud.

I'm a massive F1 fan and literally fell off my chair when I noticed you presenting. Good job.

Alec.

Great start to the season and ok coverage so far. Just one criticism, as the partner of a member of one of the teams i feel there isn't enough coverage of inside the garage, for instance we didn't see the Brawn team members' first reaction to either the quali positions or race results. Those guys have been working 20 hour days recently and a bit of recognition would be well deserved. Otherwise good!

I find it a shame that the BEEB does not have an editor who is able to correct the grammatical errors in this blog. Pathetic!

Hi Jake

What a cracking job from you and all at the ´óÏó´«Ã½, congratulations all round.

You showed such knowledge and confidence, which you presented in a really fresh and relaxed way. If we didn't know different its as if you had been at the helm for years, excellent job. (Bet its not as easy as you make it look)

I love reading all the comments and feedback you have been getting on the blog, pity some people just have to find something to moan about.

Looking forward to next weekend now when at least the times are more sociable.

M

Well I'd love to say the show was great but I was too busy soaking up the sun in the Prost stand on corner 15 !

Great race and great crowd.... my dad flies home to England tomorrow with a bigger smile than I've seen on his mug in 10 years of attending the Melbourne GP. Have a great flight dad.

Here's a thought for the producers... Why not get some punters to provide real-time info from around the race-track. The Prost stand is awesome for views of turns 14 & 15 and entry into the pit lane (+ big screen of everything else)... you'd be surprised what we see down there. For example, I could have told you when Vettel ran wide on the grass at 14 about 1 minute before any commentator or camera picked it up... If there was some way reliable punters could feed info to the team - then the commentators would have extra eyes and ears around the track...

Happy to put my hand up next year!

Anyway - I'll be tuning in to watch the ´óÏó´«Ã½ as relayed to Australia for the rest of the season so good luck and keep blogging...

Jake,

Just like to say you did a SUPERB job Saturday and Sunday. Great stuff. =D

Hey would just like to say thanks to the whole bbc team for the great coverage all week.Really enjoyed the practice sessions,inside f1,classic gp's and forum.I was a little dissapointed that the fuel loads weren,t displayed for viewers as teams now have to reveal them after qualifying.
Anyways thanks again,look forward to hearing podcast later on today.;-)

Jake,

Great stuff from yourself, DC and Eddie.

Terrible commentary from Legard, it sounded like he was calling a horserace. It was amateur hour with him in the box, Martin must be tempted to resign!

Unfortunately Jake you are not my kind of presenter at all. Your style is far too gritty, earnest and lacking in either any sense of charm or humour. Believe it or not I would much prefer Jim Rosenthal. I don't mind Steve Rider though.

Also what is all that rubbish with the Sound of Science at the start of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ F1 program before the proper titles sequence with Fleetwood Mac's The Chain starts. I initially thought it was an advert for Castrol GTX before realising this was the ´óÏó´«Ã½. Lastly why is the theme tune of the program (Fleetwood Mac's The Chain) not played again at the end of the program and why is there no closing credit sequence as any other normal ´óÏó´«Ã½ television program always has.

Congratulations to the Beeb for a great return to F1 - pretty much superb all round as far as the race day was concerned. As for Ledgy's commentary, it will develop over the next few races into a more TV-friendly commentary than the radio commentary he has been used to for 5 live.

Well done again and here's to another action-packed race next weekend.

My thoughts:
Diffusers; If the stewards in Oz were happy that the cars are legal surely the result should stand? If the FIA in their infinite wisdom eventually decide that they are not legal and should be modified in future then that's fair enough. But to nullify the result of a race where the stewards were happy seems unfair to me and undermines the stewards. Did the other teams complain when Ferrari & McLaren were streets ahead? I don't think so; they just got on with trying to catch them.

I agree with bigcods views on Legard but it was strange when M. Walker packed it in, at least now we can hit the red button and choose an alternative.

No ads in the race was great but oh my bladder by the end! What's it going to like when the race is on at lunch time and I've had a few? Thank goodness for the pause button on my freeview box!

Jake,

As i live in Australia I have not seen any of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ coverage of Melbourne. But from what I saw as I walked past you in the Paddock...you looked as though you had been doing the job for years. My congratulations and best wishes for the future!

Fantastic to see the F1 on the ´óÏó´«Ã½!!! Great job done by all of the team... I like the new forum feature on the red button too! Good to see that coverage doesnt just come to a holt because of other scheduled programs! Great team, great coverage, great commentry and great title sequence - especially bit just before the title sequence! FANTASTIC! :-)
When do you think we will be getting the F1 in HIGH DEFINITION?