Croft has to go

[mw88]

jsf said:

Introduced the Chinese drivers name backwards already. Despite said driver specifically asking them to do it in his surname first order.

Crofty: Zhou Guanyu as he prefers to be called and we'll respect that.

Literally the next sentence

Guanyu Zhou

[entropy]

RichB said:

I had never heard of her so I had to use Google. I was surprised to see that although she's only 27, according to the records she hasn't raced since 2020 so she'd have been approx. 25. Seems a very young age to pack up racing, if that's what you've worked towards, and become a media bod and spokesperson.

Not really surprising.

Some realise they don't have enough talent and/or finances.

Ben Edwards raced with DC in junior formulae.

Damon Hill's son decided he didn't want to become a racing driver anymore when he was progressing the ladder.

Mansell's two sons raced up to British F3, Indy Lights, Le Mans. Stopped because of finances. I think its Scott who could have raced at international level in endurance racing.

[paulguitar]

entropy said:

Mansell's two sons raced up to British F3, Indy Lights, Le Mans. Stopped because of finances. I think its Scott who could have raced at international level in endurance racing.

Mansell's sons are Greg and Leo.


There is also a Scott Mansell, but he's not related. He has a youtube channel called 'driver61' which gets discussed here sometimes.

[entropy]

paulguitar said:

Mansell's sons are Greg and Leo.


There is also a Scott Mansell, but he's not related. He has a youtube channel called 'driver61' which gets discussed here sometimes.

Feck. My bad.

Greg was the better of the two.

[resolve10]

Absolute top drawer from Croft today when Verstappen came on the team radio to say his engine braking was behaving strangely through the corners. Brundle had to step in and explain what engine braking was, as Croft thought Verstappen meant his engine was breaking through the corners

[AW111]

LukeBrown66 said:

Only watched highlights, the shouting seems worse and somehow even more than usual, I do think it is fed by producers sadly, which shows the contempt they have for fans i guess.

Crap shouty commentary is one of the reasons I don't watch F1 live anymore

Dumbing it down for "spectacle".

[PhilAsia]

resolve10 said:

Absolute top drawer from Croft today when Verstappen came on the team radio to say his engine braking was behaving strangely through the corners. Brundle had to step in and explain what engine braking was, as Croft thought Verstappen meant his engine was breaking through the corners

omg..... (and I never omg...)

[Teddy Lop]

resolve10 said:

Absolute top drawer from Croft today when Verstappen came on the team radio to say his engine braking was behaving strangely through the corners. Brundle had to step in and explain what engine braking was, as Croft thought Verstappen meant his engine was breaking through the corners

Wish someone would brake croft. Or break him, whichever.

Anyone else notice his "Perez has been spun around", obviously implying contact from Hamilton? Why would he instantly assume that?

[jimPH]

Teddy Lop said:

resolve10 said:

Absolute top drawer from Croft today when Verstappen came on the team radio to say his engine braking was behaving strangely through the corners. Brundle had to step in and explain what engine braking was, as Croft thought Verstappen meant his engine was breaking through the corners

Wish someone would brake croft. Or break him, whichever.

Anyone else notice his "Perez has been spun around", obviously implying contact from Hamilton? Why would he instantly assume that?

He's commentating on a fast moving race, so I should imagine he goes with his initial interpretation or instinct, I doubt its an easy thing to get right all the time unless you want silences while he works it out, but that's not why he's got the job.

I'm more impressed how he can talk about stuff I haven't even noticed most of the time.

[LukeBrown66]

He has a mass of pointless stats that people give him pre race, what I hate about this commentary is the stupid trying to be funny lines. It has no place, your job is to inform, nothing else. Murray never entertained, or if he did very rarely. His funny was mistakes.

He sounds a like a part time weddings DJ, he is simply awful, but the people who run SKY F1 obviously think he is some sort of modern Murray or they would have sacked him off years ago, so sadly he is here to stay.

My only advice is watch with the sound off or somehow watch the footage with radio comms or something.

It is sad that real F1 fans are forced to listen to this wally, he really does ruin it totally at times. You find yourself not commenting on the action, more on this shouty idiot.

[Adrian W]

jimPH said:

Teddy Lop said:

resolve10 said:

Absolute top drawer from Croft today when Verstappen came on the team radio to say his engine braking was behaving strangely through the corners. Brundle had to step in and explain what engine braking was, as Croft thought Verstappen meant his engine was breaking through the corners

Wish someone would brake croft. Or break him, whichever.

Anyone else notice his "Perez has been spun around", obviously implying contact from Hamilton? Why would he instantly assume that?

He's commentating on a fast moving race, so I should imagine he goes with his initial interpretation or instinct, I doubt its an easy thing to get right all the time unless you want silences while he works it out, but that's not why he's got the job.

I'm more impressed how he can talk about stuff I haven't even noticed most of the time.

Most of the time he spouts rubbish about thing that aren't happening, so you wont see it, When Perez spun the feed was on some random spectator for some reason, so no one saw the spin live.

[eliot]

mw88 said:

Crofty: Zhou Guanyu as he prefers to be called and we'll respect that.

Literally the next sentence

Guanyu Zhou

All I kept hearing was ‘Joe Brandnew’

[paulguitar]

jimPH said:

unless you want silences while he works it out

That would be absolutely perfect, ideally for around 90-120 minutes every Sunday.

[Fonzey]

LukeBrown66 said:

He sounds a like a part time weddings DJ, he is simply awful, but the people who run SKY F1 obviously think he is some sort of modern Murray or they would have sacked him off years ago, so sadly he is here to stay.

I wonder if the Sky researches poke about in F1 forums/communities etc? He's almost universally disliked, I find it hard to believe they don't even discuss alternatives. Unless the barometer for his popularity are the engagement levels he gets on twitter or whatever during a race weekend. I assume the muppets using that are to blame for his longevity.

[fomb]

Fonzey said:

He's almost universally disliked

On this forum. I don't know anyone else that dislikes him enough to wish him fired.

[cgt2]

At most TV companies (apart from the truly independent) 90% of staff are absolutely clueless and have a completely unrealistic perception of what their audience wants. I'm sure most of the upper echelons of Sky Sports management think he is absolutely fantastic as they have no knowledge of what the audience actually wants to see. Murray was shouty, Croft is shouty, job done, no more effort required without realising Murray knew the sport inside out.

Having said that I am also sure the football/beer crowd who just want to be tribal and swear at foreign drivers (and sometimes throw racial insults at the British champ) love the dumbed down approach.

This was also the case with the BBC for many years hence why they persisted with tired old formats. Due to vast audiences by default even if something is complete rubbish they couldn't accurately gauge whether the product was actually any good. A trend over the past ten years has been more independent production companies stepping in to raise the quality of product, especially in the documentary field. The BBC now tends to go into funding/distribution partnerships with these companies rather than produce product themselves hence why the quality has risen dramatically and even won international awards.

Edited by cgt2 on Monday 21st March 10:42

[Fonzey]

fomb said:

On this forum. I don't know anyone else that dislikes him enough to wish him fired.

I browse 3 or 4 different F1 communities. All share the opinion.

[jimPH]

Fonzey said:

fomb said:

On this forum. I don't know anyone else that dislikes him enough to wish him fired.

I browse 3 or 4 different F1 communities. All share the opinion.

That's the internet for you, people tend to go on to moan and contribute to threads with a pack mentality such as "Crofty has to go"

Same with even the most popular high end cars, if you base your opinion on forum research, they'll all be a PoS.

[paulguitar]

jimPH said:

Fonzey said:

fomb said:

On this forum. I don't know anyone else that dislikes him enough to wish him fired.

I browse 3 or 4 different F1 communities. All share the opinion.

That's the internet for you, people tend to go on to moan and contribute to threads with a pack mentality such as "Crofty has to go"

Same with even the most popular high end cars, if you base your opinion on forum research, they'll all be a PoS.

I have regular F1 chats with four people.

All of them agree Croft is not fit for purpose.

[jimPH]

paulguitar said:

jimPH said:

Fonzey said:

fomb said:

On this forum. I don't know anyone else that dislikes him enough to wish him fired.

I browse 3 or 4 different F1 communities. All share the opinion.

That's the internet for you, people tend to go on to moan and contribute to threads with a pack mentality such as "Crofty has to go"

Same with even the most popular high end cars, if you base your opinion on forum research, they'll all be a PoS.

I have regular F1 chats with four people.

All of them agree Croft is not fit for purpose.

2 secs...

OK, just asked 5 people, they think he's alright.