What do people want from a commentator.....

[Vocal Minority]

I am not trying to be scathing, I am genuinely interested, as I do dabble a bit - but having seen comments on the various race threads about commentary styles - I thought I'd ask.

Some people seem to love an excitable commentator, some want something purely factual and calm. Others like some back story or technical detail, other prefer something a little less tailored to the connoisseur, shall we say?

Some guys can be technical to the point of dryness, but other listeners seem to revel in the level of detail that I find mildly excruciating....

So what are people's individual preferences? Any commentators people think embody this?

[Vocal Minority]

HardtopManual said:

I had what I wanted from the BBC when they had Brundle and Coulthard in the box for a year. Two experts, each with experiences of different eras, both with decent personalities and able to commentate in a way that doesn't grate on the F1 nerd, yet makes the sport accessible to newbies.

Why the TV channels persist with the expert/shouty moron combination is beyond me.

I have to say that I thought that the Beeb struck gold with those two - after a shaky start they developed a brilliant rapport. I have wondered whether the benefit was having two experts or whether it was just the chemistry. Though I suppose the shared career history would help that chemistry along a bit.

I do think there is the need for a summariser and expert role - and I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with a devil's advocate on occasion - but David Croft seems to do it over bloody everything even if its absurd - like removing blue flags.

[Vocal Minority]

That is sort of what I think

Rather than saying a car is turning into X corner, I like to try and add in whether it is particularly smooth/ragged an whether or not what the spectator is seeing is actually any good.

That said - I do public address so some of the crowd can't see what I see so a degree of sat what you see is necessary

So basically it needs some context to the cars driving round, not merely observing that a car is driving round

[Vocal Minority]

Ben Edwards

I don't mind Ben. I have to say I don't mind the shouty side to a limit - but only when something actually exciting happens.

They can get a bit excited over not much and that grates.