Sky F1 Always Puts Ferrari Down

[kiwifella]

No doubt, I am a Sky subscriber and absolutely hooked to every session televised, even love rewatching some of the old classic races and seeing the old master Schumacher weave his magic....

But, one thing that is starting to get on my wick a little bit is how the Sky presenters keep persistently nagging at Ferrari, team orders this, Alonso number 1 at Ferrari that, Massa behaving like a good boy and letting Alonso pass...... There never seems to be a favourable comment from any of the Sky presenters about Ferrari, I wish they would just give them a break!!

Ted's Notebook about "Do you remember when I said during commentary, fair play to Ferrari, they've given Felipe Massa an equal chance. Can you just all completely forget that I just said that, because then they went and did that move, which is what they had to do, really with Fernando Alonso to pit him and then get him ahead, they could see what they needed to do to get him ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Adrian Sutil, and it worked"

Its even as bad now during commentary, I guess its just because of the old Ferrari/McLaren rivalry, that fact that Ferrari is not English based I suppose. Fantastic channel, but pity they don't give us a break, surely they should realise that there is a lot of Tifosi in the UK??

Thoughts anyone?

[SinanOzerS]

That was all the same on BBC,and now Sky.

[Gerhard Berger]

No doubt, I am a Sky subscriber and absolutely hooked to every session televised, even love rewatching some of the old classic races and seeing the old master Schumacher weave his magic....

But, one thing that is starting to get on my wick a little bit is how the Sky presenters keep persistently nagging at Ferrari, team orders this, Alonso number 1 at Ferrari that, Massa behaving like a good boy and letting Alonso pass...... There never seems to be a favourable comment from any of the Sky presenters about Ferrari, I wish they would just give them a break!!

Ted's Notebook about "Do you remember when I said during commentary, fair play to Ferrari, they've given Felipe Massa an equal chance. Can you just all completely forget that I just said that, because then they went and did that move, which is what they had to do, really with Fernando Alonso to pit him and then get him ahead, they could see what they needed to do to get him ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Adrian Sutil, and it worked"

Its even as bad now during commentary, I guess its just because of the old Ferrari/McLaren rivalry, that fact that Ferrari is not English based I suppose. Fantastic channel, but pity they don't give us a break, surely they should realise that there is a lot of Tifosi in the UK??

Thoughts anyone?

Ted Kravitz is a moron. He's meant to be the technical guy at sky but his technical knowledge is pretty poor. He spots new pieces on the car but has no idea what they do or how they improve the car and instead just says "oh there's a nice looking turning vane on the Mclaren". The guy is just more interested in gossip and rumours.

His notebook pieces have gone downhill. He rambles on alot and says stuff like "oh look at this torro rosso truck, its so clean and shiny. Oh and there's Aldo Costa....Hellloooo Aldo". He needs to put alot more thought into it, do some analysis of numbers and get more information from engineers and strategists.

[EL_NANDO]

Yes I have noticed this too, it's a total disgarce the way they always make snide comments at Alonso/Ferrari. I also noticed the exact same thing you mention in Ted's notebook. In the very same notebook, he said Raikkonen has got newer parts than Grosjean, but acted like we shouldn't be suprised. Can you imagine if Alonso got newer parts than Massa, we'd get the whole "and Ferrari tell us both drivers are equal, yeah right." type of snide comment Ted loves to make.

My favourite is when it rains, "Crofty" always does the following:

- If a British driver does well, he claims this proves it is all down to driver skill, and their driving skills are shining through.
- If Alonso does well, he claims the Ferrari is good in the wet, and if British drivers struggle, he makes excuses about the car's setup.

Crofty also said "are they allowed to do that?" when Ferrari spoke Italian over the radio last season!!! As if they should get a drive through or something!

[scuderiafan]

It is the worst on their website. bringing up old interviews to put them down... Probably annoyed after hyping Mercedes so much Ferrari kicked their behinds.

It is par for the course though, and expected. let them, Ferrari should work to disappoint them all the time.

[Tobes]

I really don't think they are any more or less positive in their comments about Ferrari than any other team, you just notice it more as it's Ferrari, they were hardly complimentary about McLaren at the weekend, but were full of praise for Lotus and Kimi, and rightly so, Brundle was saying that Felipe pitting before Fernando was a fair thing for Ferrari to do, then said the roles were reversed after the second stop, he was right, he wasn't to know it was Fernando's call... Nothing was said in the Sky commentary that I haven't read on here...

The only thing I would say is they tend to be more positive about the British drivers, but that is to be expected, it's an English speaking channel broadcasting to Britain, all the British drivers happily chat to Brundle on the grid and often have a laugh, especially Jense, when was the last time Fernando had a chuckle with Brundle on the grid walk...? I can't think of a single occasion...
Do you think Italian tv is more positive in their commentary about Ferrari or McLaren...? What about Indian tv, do think they are more positive about Red Bull or Force India..?

That said, completely agree about 'Ted's Notebook'... It's just a load of rubbish...

[EL_NANDO]

Yes the BBC were just as bad as well, I remember Jake "CBBC" Humphrey's attempt to grill Domenicalli after Germany 2010. Frankly embarrasing considering Jake was presenting Scooby-doo the year before, and now thinks he can grill the head of Ferrari about the rules of F1, as if he's in some sort of position of power!

But of course when McLaren deployed "save fuel" orders in Turkey 2010, the BBC claimed it was a sensible decision.

[fronaldo]

hate both ..and this season in Malaysia..Fox Sports take full coverage from Sky..the good thing..they show all practice session..but that's the only good thing

[NickEice]

Typical British hate. I think 2007 really rubbed them the wrong way too with ALO at McLaren.

[Tobes]

Typical British hate. I think 2007 really rubbed them the wrong way too with ALO at McLaren.

Really...? "Typical British hate"..? On what do you base that unnecessarily sweeping statement..?

I could say that's typical American stupidity, but I wouldn't wish to be offensive towards my American friends on the forum...!

[Larcxy27]

Really...? "Typical British hate"..? On what do you base that unnecessarily sweeping statement..?

I could say that's typical American stupidity, but I wouldn't wish to be offensive towards my American friends on the forum...!

You beat me to it. I guess if you are British you cannot possibly support Ferrari or Alonso!

I take a lot of flak with mates and work colleagues for not supporting British drivers/teams. Do I look bothered?!

[scuderiafan]

I really don't think they are any more or less positive in their comments about Ferrari than any other team, you just notice it more as it's Ferrari, they were hardly complimentary about McLaren at the weekend, but were full of praise for Lotus and Kimi, and rightly so, Brundle was saying that Felipe pitting before Fernando was a fair thing for Ferrari to do, then said the roles were reversed after the second stop, he was right, he wasn't to know it was Fernando's call... Nothing was said in the Sky commentary that I haven't read on here...

The only thing I would say is they tend to be more positive about the British drivers, but that is to be expected, it's an English speaking channel broadcasting to Britain, all the British drivers happily chat to Brundle on the grid and often have a laugh, especially Jense, when was the last time Fernando had a chuckle with Brundle on the grid walk...? I can't think of a single occasion...
Do you think Italian tv is more positive in their commentary about Ferrari or McLaren...? What about Indian tv, do think they are more positive about Red Bull or Force India..?

That said, completely agree about 'Ted's Notebook'... It's just a load of rubbish...

Brundle is always fair

However, this is just...
http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/...o-competitive-

How can a competitive Felipe be anything other than good news for Ferrari?

They had to lay into McLaren, as McLaren were fighting Force India. Last year, they were all about the crisis in Ferrari as well. I would say they have been more favourable to McLaren this year than they were to Ferrari last year. This is expected as you said as McLaren are british and so are sky so it is expected, but it does seem like they ignore other team's indiscretions and focus on what Ferrari do wrong so they can bring up the old 'Ferrari are cheaters' 'Ferrari no. 1 policy' etc.

[zakfourie]

Can I ask you guys, do you get commentary from Martin Brundle?

Or DC and some other bloke?

[steelstallions]

ITV were the worst. In my humble opinion the instigator of all the bile was Ron Dennis and the Mclaren team from the mid nineties to when Ron stepped down. No matter how skilfully MS won a race or how awesome Ferrari built their cars, he always gave that false belief that Maclaren were a racing a team and Ferrari where somehow inferior to that. He drip feed that bile so much that the media adopted it. Win at all costs translated to cheating, having the rules looked at was owning the people who ran F1. All of which was all the more sweeter to see him hauled before the Motorsport authorities for blatantly cheating and using our stolen Data. Even then they tried to weasel their way out using the best of their PR to blame Ferrari!! Oddly though, I don't think SKY are anti Ferrari at all, they seem quite neutral.

[Ste]

Felipe Massa's resurgence is posing Fernando Alonso and Ferrari certain problems. He may be just a little too competitive!
Source: Autosport
Author: Mark Hughes

Amid Alonso's relief that he has indeed got a competitive Ferrari with which to build a realistic world title campaign will be a concern about having needed to actually compete with his team mate in Melbourne - and that's not something Alonso ever likes having to do. Knowing he needs to line up all his ducks to finally get that Ferrari title, fighting an in-team challenge is not part of the plan.
The Brazilian, who at Melbourne last year qualified 0.8s slower, out-qualified his team leader for the third successive race on Sunday. It was by a scant few thousandths of a second and Alonso missed out on crossing the line for an extra lap on the drying track, so thereby Massa had a quicker track when he set his time. But the fact that such detail now separates them suggests Massa is absolutely back to something like his best - as was suggested from Japan onwards last year.
From Alonso's perspective this has one very important upside: it means Massa is in a position to take points from Fernando's title rivals. But the downside is that he is now quick enough to interfere with Alonso's races - as happened on Sunday. When Alonso refers to the start of the race by saying: "I actually got a much better start than Felipe or Hamilton and could have gone through the middle of them but then had to back off as they moved towards each other," he was describing the second inconvenience Massa had caused him, (the other being demoting him a place on the grid).

On the second lap Alonso got a run going down to turn three, getting fully alongside. At this point Felipe had the perfect opportunity of being the perfect number two and yielding. But he chose not to. He is enjoying his new-found competitiveness and was clearly intent on running his own race, even if that meant dicing with his team mate. This is totally normal of course - in other teams. It's far from normal in this one.

In Alonso's second race with Ferrari, at Melbourne three years ago, he staged a great recovery drive after spinning on the opening lap. But that recovery stalled as he reached the tail of Massa. Felipe stayed ahead to the end to finish third. Alonso was adamant that without Massa's interference he could have won the race. A big showdown meeting subsequently took place at Maranello between Alonso and the team about what should happen if such a situation were to arise again and the team agreed that Alonso, as its number one driver, should get priority. Infamously, the situation did arise again - at Hockenheim. In the intervening time no-one had sat Felipe down and explained what the new arrangement was: he only got that news with the 'Fernando is faster than you' radio message.

On Sunday at Melbourne Alonso took matters into his own hands once he realised Massa was not going to yield. He deviated from agreed team strategy on the timing of the second stop - announced with the minimum of warning (just enough for the team to have the tyres ready) that he was coming in. This undercut him ahead of both Massa and Sebastian Vettel and ultimately secured Alonso his second place when it looked like he was going be trapped in fourth. Massa afterwards said: "It was risky what Fernando chose to do in cutting short the planned length. It meant that he risked having to even make a fourth stop later on. But in hindsight it worked for him."
It will be interesting to monitor how both the team and Alonso deal with the resurgence of Massa.

[Greig]

In Alonso's second race with Ferrari, at Melbourne three years ago, he staged a great recovery drive after spinning on the opening lap. But that recovery stalled as he reached the tail of Massa. Felipe stayed ahead to the end to finish third. Alonso was adamant that without Massa's interference he could have won the race. A big showdown meeting subsequently took place at Maranello between Alonso and the team about what should happen if such a situation were to arise again and the team agreed that Alonso, as its number one driver, should get priority. Infamously, the situation did arise again - at Hockenheim. In the intervening time no-one had sat Felipe down and explained what the new arrangement was: he only got that news with the 'Fernando is faster than you' radio message.

Strange cause in China Alonso was again behind Massa and there was no yield so Alonso passed him in the pitlane entrance.

[Ste]

Strange cause in China Alonso was again behind Massa and there was no yield so Alonso passed him in the pitlane entrance.

That's a great point, I'm going to post that on the article comments.

[edit] Done. Let's see if it gets approved...

[REDARMYSOJA]

Strange cause in China Alonso was again behind Massa and there was no yield so Alonso passed him in the pitlane entrance.

Agreed, it was my understanding that it was after the China pit entrance episode that Ferrari sat both drivers down and came to the "3 second" agreement, that is, the driver in front had to maintain a 3 second gap or cede the position. At Hockenheim Felipe wasn't maintaining that gap and the radio message was Rob's way of reminding Massa of the agreement. I think the only reason Felipe was so hesitant there was because it was for the win. He was probably hoping they wouldn't hold him to it because of that, and they probably wouldn't have if Alonso didn't need those points so badly and was in much better shape for the WDC than Felipe.

A lot of people have tried to make what happened this past week in Melborne out as Ferrari deliberately sabotaging Felipe's race in favor of Alonso, but it seems clear it was a quick call by Alonso and his side of the team. It was a gamble coming in that early, a gamble which paid off, but just as easily could have backfired. To me, what made it work, was Alonso's brilliant move exiting the pits, where he dove out barely in front of Sutil and Vettel. He even had to dice with Sutil a bit as his tires were cold.

If he had not made that stick, and fell behind Sutil and Vettel, the ball would have been back in Felipe's court. However, I think that move by Alonso made Rob realize they needed to try something different by staying out longer, which they did, only it was a bit too late then and it didn't work. So far in their time together as team mates I've seen nothing to indicate that Felipe is to be Alonso's lap dog. As long as Felipe has a chance at the WDC he will be allowed to race his team mate. I think Alonso knows that, and his fans need to realize that as well. When the car is right Felipe can be as fast as anyone. Alonso is going to have to work around that if he wants the WDC.

[mirafiori]

Really...? "Typical British hate"..? On what do you base that unnecessarily sweeping statement..?

I could say that's typical American stupidity, but I wouldn't wish to be offensive towards my American friends on the forum...!

The English are always Negative towards Ferrari, BBC- SKY- ITV, there all the same, they talk us down at any given opportunity, if the team switch drivers during the race, or change Massa gearbox at Austin, or when Perez was chasing and catching Alonso in Malaysia, then Perez made a mistake and Alonso went on to win the race, the commentator said the big chief LDM has made a phone call to the pit wall, because Sauber have Ferrari engines conspiracy theories etc.

[NickEice]

Really...? "Typical British hate"..? On what do you base that unnecessarily sweeping statement..?

I could say that's typical American stupidity, but I wouldn't wish to be offensive towards my American friends on the forum...!

It's a fact that most Brits are McLaren fans. I have many British friends. They are very big McLaren fans. They take any opportunity they can to hate of Ferrari. It's very typical. Obviously no statement can be made about 100% of everyone, but it is the viewpoint of the majority.

[NickEice]

And you are telling me they don't think negatively of Alonso for what happened between him and the Golden British boy Lewis in 2007?

[NickEice]

Just like the RAI broadcast is pro Ferrari and anti McLaren. It's nationalism.

I also never called you stupid. I just made a point that in the UK there are far less fans of Ferrari than McLaren and other British teams. Don't get your panties in a bunch.

[REDARMYSOJA]

Don't get your panties in a bunch.

Maybe you shouldn't say silly things about the British hating Ferrari on a Ferrari forum loaded with British who love Ferrari.

[Tobes]

It's a fact that most Brits are McLaren fans. I have many British friends. They are very big McLaren fans. They take any opportunity they can to hate of Ferrari. It's very typical. Obviously no statement can be made about 100% of everyone, but it is the viewpoint of the majority.

That's complete rubbish, I bet I know more Brits than you, and there is a contingent of McLaren fans, but no more than Mercedes or Ferrari, maybe the majority of British people you know are McLaren fans, but I hardly think that could be considered 'most Brits'...

And you are telling me they don't think negatively of Alonso for what happened between him and the Golden British boy Lewis in 2007?

I really don't think anyone cares about 2007 anymore, it's not a topic i've heard or discussed for a few years, but you carry on thinking that if you feel it justifies your ridiculous statement...

Just like the RAI broadcast is pro Ferrari and anti McLaren. It's nationalism. Don't get your panties in a bunch.

No 'panties in a bunch' here, and mature comeback...

You made a broad sweeping statement claiming "Typical British hate', I merely questioned your basis for that, you've stated it's because of the British people you know most are McLaren fans and hate Ferrari, if you can't see how that is no basis at all for that statement then fine, no problem, I asked the question, you answered, the fact I find your original statement and subsequent justification ridiculous is irrelevant, if you feel that is justification enough for your statement then that's fine...

Not sufficiently interested in continuing this... have a nice day...

[mirafiori]

And you are telling me they don't think negatively of Alonso for what happened between him and the Golden British boy Lewis in 2007?

You are correct my friend, living in England i am surrounded with F1 fans, the English generally support a driver not a team. When Alonso was at Mclaren, the problem Alonso had the majority of the Mclaren fans supported Hamilton, because he was there golden British boy. Also the team Mechanics also favoured Hamilton, if you watch any footage of 2007 when Alonso or Hamilton won races, there is a massive reaction of joy when Hamilton won compared to Alonso. And that is a FACT. Mclaren in 2007 totally disrespected 2 time world champion Alonso.

[mirafiori]

Maybe you shouldn't say silly things about the British hating Ferrari on a Ferrari forum loaded with British who love Ferrari.

The British fans are some of the best F1 fans in the world, take Silverstone 2012 even in bad weather they were there to the bitter end. My problem is some British fans disrespect Ferrari, but the truth is some fans are jealous of our history and heritage.

[NickEice]

Of course the British love F1. It is the birthplace. But it's a fact that more people in the UK love McLaren more than Ferrari. Just as in Italy more people love Ferrari than McLaren. And thus you get the biased British reporting. I don't think that is a ridiculous statement. If I was a SKY reporter I would obviously be more passionate about Ferrari, talking about how fast they look this year and be negative towards McLaren and their lack of pace.

I just don't see the outrage from my comment. It's based in fact.

[NickEice]

When on the Silverstone podium a Ferrari driver will always be booed, just as at Monza the McLaren driver is always booed.

[NickEice]

Maybe you shouldn't say silly things about the British hating Ferrari on a Ferrari forum loaded with British who love Ferrari.

I also assume the majority of the British Ferrari fans on this forum have some Italian heritage in their blood.

[Larcxy27]

When on the Silverstone podium a Ferrari driver will always be booed, just as at Monza the McLaren driver is always booed.

Fernando wasn't booed when he won at Silverstone in 2011! He was warmly received and applauded, rather more manically by me and my family who were sat with our (Mclaren supporting) friends at Club.