This is the Statt Mann Baby. Time to Scatt a little bit.

This year’s ESPN Formula One telecasts aren’t just different from those on NBC. The first one Saturday night was a giant step backwards.
Nu F1 Logo
ESPN took the races from NBC this season and, instead of doing their own show using the international feed from F1, they used the Sky Sports split feed with off-shore announcers who evidently didn’t care that Americans were watching.

Admittedly, this is the season’s first race. But there’s a need for a re-think of the season’s plans. At least the NBC guys, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, could make the show interesting even mixing in American race events on the weekend.

The transitions to and from commercials were awkward. They just cut back and forth from the Sky Sports feed usually in mid-sentence. That’s unacceptable for a network broadcasting one of the world’s premier events.

This first race was on ESPN2, which isn’t on everyone’s basic cable like ESPN. There will be complaints about that too.

Hopefully someone was watching with an objective eye and these things will be addressed before race two from Bahrain April 8th.

Peace.