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Well, as much as we love to hate ITV for their at-times shambolic coverage of F1, I think it's only fair to say goodbye in a fair and fitting manner...

When ITV first took over from the BBC, the coverage of F1 was like a breath of fresh air. Live qualifying(!), a good pre-race build up, a great commentary team (Murray and Brundle - I never liked Palmer as a commentator) and a program that really made a race feel like an event.

Yes, there were a few downsides. Mainly adverts. And later James Alan being allowed to step anywhere near the commentary booth. But we must remember what we had before ITV came along and made F1 a fairly important feature on their schedule. Maybe not as important as Coronation Street, but not far off. And yes, the coverage was ruined quite a bit when some kid from Tewin came along at the begining of last season, but that was mainly due to one man vocally masturbating over this kid from Tewin.

I've really enjoyed having Brundle as a commentator over these past 12 years, and after a shaky start he really came into his own. Sublime dry wit, very knowledgable and remarkebly partisan for the most part.

It's a shame that ITV seemed to lose interest in "the show" as the years went on. Losing the studio was a big step back in my opinion, and they featured less and less post race analysis too, which to any self respecting fan is a must.

ITV had a good recipe for the most part, but heres hoping the BBC take that recipe and refine it to make F1 the event it deserves to be once again. But for the love of god, don't hire James Alan. If you absolutely must, stick him back in the pitlane.

So long ITV, and thanks for the memories.

I totally agree, but I was thinking yesterday how great it would be without adverts. I think BBC will do a great job though, especially if all the rumours heard are true!

You can't get away from the fact that for a year ITV revolutionised F1 coverage in Britain. Their initial coverage was outstanding when they had Tony Jardine and Simon Taylor, 2 experts in their field, in the studio with Rosenthal, a man who doesn't get the credit he deserves imo. Bar the ads, their coverage was much better than the BBC's, who had virtually no preview, and what preview they had was solely dedicated to Damon Hill by the end. Live quali wasn't guaranteed until the very end, they had 1 pit reporter (Jardine), and Jonathan Palmer, the most boring man ever to set foot in a commentary box

A word on Mr Allen - I and many other people have been overly harsh on JA, I think. He has got better over the years since he stopped trying to be Murray. He's not as biased as people believe - at the end of the day, he's told to talk about Lewis. He admitted recently he thinks Alonso is the best driver. I think come Melbourne people will regret bashing him when Legard takes over and will be just as biased as JA, like the BBC will be just as biased towards Lewis as ITV is, if not moreso going by the coverage on their website and on the radio

I think people will be disappointed by the BBC. I've said it all along. People are instantly expecting them to be amazing, serious, intelligent and unbiased, something that is most certainly not the case with all their other sports coverage, so why should we expect any different? Aside from the gizmos I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with very similar quality coverage - maybe not immediately, but give them a year or 2 and they'll eventually slump back into complacency like ITV did after the initial fanfare was over

I probably won't be that bothered, because that would still be an improvement over ITV due to the lack of adverts - I'm not really that bothered about the pre-race or the theme tune. The only thing I'm particularly bothered about is the commentary, and I can't see Legard being excrutiatingly bad at this stage. But ITV still deserve credit for the best F1 coverage we've seen in this country

Yeaa maybe BBC will be as biased towards British drivers. When they're winning, remember the reason they lost the English national football? Being critical when they're being rubbish and I hope BBC will continue that.

We'll see a whole new level of coverage from BBC. Practice on the red button and not just an internet stream and the support races on the red button as well. To be fair, back before ITV took over, no one really expected any more then the race and some pre and post race.

They did a great job, very similar to how Ten has with F1 after taking over from Nine, even though they get criticism.

Just how MB goes to BBC.

Motty wasn't exactly critical when we lost to Croatia

good riddance Mr. Allen. Never again will i have to hear your voice.

In Spain Telecinco says goodbye after five years of excellent coverage. Commentators weren't the best (except De la Rosa) but they did a brilliant job.

I think ITV overall did a great job.

I know many people hate James Allen BUT I guarentee whoever commentates next year will not have the enthusiasm or excitement as those two did in the box.

Brundle will hopefully be on BBC... but time will tell...

Although the adverts drove me nuts, I think over the years ITV have done a pretty good job of it. I really enjoyed the My Chemical Romance segment yesterday as It did show a different side to the F1 circus and messrs Brundle and Blundell were hilarious. Can't wait for the un-interrupted coverage on the beeb though and hopefully the aforementioned will still have a part to play.

I think ITV had a very good coverage. Probably with the amount of money that now cost to get F1 coverage, an ad-free coverage in a free channel would be impossible.

On the other hand, Fox Sports Latin America, with more ads that ITV ever had and being a paid channel, will continue to show F1 next year, so it's either spending US$10/month to get this better-than-nothing coverage with tons of football i don't give a fuck about, or trying to see it through streams next year. It was not a problem with Wheels around, but it wasn't that easy to watch a race after Singapore.

I ended up watching yesterday's race through CCTV-5 stream which looked awful and i didn't understood anything. I was shocked when Vettel and Hamilton crossed the line at 4th and 5th, because i never realized that they had overtaken Glock, because you barely could tell the difference between the Toyotas, BMW and Force India cars, and because the chinese commentators seemed as shocked as i was. And they had a proper picture quality!

ITV have done a great job over the years. As long as the BBC hire Brundle then they cant go wrong. I honestly think F1 coverage in the UK will take another significant step forward next year as it did back in 1997

They are with the simple red button showing Practice and all support races.

I'm going to miss ITV. They have always been so much better than BBC ever were.

I'm still expecting the worst from BBC and I'm hoping they prove me wrong and do decent coverage.

Based on their Moto GP coverge, I'm not getting my hopes up.

I will miss Brundle. I hope he can be part of the BBC F1 team.

ITV certainly moved F1 coverage on in this country, and their coverage in the opening years (barring ad breaks) was very good indeed. But once they lost the studio, the useful analysts, and ran with the 'personalisation of the drivers' idea their quality dropped like a stone and for the last few years were doing a poor job. Hope the BBC can do a better job, and I think they will.

I agree in a way Jon. I've always said that broadcasters need to avoid employing just ex-competitors merely for the sake of it, there also needs to have "studied the sport. An example would be in a game of football, we can all see that the ball was crossed in and that he fired over the bar, what we want to know is why he fired over the bar (body posture, etc). That's what can make Hansen interesting. If there's a defensive error he will point out what they should have been doing as opposed to Ian Wright's pratting about. Tony Jardine and Simon Taylor were interesting because they could explain why things happened for instance where as Mark "What you see here Steve" Blundell had a propensity just to explain what was here.

Saying that, I do think content wise it went through a u. It started high quality, but the start of the decade it went too celebrity orientated. Beverly Turner was introduced to the team and it became almost a celebrity magazine with a race attatched onto it. I'm all for getting the view of a celebrity or two at the race, but that was dire. There's been a slight bias towards Lewis and Jenson, but I think that's perhaps for the casual fan who might not be intereted about Nick Heidfeld and I think that's something that could be integrated into the show. I do feel like through the year we've not touched on certain drivers as perhaps they could. I don't mean going overboard, but a feature on say Adrian Sutil or Fisichella every now again and preferably not an arty one either about collecting wine or skills at ventriliquism.

I agree that BBC will now make another step forward as technology allows etc. We're getting all sessions on free TV next year. At times I've been critical of ITV, but on all but one occasion, I believe they have shown the most important thing and foremost and that is the most important thing.

ITV were unfortunate in their first season by making some spectacularly unlucky decisions over when to go for ad breaks, which just made us miss the BBC even more, but I do agree that overall the coverage has been good - certainly the amount of it anyway.

I won't miss the awful music, the ad breaks, James Allen etc, although I will certainly miss Brundle if he doesn't jump ship.

Brundle only had one annoying flaw IMO, and that was the way he spoke in Pitboard English - eg. instead of saying someone's 2nd, he'd say "he's in P2". What's that all about? Don't know if he started it, but these days everyone is doing it

There will never be another Walker and Hunt, but in pining for the good old days of the BBC it must also be remembered that many races were not shown live at all, and the only qualifying we used to see was for the British GP. Things have come on leaps and bounds.

BBC did start showing qualifying when it went to a single session in '96. Next year we will be getting more then that, we aren't going to see the old BBC style coverage.

I agree, ITV have raised the bar in terms of how much coverage is provided, the BBC will need to match that, plus I am sure they can outdo them in most other areas so I think all will be well.