If it is all prangs and bangs in Sepang Brundle will be all over the place

Now, normally I like my F1 on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon because lets face it watching cars go round in circles is perfect hang-over tv.

But this week both qualifying and the race start at 9am which means that the racing wont clash with the Grand National, Premiership action and the Masters Golf.

We got a taster of how the teams will cope this season at Melbourne with Red Bull leading the field and the McLarens doing better than the doom-mongers had predicted.

Renault clinched a podium with Petrov which underlined what a great shame that Robert Kubica is not on the grid to take advantage of the team’s extra speed.

With him careering off roads in rally cars and Mark Webber seemingly breaking bones every time he gets on a mountain bike it amazes me that more F1 drivers dont get injured in extra-curricular activity.

I’m surprised that Bernie Ecclestone has not come up with an Its A Knock-Out style challenge for the drivers before the race to add some of the excitement that he always seems to crave.

This weekend, however, he looks like getting his favourite race-changing factor - rain - which should hopefully spice the race up and prevent Vettel stretching out a two minute lead within five laps.

It is vital that during the early races of the season the F1 fan keeps up with the technological changes which each new year brings.

KERS, a bit like an old style turbo button, is back and drivers also have the option of opening their rear flaps when the mood takes them.

But all the talk is about tyres at the moment with cars like Sauber, which are gentle on the new Pirelli rubber, on course to be able to skip a tyre change thus saving vital race time. Something else that has changed is the personel of the BBC commentary box.

Now instead of being a co-commentator, which is ideal for someone who is an expert, Martin Brundle has taken on the mantle of race commentator and cake-face David Coulthard is the expert.

This tinkering means there is no place for Jonathan Legard, a professional announcer who has covered hundreds, if not thousands, of races. Ok he was a bit monatone but a bad professional commentator is better than a amateur any day of the week.

This follows other sports where ‘the faces and sports personalities’ think they can cut the mustard as professional journalists and usually fail miserably.

Either by not understanding how to conduct interviews, being too pally pally with the stars, or talking about their past achievements all the time.

The best commentary box teams always have the professional commentator and the droll has-been whose just happy to be on the circuit.

Why change a winning fomula if it is not broken?

It might be unfair to criticise after one race but Brundle’s last effort was pretty poor.

The first lap of any F1 race is always the most exciting and it takes an expert to describe what is going on. Instead we had what sounded like a mechanic with tourettes shouting down the microphone.

“Heeees. Corner. Heees. Passed. Ohhh what’s that. Heeees trying to pass him. Oh. Ahh. And. What. Err. In the front is. Sigh.” Let us hope for Martin’s sake that there is not a ten car pile up on the first corner at Sepang because at this stage in his commentating career the old racer will probably end up a blubbering wreck.

Anyway, that’s enough for one blog, I’m off to send my CV to the Beeb.

Burn some rubber for me race fans!

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