Peter Collins RTE F1 coverage.

Dcully

Is it just me or is Peter Collins obsessed with criticising Coulthard and Villeneuve and at the same time thinking the sun shines out of Fisicella s backside?
Collins never misses an oportunity to stick the knife in ,granted both are not what they once were but last weeks race an Nurby was the worst example of it yet.
IMO he knows little about F1 let alone have any right to publicly slam DC or JV.I know he is a comentator etc but he just seems obsessed with it lately.
Any thought chaps?

rander00

Is he de nob that cant pronounce Monaco, and says it like "Monacko"??

If it is, yeah, he is an arsehole

Pigman II

I've never spotted that and I'm not a huge F1 fan either but I still think Collins is a hack - for the following reason. Everytime time he sees a car he'll automatically call it as the lead driver. For example the number of times he's incorrectly called Barrichello Michael Schumacher baffles me.

Like I said I don't know jack about F1 but when I'm watching it I can at least spot a driver by the car / helmet combo or even by the surrounding cars. Collins in his infinite wisdom can't seem to even do this much.

Out of interest see how many times he identifies the wrong driver this Sunday.

rander00

And he uses the same commentry for every race. U`d think u were watching the same race every sunday there on.

I always watch it on itv

celticfc

Originally posted by rander00
I always watch it on itv

Me too.
I only listen to him when ITV are having a break.

Pigman II

Also he is sickiningly pro-Jordan. Fair enough Jordan has links to Ireland by virtue of its owner (but that's about all when you get down to it). They don't race in green, operate out of Ireland even have any (or much?) Irish sponsorship - not mention a genuine Irish driver.

But the way Collins goes on whenever a Jordan stalls or gets a blow-out you'd swear it was a national tragedy. To listen to him in full flow is nothing short of embarrasing.

Dcully

But the way Collins goes on whenever a Jordan stalls or gets a blow-out you'd swear it was a national tragedy. To listen to him in full flow is nothing short of embarrasing.

My thoughts exactly.I hate it when he goes crazy if Jordan get into top 10 even for a few minutes.
I mailed RTE about my dis-satisfaction and got interesting reply.TBH i was putting off mailing for 2 years but lasts weeks race was the last straw for me:(

Im glad to report Collins was not comentating on todays qualifying thank God,Declan Quigley [i think his name is] was and done a much much better job.

mike65

As soon as I saw this thread on the front page I knew what the posts would be like! Collins is without question the most annoying sport commentator on the box these days, all the above I agree with and proberly more hence I only watch ITV unless the ads are on....(which is too often).

Mike.

Winters

I dont mind him too much tbh. He goes crazy when ANYTHING happens so if i ever flick back to ITV all you get it total bordem. I find ITV commentry just very slow and boring. And aswell as that I find the RTÉ signal better quality too

Seth Brundle

Originally posted by Pigman II
Also he is sickiningly pro-Jordan. Fair enough Jordan has links to Ireland by virtue of its owner (but that's about all when you get down to it). They don't race in green, operate out of Ireland even have any (or much?) Irish sponsorship - not mention a genuine Irish driver.

1) Ralph Firman may have been born in the UK but he has spent much of his time in Ireland and has chosen to race under an Irish Licence
2) how many Irish companies could/would pay the finances necessary for sponsorship? Whoever is the primary sponsor of the team (in this case Benson siggies) can influence the livery.
3) there is nowhere in Ireland for them to operate out of - we don't have a suitable track (before you say it Mondello is too short, narrow and bumpy)!

celticfc

I dont really blame him for being a bit pro - Jordan.
After all the ITV crew never stop goin on about the british drivers/teams themselves.

irishgeo

Originally posted by Pigman II


Out of interest see how many times he identifies the wrong driver this Sunday.

He wont be doing the race this sunday as its his 40th birthday and he is having a party in his home town of westport co.mayo this very night.

Belle Ende

Bad enough as ITV can be at times, Brundle is excellent - he knows what he is talking about and his play-by-play commentary is usually very accurate.

Now contrast this to RTE, with Collins and Quigley. Quigley isn't half as informed or accurate with his play-by-play commentary as Martin Brundle, but he is still leagues ahead of Peter Collins.

It's often the case that flipping between ITV and RTE commentarys for a racing incident will result in 2 very different things being said. Peter Collins will be calling it all wrong strategy wise or fail to read the racing incident correctly at all (the only exception being when an engine blows up or a crash happens, and even then he annoys by becoming super-excited "DISASTER for the Jordon team!").

And he relies far too heavily on his small book of pseudo-insider racing techobabble phrases. "Michael Schumacher is really MONSTERING the kerb!"

Unless I'm very much mistaken, at least when Motormouth Murray was commentating, he had charm and an enthusiasm that came across as genuine, which are 2 things that fail to come across with Peter Collins.

mike65

Originally posted by Belle Ende
Bad enough as ITV can be at times, Brundle is excellent - he knows what he is talking about and his play-by-play commentary is usually very accurate.

As an ex F1 driver of not too long ago he still has a feel for the sport.

Unless I'm very much mistaken, at least when Motormouth Murray was commentating, he had charm and an enthusiasm that came across as genuine, which are 2 things that fail to come across with Peter Collins.

Murray may have been prone to gaffes (murrayisms) but as you say he loved the sport, Collins on the other hand is an ex-2FM dj
which says it all really....fake enthusiasm is thier stock in trade

Mike.

Dcully

And he relies far too heavily on his small book of pseudo-insider racing techobabble phrases. "Michael Schumacher is really MONSTERING the kerb!"

LOL "Monstering",that seems to be the biggest word he can come up with.
As ive said i mailed RTE and got a reply from Niall Cogley [head of sport for RTE].Heres said mail.



I have been putting this mail off for a long while now
but this afternoons comentary really takes the biscuit.
Collins is obsessed with criticising both Coulthard and
Villeneuve and seeing the sun shine from Fisicella s
backside.
While Coulthard and Villeneuve are not what they once
were Collins never misses an opportunity to stick the
knife in.
Its rather pathetic to be honest as he criticises with
such gusto that one gets the impression he hates the
drivers mentioned .

On Fisicella,Collins constantly rants about such a
talented driver ,i mean come on he is a great driver
but only average in the F1 stage.

Collins had the cheek to tell viewers "i dont want any
e-mail about my criticism of Villeneuve" that quote
smells of lots of complaints already on the subject.

After todays efforts thats the last time i tune in to
RTE for F1,i must add that apart from him the coverage
is superb with special mention to David Kennedy ,great
job every weekend from him.

On a final note ,Collins public display of what has to
be said borders on insulting those drivers is
ridiculous and has left me outraged.
RTE can do better than a retired DJ who knows nothing
about Formula one.

Regards

Damien Culleton

I await some sort of no doubt PR reply .


Cogley had no answer for DC and JV issues but very heavily defended Collins about what i said about him knowing nothing about F1.
I wont quote his mail but one part made me laugh when he said Collins knowledge and ability is second to none and easily as good as other channels comentators.:)
Lets just say he wasnt a happy camper

celticfc

Originally posted by Dcully
Collins knowledge and ability is second to none

RTE always were good comedians

(They make me laugh)



How we miss murray

AngelofFire

Originally posted by Pigman II
Also he is sickiningly pro-Jordan. Fair enough Jordan has links to Ireland by virtue of its owner (but that's about all when you get down to it). They don't race in green, operate out of Ireland even have any (or much?) Irish sponsorship - not mention a genuine Irish driver.

But the way Collins goes on whenever a Jordan stalls or gets a blow-out you'd swear it was a national tragedy. To listen to him in full flow is nothing short of embarrasing.

Fact: Jordan are our national f1 team. their licence is registered with the irish authorities. everytime they win the irish national anthem is played for the constructor. They are based in britain as there are no proper facilities for them in irelsnd also there are very few potential employees for them in ireland as the motorsport industry here is very small. therefore peter collins is correct to give special attention to them during the race. In the same way that special attention is given by rte to the irish football team during euro 2004 qualifiers.

Seth Brundle

Originally posted by celticfc
How we miss murray

Christ - he was a pain in the arse - you spent half the race trying to correct him

Washout

He aint all that bad. You critisise him for his biased views towards jordan of course your gonna get that. As you got with The BBC and Tim Henman during wimbledon.

As you get with RTE and the irish soccer time. the english with their team.

James Allen is always showing biasm towards the british teams and british drivers for ITV.

The majority of F! fans in ireland do take good interest in the JOrdan team and we do want to hear more about them and RTE coverage gives us more news about jordan than ITV for one thing.

Mossy Monk

does anyone else get their commentary from 5 live? or is it just me?

Woden

On the point of commentary i think james allen sucks ass as well, i watch itv for martin brundle who knows his stuff.

Töpher

it seem slike james allen tries to recreate murrays banterings or something. brundle is excellent though. i wouldnt' watch rte if i was paid though! they seem to suck the fun out of watching it! its like watching golf or cricket, (no offence to golf or cricket fans!)

The Beer Baron

ahem...excuse me.

I happen to like PC. I think he's the man.
(And why do I feel like I'm going to suffer for this one- badly)

I suppose growing up with poverty one and poverty two I'm pre-programmed not to expect quality or competence least of all from a sports commentator. I know soccer heads who wanted to watch Irish world cup matches on english tv- I mean WTF?!

Think of the Irish school of sports commentary?
Jimmy Magee.
George ****ing dumbass Hamilton.
I mean come on.
This is all I grew up with.
To me that WAS sports commentary.

Murray Walker? His voice irritated me. Not that I did ever, or do now have any other channel than ****e RTE.

Now Peter Collins? Well he revved up a Sunday morning rather nicely. I got myself all excited, fried up a big greasy fat bastard fry and sprawled myself across the couch tingling with the prospect of fast cars driving around in circles. Horrah!

Peter Collins? Well, he's a bonehead isn't he? An absolutle blithering idiot. He pronounces Monaco in an annoying manner, but he generally hates the same drivers as me, and praises those who I deem worthy. He goes crazy over an inevitible Jordan blowout- but then so do I. He also makes rather sarky remarks about drivers/teams from time to time which is great. I think he genuinely *does* enjoy the sport. Oh, and he talks over all those bits when the drivers talk in their silly languages- good man Peter.

All in all entertaining, and an integral part of the F1 experience. If you want to, sure watch them boering brits- boo!

Peter Collins; ignorant, opinionated, blathering nonsensically- I love it.

Töpher

yeah, but itv have the sense to cut away when they're not talking english!

but PC just seems to drone on and on, and on, and on and on, and on, and on and on, and he's never interesting! :)at least martin brundle knows what he's talking about!

dmeehan

collins is a muppet, simple as that

how on earth did he get the f1 gig, he should go back to doing 2tv or whatever it was called (the music prog on rte/2fm)

ive got sky digital => sadly no itv:( so count yourselves lucky that you only have to listen to eejit collins during itv breaks, i have to listen to him for the whole race

celticfc

Originally posted by dmeehan
collins is a muppet, simple as that

Well said

Originally posted by dmeehan
how on earth did he get the f1 gig, he should go back to doing 2tv or whatever it was called (the music prog on rte/2fm)

ive got sky digital => sadly no itv:( so count yourselves lucky that you only have to listen to eejit collins during itv breaks, i have to listen to him for the whole race

Terror :eek:

zeris

I cannot watch RTE coverage because of Peter Collins. I don't know a single person who would choose to watch F1 on RTE because of his poor commentary skills. He is so out of his depth I don't know how he got the job.

On ITV, Murray annoyed me, having to spend your time correcting him. James Allen is in a similar vein as Murray, and also a one trick pony. I am tired of hearing him drone on about pit lane and tire strategy. Brundle I like, and I would like to see him paired up with Allan McNish.

Of course, my favourite pairing was John Watson and Ben Edwards on Eurosport. Maybe this is just nostalgia.

chernobyl

Originally posted by zeris
Of course, my favourite pairing was John Watson and Ben Edwards on Eurosport. Maybe this is just nostalgia.

We got another year out of them on F1+.
Sad times again.

Zaph

quote:

---

Originally posted by zeris

On ITV, Murray annoyed me, having to spend your time correcting him.

---

How can anyone have the temerity to slag off Murray Walker. The man was a legend. So what if you had to correct him during races, it was only because the guy was so enthusiastic about F1 that he lost the run of himself during races through sheer excitement. The one thing you could never accuse him of was not knowing his stuff, unlike Peter Collins.

Personally I don't think F1 coverage has been the same since the BBC lost the rights. How can you show a race and expect people to put up with with ad breaks through it, and then show them replays of anything that happened while the ads were on?

Woden

yeah the ad breaks do suck, but at least we can switch to RTE over here theres not much the english can do about it. Also from an ad break point of view the one good think about qualifying is that they sorted it out so they take a break periodically so the t.v can go to ad breaks so we miss nothing, thats fairly cool

zeris

Originally posted by zaph
How can anyone have the temerity to slag off Murray Walker. The man was a legend. So what if you had to correct him during races, it was only because the guy was so enthusiastic about F1 that he lost the run of himself during races through sheer excitement.

Just because I never went in for the whole "voice of Formula 1" nonsense. There are other people out there just as passionate about F1 who could be accurate, timely and not ramble on while there was important action on the screen. Oh! And the constant name dropping, thats another one that bugged me. Murray, I don't care who you had dinner with during the week. Grrr! Good riddance.

The one thing you could never accuse him of was not knowing his stuff, unlike Peter Collins.

Which is why Murray was always paired up with an ex-F1 driver?

mike65

Originally posted by zeris
Which is why Murray was always paired up with an ex-F1 driver?

er having an ex-F1 driver as a co-comentator/pundit makes perfect sense regardless of who is "fronting" the commetary.

Mike.

zeris

Originally posted by mike65
er having an ex-F1 driver as a co-comentator/pundit makes perfect sense regardless of who is "fronting" the commetary.

Mike.

Your quite right. It was a pretty weak statement.

mike65

Originally posted by zeris
Your quite right. It was a pretty weak statement.

:eek: Jesus H Christ! zeris.

Never appolgise, Never explain.

The first rule of boards.ie life!

Mike.

ps nice to see you were willing though!

aidan_dunne

Peter Collins - muppet, full stop.

David Kennedy - not bad but seems a bit reluctant to make a definitive comment on a driver's ability sometimes, unlike Brundle. Doesn't seem to want to upset the applecart or stir a bit of sh!t or offend anybody, whereas Brundle will say what he thinks, which I like.

James Allen - Christ, ITV, throw him out of the commentary box and back down into the pitlane, please! All he ever talks about is fuel strategies and tyres and, because he's so wrapped up in talking about them, most of the time he misses the action that's happening right in front of him. He wasn't a bad pit-lane reporter, but he's a crap main commentator.

Martin Brundle - The King! The Man! Knows his stuff, isn't afraid to say what he thinks, damn entertaining and comes up with some of the best, driest, sarcastic putdowns you can imagine, in many ways just like James Hunt used to do (but at least Brundle isn't drunk or high when he's commentating! ). A great commentator and great entertainment to listen to!

Ben Edwards - without doubt, the man who should have got the ITV F1 commentating job when Murray retired. His talent is almost wasted just doing the BTCC. Informative, knows what he's talking about, seldomn misses anything, gets excited himself (listen to him doing the last lap of the Michigan 500 Champcar race in 1999 on Eurosport and you'll see what i mean! Fantastic!) and this, in turn, gets the viewers excited. For my money, the best motorsport commentator (main commentator, not co-commentator like Brundle) around today.

John Watson - never really warmed to him. Sure, himself and Ben Edwards used to do a good job and had a good chemistry when they used to do F1 on Eurosport all those years ago (I never saw them doing F1 Digital+ last year so I can't comment on that) but I can't say I never warmed to him.

Murray Walker - grew up listening to him doing everything from F1 to touring cars, rallying to truck racing, Formula Ford to Rallycross. Say what you like about him, love him or hate him but, to me, he'll always be the Voice Of Motorsport.

My ideal line-up: Ben Edwards and Martin Brundle doing the main commentary. James Allen, Louise Goodman and, maybe, someone like Peter Windsor in the pits. Show presented by Steve Ryder (it's a pity he didn't go to ITV in 1997 when they offered him the job. A motorsports fan who was always good presenting it on the BBC. Stuck with that muppet Jim 'The Count' Rosenthal instead who doesn't know a thing about F1). Studio analysts Tony Jardine, Simon Taylor and, maybe for entertainment value, Damon Hill or Perry McCarthy as I heard they weren't bad on F1 Digital+ last year. Full, live coverage of both qualifying sessions, repeated later that night, and the race with no adverts during the action. At least half an hour before and after the race dedicated to features and analysis and any ads they need to squeeze in. An hour long highlights show of the race later that night, repeated at some stage during the week. An 'F1 Special' style show like they used to have on Eurosport some weekday night covering testing, news, etc. Sounds pretty much ideal to me but what are the chances of us actually seeing something like this? Sweet f**k all, that's what!

Still, I can dream, can't I?

mike65

Good taste Aiden! What we really need though is for BBC to get the rights back...a whole race without ads. I can bearly remeber what thats like! Also has anyone noticed that when ITV takes a break something important nearly always happens...you'd swear
the Gods of Motorsport were doing on purpose...:ninja:

Mike.

SKWei

While I can't ever be a fan of Peter Collins, I do think he's an F1 fan, and the job isn't so easy in real life as we would imagine…but that doesn't excuse him for using the same dull adjectives over and over race after race, and deciding who was to blame for accidents.
Declan Quigly is a motorsports professional, so at least we can take him as such. Just maybe he should wear his journalist hat a bit less in the papers.
We don't get good reception of ITV and I prefer to see post race interviews live, so usually we watch RTE and switch on BBC Radio 5 Live once the race proper starts. Jonathan Legard describes it all terrifically, and Maurice Hamiltion is a proper "old school" F1 journalist who brings it all together.
Ben Edwards is absolutely the man.
And there used to be a guy on Star Sports a few years back whose name I forget, and he made Peter Collins sound pleasant and anything but irritating. But, then again, he was knowledgeable. Compromise compromise…