Does Formula 1 Commentary have a 'BIAS' Problem?

Johnny Herbert and Paul Di Resta are no longer part of the Sky Sports F1 commentary / punditry team. Today I wanted to talk about the "bias" accusations that were levelled at both, and discuss what I think makes a great F1 commentator / pundit / presenter.

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#TommoF1

[Gongshow]

The problem is commentators need to realize what they say has a massive effect on online discourse. Sky Sports was definitely biased and they contributed to the vitriol online by dividing fans further

[sandalphoncpu]

Never really liked SkySports F1 in any country. When Seb was challenging for the title with Ferrari, SkySports and other British medias kept stating Seb single-handedly threw away both titles. As a Seb fan, I remember stating many times on social media during 2017, 2018 and 2019 that Ferrari played a huge part in Seb’s title decline. Not only did I got ratioed to hell by the hundreds, but people kept falling for their propaganda and kept believing it was 100% his own fault, and even said drivers like Verstappen and Alonso would’ve won easily. 2-4 years later, what do you know…? Ferrari fucked up again and this time with someone everyone said he will bring Ferrari back to the top…

[morrisonben]

9:50 that’s why I like Nico Rosberg’s insight. He doesn’t hold back and has often quite strong opposing opinions to what would be considered “common”.

[christiandenbutter]

Bias isn't bad, as long as you're upfront about it. I'd rather have people be honest about their biases then I can take that into account when hearing their opinion. Nothing is worse than somebody being completely biased and pretending they're not.

[amalvenu]

The first time I noticed bias (started watching f1 properly from 2017) was while watching the 2017 Spanish gp where Vettel pulled that awesome double dummy move on bottas and crofty was like "meh that happened"and then Hamilton made a normal drs pass against Vettel and crofty was having a heart attack

[Drrolfski]

If F1 actually had a true international feed and media team, formed by journalists from all over the world (and proficient in the English language), then we simply wouldn't have any bias problem to begin with. Sky Sports UK representing F1 globally is by design a wrong setup, and so is F1's very own media team who are nearly all British.

[Glegh]

Yes.


TLDR: I just dislike them both especially after Japan 2022

[liamcaswell]

The problem with the Sky commentary being biased is that they aren't just the British casters the same way that German, French, Italian, and Japanese channels have their own commentary teams. Sky's F1 broadcasts are the voice of the English-speaking world. That covers not only the UK and US, but just about anyone who wants an English-language broadcast of the race. With such a wide variety of viewers, it's important to have a more neutral stance on the action at hand because not everyone watching (or even the majority) are going to want the UK drivers to win.

This is especially true with American viewers, who tend to prefer national sports broadcasts to be very unbiased (recently had a controversy about a respected football commentator talking about one team far more than the other) and leave the biased reporting to local news and radio for their home team. Without a 'home team' to root for in F1, American viewers have become extremely varied in driver preference, so showing bias toward a certain driver will not land well for the broader audience.

[RobbyFobby]

As a Canadian who has been watching the sport for years, so I can confidently say that there has been a bias and it’s been uncomfortable at times, which is a shame because I couldn’t believe how blatantly obvious it was and how there was no consideration or even an attempt to hide it.

[danw]

I've noticed that the Twitter definition of biased seems to mean "doesn't like my favourite driver" and unbiased means "likes my favourite driver".
People don't seem to realise that both of those definitions mean biased, just in opposite ways.

[stevenst]

Not only is there bias problem amongst F1 commentators, there is also a problem with media spewing nonsense click baity articles that are meant to make people argue in the comments for more clicks. The amount of negative stuff you see about Max and Lewis online is insane.

[jeanmkaufmann]

As a F1 fan who is NOT a Lewis Hamilton fan, the bias at Sky TV can make it quite annoying to watch. I now have a subscription to F1 TV. There is still some bias but not as much as Sky. 🙂🇨🇦

[mtrps_]

good kind of bias: tommy & matt of wtf1
toxic kind of bias: damon, ted & johnny herbert

[Oblivion]

These guys werent really a bias problem, these 2 were just really shit at their jobs. The bigger bias issues always came from Hill, Croft, and Kravitz

[LPChipi]

2 points here:

1- While it is true that there's no objective way to meassure bias as if it were body fat, you can generally tell wether or not somebody puts effort to downplay errors and highlight good moves from a driver and viceversa. I see that ALL the time with Mexican media and Checo, where seemingly no mistake is his fault and every good performance is god-tier to them. I haven't particularly noticed too much bias from Sky F1, but that's likely because I mainly watch the live broadcast and no other "additional" shows or commentary pieces. Also, as an Argentinian I don't have a horse on this race (literally), so I don't pick up on potential bias as much. Fans from different nationalities that are being represented in the grid might feel different.

2. If you're a sports commentator you need to be professional, and this means being as objective as you can. There's a thing called "unconscious bias", and exercises you can do to prevent yourself from letting it guide your behavior. I think exercises like that are a _must_ for sport commentators, because you're ultimately there to guide the people along to what's happening, and it gets super annoying when there's a clear tendency. In Argentina we have a guy called Tornello who doesn't like Hamilton and very much likes Max, so his commentary tends to lean more towards Max and it is really annoying. Not because I don't like Max, but because I can't trust the guy who is supposed to give me the information.

[NavyP]

It's a shame the worldwide broadcast is Sky Sports. Not just being biased but how they go about presenting F1. Being in Canada I'd much rather listen to the official F1 commentary.

[nattty]

That part where tommo said I was happy for max to win his first and happy for Lewis to win his 8th is so important. That’s exactly how most fans felt outside of the merc vs redbull bubble and that opinion is so hard to bring to a big audience.
Thanks tommo for the genuine F1 content
This is the perfect f1 channel IMO

[dimebagdd]

Lewis' titles are result of his brilliance. Max's titles are result of Newey's brilliance. Sky F1 in a nutshell.

[creya]

They were blacklisted in my mind after their Suzuka commentary. The lack of awareness of the larger picture especially at that track was appauling.

[jlue]

The problem these days (especially online), is that everyone thinks bias is any opinion that isn’t 100% in line with their own opinion.

People seemed to lack the basic iQ level to grasp that other people may have different opinions. Not bias.

The real problem with bias comes from the new breed of onLine fans F1 has (unfortunately) attracted.

Some drivers, notably Lewis and Max, can’t seem to say / do anything, and I mean anything, without a full force Twitter pile on from people who’s entire life or personality is hating on one or the other.

These people know who they are, and they’re all cancers.