Murray Walker's British GP preview
So now we come to the big one - the British GP at Silverstone. We have the absolutely fabulous new Silverstone wing - 40 garages, superb facilities and everything you could possibly want under one roof. In my opinion, although Silverstone doesn't have the lushness of some venues on the calendar, in terms of the combination of the circuit and the facilities, it is the best of all.
Watch my preview of this weekend's action and see my assessment of the chances of anyone beating Red Bull.
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Comment number 1.
At 7th Jul 2011, cambelt-kid wrote:Hey murray, great preview and with it your thoughts,
you say you've got things wrong before, and that's why your so popular.....murryism's.
i shall be there , one of the sell out croud. hope you'll be there too
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Comment number 2.
At 7th Jul 2011, formula3 wrote:hmmmm im getting bored of redbull winning and hope for mclaren to challenge them at silverstone which i agree is a exelent circuit if it continues the way it is redbull and vettel will continue to win many titals for years to come (great(sarcasm))but hopefully their will be many challenges from mclaren and ferrari and a possible move for hamilton to red bull which im sure will put an end to vettel.
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Comment number 3.
At 7th Jul 2011, Sir Notappearing wrote:Hi Murray,
I'd love to know what's your honest opinion of Sebastian Vettel?
I like him, he is a star no doubt, but all his victories are the same - dull and uninspiring pole-to-flag domination in the best car. He is certainly no Mansell or Senna.
And he'll probably win Silverstone in the most boring fashion possible.
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Comment number 4.
At 7th Jul 2011, karlbob wrote:Good to hear your opinions Murray, always highly respected.
@Stanley Windrush, I agree that Vettel is no Senna or Mansell, I also agree his wins are not the most exciting. But he is winning, which is what he is racing to do, it just happens to be that his style is more controlled than say, Alonso or Hamilton.
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Comment number 5.
At 7th Jul 2011, brain_of_jfk wrote:How did a drinks company get to dominate a sport where the majority of the competitors are from motor racing stock? Vettel is a very good driver, there's no denying that, but take him out of that car and there would be a different ending to his current fairytale. So are the rest of the garages lining the paddock full of inexperienced personnel trying to find their feet, young fresh recruits still wet behind the ears, or are the people at Red Bull just that good?
I'm hoping for a different outcome this weekend because I fear that we may be heading back to the Schumacher days and that isn't good for the sport. Last season's script was written for the fans, it seems this seasons has been written for Vettel himself.
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Comment number 6.
At 7th Jul 2011, Cucumber Mike wrote:Did Murray just say 'Bling'? Wow!
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Comment number 7.
At 8th Jul 2011, Diego Cushelle wrote:"Between Abbey and Copse corner", don't you mean Club corner, another Murrayism, happy days!!
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Comment number 8.
At 9th Jul 2011, indagarage wrote:Very rarely do I disagree with Murray, but I guess he doesn't see Silverstone from the ordinary punter's side of the "fabulous new facilities". With Friday's rain it was approaching the usual mudbath around the duckboards and hurredly built walkways. I hope everyone got out of the carparks after the afternoon's drenchings! I love Silverstone and the facilities have certainly improved - even the toilets are acceptable; but it still has a tacky feel, like a travelling fun fair; which Formula 1 always has been, I suppose.
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Comment number 9.
At 9th Jul 2011, ninah wrote:A joy to have you back Murray, please stay!!!
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Comment number 10.
At 10th Jul 2011, DixieDeehan wrote:Great blog Murray. Really looking forward to this afternoon!
Have to agree with Stanley Windrush to some extent when he says of Vettel "all his victories are the same - dull and uninspiring pole-to-flag domination in the best car." But the fact is one of the best drivers in the best car, combined with apalling luck for Webber, means there's nobody to challenge him. There's nothing else for Vettel to do. Every drivers job is essentially to drive hard and try to beat the people in front of you, as there's no one in front, what else can he do?
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Comment number 11.
At 10th Jul 2011, gabadab wrote:Murray, Can you please put us all out of our misery and reveal the name of the genius who picked "The Chain" as the F1 theme track? We can't imagine the programmes with anything else now - long may it prevail.
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Comment number 12.
At 17th Jul 2011, Turl wrote:Hi Murray
Sorry but this is the only way I could find to contact you about the fact that you once made a record. The story goes like this I went to visit my 2 motor bike fanatic cousins who were sitting listening to a record player with a record of you commenting on the TT in the Isle of Man. Part of which was the sound of various motor bikes passing your commentary point. I never laughed as much in my life. By the way they were 2 of your biggest fans.
Best regards.
Jonny
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Comment number 13.
At 29th Jul 2011, robertpblake wrote:During a race we know to a thousandth of a second where every car is positioned. So why can't that advantage be taken into account when the safety car has to come out. For example if driver A has a 20 second lead over driver B when the safety car comes out but by the end of the race driver B goes over the finishing line first he should have to beat driver A by more than 20 seconds to be declared the winner.
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Comment number 14.
At 30th Jul 2011, HonestMP wrote:Hi Murray
Do you think with the increased safety in F1 that it may be the time to give the sporting public a bit more for their money and increase the size of the grid and have 36 cars or more
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Comment number 15.
At 31st Jul 2011, Highlander128 wrote:Hi Murray. This latest news about the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ only Showing 10 races next year will be devastating for fans who dont have SKY sports(like me) The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ are forcing dedicated fans to buy SKY sports or add them on to the current package we have at a cost !!! I only like the F1 and Look forward to seeing it at the weekend. What i want to know is how much is the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ getting from SKY for this deal and ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ customers should get free access on a Sat and Sunday for this ? MORE money to the disgraced RUPERT MURDOCH and NEWS corp.....
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Comment number 16.
At 1st Aug 2011, Stee_vee_E wrote:‘The sponsorhip revenues *will* decline in 2012-13 and onwards due to dropping total viewing figures in the UK and this will offset the additional £1m the teams are gaining, so it's not good for the teams and therefore for the sport.
It appears this deal was driven by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ looking to reduce costs. I appreciate that the details are commercially sensitive, but I would have preferred the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ to default and show nothing rather than this deal. I would thought it even better if they had continued to the end of their contract in 2013 and then not bid for additional rights. That would have saved far more money than this deal, but the savings would have come in later.
Now the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is commited to spending *more* money in total over the extended contract term and effectively stopping any other free to air broadcaster giving full coverage over the 8 year period. So its bad for the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and bad for the viewers.
So who is it good for? Well Sky obviously, they have got full coverage of yet another gold standard sporting event and are well on the way to be the main provider of any kind of sports broadcasting.
Changes in contract terms and conditions do usually command a fee. What were these fees and to whom and from whom were they paid? Since this is commercially sensitive we will presumably not be told.
As Martin Brundel said.
Sky is closing in.
This deal needs investigating by the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ trust, and the only way to do that is to go through the formal complaints process (which will take some months). In parallel to this enough political pressure may bring about a select commitee investigation as all politicians are sensitive to issues related to Sky at the moment’.
If you wish to try & make difference…
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