F1 and British Broadcasting: Is It "biased" or "Biased"?

Those of us who are avid F1 fans or even sporadic viewers of the high speed, high cost and high glamour sport will expect from the National broadcaster a little bit of bias towards the racing driver from that particular nation, even if he is regarded as a bit ‘pants’ by every other nation involved in broadcasting. This ‘bias’, is arguably ‘part of the fun’ and an institution of sport in general. The aim of this article is to take a critical look at the evermore apparent blatant ‘Bias’ of the UK broadcaster of F1. This goes further than the subtle and jovial ‘bias’ one would expect and in my view detriments the overall viewing experience of the all important fan. I will flag up a number of examples relating to this unacceptable ‘Bias’, from the ‘evil branding’ of Ferrari to the endless defence of a certain Scottish F1 driver by his manager, who just so happens to be member of the UK F1 broadcaster commentary team!

Those expecting an unadulterated attack on Lewis Hamilton will be disappointed. Hamilton is quite far from ‘pants’ and his achievements on the track are indeed worthy of praise. Add to this the fact that he is from the same country as the broadcaster in question, one could expect a certain degree of ‘bias’ towards Hamilton. Nothing would be wrong here, yet I believe it goes further than this, beyond fair and factual impartiality which even for a privately owned broadcaster (as the UK F1 broadcaster is) is unacceptable. The point I wish to make here is that we all know how good Hamilton is, and it is for this reason it unnecessary and frustrating to see the whole of the Broadcasting team ‘drooling’ every time he demonstrates his talent. A particularly pertinent example of this was in the Montreal GP qualifying, ‘he is a whole 5 tenths ahead of the fastest Ferrari!’

This paraphrased quote leads on to my next point. It was quite clear in my view in the Montreal GP qualifying, both in the build up and the actual action, that Ferrari were frequently berated as ‘bad’ and incompetent whilst others like Mclaren and Adrian Sutil were being portrayed as the ‘force of good.’ You would only need to watch the Montreal coverage again to see what I am referring to. The latter ‘force of good’ Mr Sutil, is a particularly interesting area of discussion, in that a whole feature in the build up was dedicated to exposing the ‘evil’ of Riakkonen in Monaco. Now, one cannot deny the injustice of the situation of Monaco, Sutil did not deserve in any sense what happened to him, and Riakkonen did make a pretty bad error. I simply want to question whether we need this fact ‘rammed’ in our face, and whether it is fair to use the incident as fuel to the fire against ‘evil’ Ferrari, that is exaggerating the incident to caricature Ferrari inaccurately and with little impartiality.

Indeed, as one writes, having just witnessed Hamilton career into Riakkonen in the Montreal pitlane due to him missing the red light, there is hardly any mention from the Commentary team or Hamilton himself that he made a mistake, I mean come on Hamilton making a mistake? Simply Impossible, and as one of the commentary team pointed out, it must have been Mclaren’s fault for not warning Hamilton that there might have been a red light at the end of the pitlane, oh how could you McLaren? Come on, you’re not fooling anyone with that argument. And will we be treated with a feature in the build up of Magny Cours highlighting the horrific injustice Raikkonen was subjected to by the ‘evil’ Hamilton? I think not.

This ‘Bias’ is not just relevant to the Ferrari vs McLaren battle. Indeed one wishes to point out this article is not a rant against McLaren from an angst ridden Ferrari supporter. For example, we all know what a calamitous season David Coulthard has had, (bar the result in Montreal.) Yet one member of the commentary team would have us believe that this is just a massive ‘tidal wave of bad luck’ DC is unfortunately having, and that this nothing to do with the fact DC is managed by ‘2MB’, which is coincidentally run by this very member of the commentary team who tells us that DC is having an all so awful run of luck! Am I the only one who detects a slight ‘Bias’ and conflict of interest here?

In concluding, it must be stressed that a bit of national ‘bias’ is all part of the game in sport, and in F1. Yet certain broadcasters (the UK F1 broadcaster being a prime example) have taken this ‘bias’ to a new and unacceptable level, hence the use of the capitalised term ‘Bias’ in this article. This ‘Bias’ in my view compromises the factual impartiality, honesty and entertainment factor of F1, and is not necessary. It is unfair to assume that everyone in the UK, or the World for that matter is a fan of one certain driver or team due to their nationality. Fans from any particular nation support a wide variety of drivers and teams for many different reasons and I wholly believe this fact should be reflected in the coverage of F1 in the UK and everywhere.