The Athletic

The Races

The Race is on, and with TV commentary of F1 races, the primary portal through which most consume F1, even in this fractured media age,

how do you go about calling a race in a year when the nature of the racing has fundamentally changed? I'm Ed's

draw on to answer that question and explain the commentator's art. I'm joined by two of the

best in the business. In Alex Jakes, the Japanese Grand Prix is underway. Watch Piastri, race

leader Piastri, past one Mercedes. Past one Mercedes, past two

Mercedes. Third to the lead. And he's brought Shell-la-la-la-laire to second place. Both the

Mercedes crawled off the line. Lando Norris to third. Game on in Japan. It's Piastri

Leclair and Norris. And Nelson Valkenberg. Who is the best way? And who not? How go to restop on me with Norris? Well, this podcast is all about F1 TV commentary. And actually, it was inspired by a question from the race members club from Harry, who said, I would like for you guys to do a pod with Nelson Valkenberg on how it is a challenge to call the race live with all the complexities involved and differing personal and professional

views, which we thought was a great suggestion. But we thought we'd go a little bit further

and actually get Nelson from Viya Play Netherlands and also F1 TV lead commentator Alex. Jake.

So Alex, how have you been filling the time with no F-1 races in April?

It's been a bit of a strange one, isn't it, to have no races in April?

That just never really happens with any former motorsport.

I've been doing a lot of odd jobs that I should have done about five years ago,

such as the way of travelling the world.

I also did rowing commentary for the first time.

Yeah, a massive day of the British sporting calendar

in the UK is the boat race, university boat race between Cambridge and Oxford. And yeah,

it's the first time I'd ever done a commentary on a rowing contest. And I thought I'd start with

the most famous one of them all. So no pressure at all. It was really lovely to learn a new sport from scratch, but there are parts of it where I was like, could I just not have gone on a beach here? This would have been nicer to have a holiday than to learn everyone's backstory. But it was a lot of fun and I'm really glad that Channel 4 asked me to do it. It was a great day.

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