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F1 Explains: Commentating on a Grand Prix - with Alex Jacques
F1 Explains: Commentating on a Grand Prix - with Alex Jacques
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About this episode
Alex Jacques, F1 TV’s lead commentator, walks through what it’s really like to call a Grand Prix—from the commentary box setup and timing screens to how he prepares notes, identifies drivers via T-cam colors, and adapts to new 2026 rule complexity. He explains how graphics and timing towers replace what he can’t see, why battery “intangibles” demand better on-screen info, and how remote commentary changed after COVID. The discussion also covers microphone tech, pundit selection, and how he crafts words for unpredictable championship-defining moments.
Topics:
commentary box setup
timing screens and driver tracker
how commentators prepare notes
t-cam driver identification
2026 rules explained on air
f1 tv graphics and battery/overcut intangibles
remote vs on-site commentary
commentary microphones and lip mic history
how ex-drivers become pundits
writing lines for unpredictable big moments
Who overtook who? Which driver is in the gravel? Formula 1 commentators put on-track action into words. They need to be accurate, fast and entertaining to make sure you always know what's happening.
F1TV and Apple TV commentator Alex Jacques is the voice of Formula 1 around the world. He welcomes Christian Hewgill into the commentary box to answer your questions. From the screens he can see and the research he does to the role of co-commentators and finding the right words at the biggest moments, Alex tells all about his job.
Send us your questions for episodes on race strategy and race engineers
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F1 Beyond The Grid - Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies on the 2026 challenge
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Hello everyone, welcome to F1 Explains. I'm Christian Hugill, and if you're new to us, this is the official Formula One podcast that answers your questions on the best sports in the world.
You can email us about anything f1explains at f1.com and we will find the best people in the Paddock to answer them, or not in the Paddock in the case of this week's episode.
Instead, it was recorded about a 10-minute walk from the Paddock in Australia.
We went out of the gates, across a fan zone, past a metal gate guarded by a stern-looking Australian man, up some incredibly unglamorous-looking stairs, and in to the commentary box.
The three-season favourite begins with a win. George Russell wins the Australian Grand Prix. It's a Mercedes 1-2 in a season opener for the first time since 2019.
We don't just answer questions about on-track stuff on this podcast, we also talk a lot about the wider world of Formula One, including how the people who describe the action to us do their job.
You've sent us a lot of questions on this one over the years. We've been doing this podcast. Alex Jakes is F1 TV's main commentator.
He's also heard on Channel 4 in the UK and Apple TV in the United States, as well as all over the world on F1's social media channels.
And this is what happened when, back in Australia, he invited us into his home away from home of a race weekend.
Alex Jakes, thank you for welcoming us in to your commentary box home. It's lovely to be here.
Well, thank you so much for having me back on the pod once again. And yeah, welcome to the living room.
I've got a few thoughts. There's no house plants, pot of plants, picture frames. You could have made it a bit more homely for the weekend, is all I would say.
This is luxury. We're currently sitting in a double box at Albert Park. Let me tell you, some of the commentary boxes around the Formula One World Championship are way more proximate, let's say.
Proximate is a good word.
Then this one where there are some, I'm thinking Monaco, I'm thinking Miami, where you are, it's honestly like being on a very, very crammed budget airline.
Yes, sure.
And you're not allowed to move. So obviously you're locked in. So this is, I can tell you, luxury.
Excellent. This has got strong as if you don't know you're born territory to it, doesn't it? And I want to start this.
If you're going to come to a commentary box and ask me about commentary, number one, it's going to be a two hour podcast.
This is the place to do it. Alex, Jake, you picked the right time and in fact, the place. Now I want to start with Becky from Southampton. Hello to you, Becky.
Becky emailed F1explains at F1.com. And Becky said, my question is around F1 broadcasting. I've always been fascinated as F1 commentary is nothing like football or cricket or many other sports because the commentators can't possibly see everything all the time.
So how is it done? What visual and audio feeds do you get inside the commentary box? What data do you have access to? And how do you coordinate and adapt to whatever the audience can see and hear?
I think this is the perfect place to start. So thank you, Becky. Alex, Jake's painter picture, if you will, talk us through your commentary box setup. What can you see in front of you?
Well, the first thing to say is that I've got my central monitor here, which is what everyone sees at home. The feed for Formula One doesn't matter what country you watch on, doesn't matter what channel you watch on.
When we have the titles and you see the run down five minutes before the race begins, everyone is watching the same pictures. And therefore we have exactly what you see at home in the middle of the box.
Because there was one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. There's nine TV monitors in this commentary box and that one that Alex has just described is a big one in the middle.
And we'll refer to that. So the one in the middle of the nine. So let's take you from left to right in the commentary box. We've got a backup one in case the main monitor breaks.
So that is just in worst case scenario. That's the old reserve car from back in the day of Formula One.
Exactly. Then we have a timing page three, which is a direct race control. So if there is a penalty, if there is a delayed start, if there is anything from race control from the FIA, we get it on that timing page.
It comes up in bright purple. So sometimes it's a crazy race. You might miss it. And then you're like, I came up in bright purple. That really is, that really is directly on me.
You also get the basic information about the temperature and the weather conditions and the wind direction on that page. The page below is an old school timing page, which will just tell you the order and the sectors.
It's been in use since the early nineties and it hasn't changed because the easiest way to upset this row of commentators that we're sitting on is by changing something that we've always had.
And we should say that system has been in place since the nineties, not this particular monitor that looks slightly newer. Not much newer, I would say, but slightly newer.
Third timing page. The next one is to say we have a driver tracker where each driver comes up as a dot. So this is your GPS of where the driver is on the circuit.
This is to get around to the aforementioned problem of not being able to look out the window and see the entire plot, like a cricket pitch, like a football pitch, like a rugby pitch, like an NFL pitch, where you can see everything if you look.
I cannot stand up and have a look out of the window at the entire place, so the driver tracker is very useful for that. Then you get into different timing pages.
So Jolien and David have a different timing page here on the right that gives you slightly different detail. I prefer one which lays it out a different way.
This is just us seeing exactly the same information, what tyres they are on, what their previous best lap was, what their current lap time is, what the best sectors are at the bottom. This is just the same information relayed in different visualisation.
And is that a comment of, for example, next door, you might have your esteemed colleague, David Croft, from Sky Sports, for example, doing the same job. Might they have it laid out a bit differently?
Yeah, and it's just the way that your brain works and getting the information very, very quickly. And the page I have in front of me is designed purely.
I have that one in front of me and then the old school one. That one is for the opening lap because that is the one that my brain responds to.
So when you're rapid fire and you're listening very quickly and you're looking for changes in the order, I respond to that one. The other two chaps in the box, they respond to this one.
It's like working out your own setup if you like. This is the way I like it.
Entirely, entirely. And so you need the speed of that at the start of the race. And then above their timing page on the other side, I'm greedy.
I have four screens directly in front of me. They have three screens in front of them, one of which is a return monitor to the UK commentary box currently occupied by Alex Brundle.
He's just going about his day. He has no idea we're looking at him. It's strange.
It's downright odd because we're recording this in Australia. And here we are in the morning. There's Alex Brundle in The Dead of Night on his own.
Doesn't know we're talking about him or watching him and that he's featuring in this podcast.
Bless him, but he is. And at the top is the tyre page. How long have you been on the tyres?
Excellent. What a fabulous description. Anybody you think you'd describe things for a job.
We will get to grips with commentary throughout this episode, but let's start more broadly. How was your prep for the 2026 season compared to previous years?
Because it's a new era. There's been lots for us to get used to watching at home, presumably the stuff for you to get used to in describing the sport as well.
Yeah, I would say that the difference from 2025 to 2026 is when you have so many new rules, you've obviously got to learn how they work for teams and drivers and the practicality of how they're going to execute those rules.
But you cannot possibly describe it the same way that they would because we're going out to a very broad audience in different countries.
We go out from this commentary box to Channel 4 in the UK, the free to air network TV highlights.
We go out to Apple TV in the States as of this year and we have a fantastic, knowledgeable, loyal subscriber base on F1 TV.
So you might have some experts and some newbies, if you will.
Also, we're on the YouTube highlights and social media as well.
So your explanation has got to work in a way where you bring along the season petrolhead and you bring along someone that might have just discovered it in the last month.
That is, at the nub of it, the challenge of commentary. And this year, oh my word, it's a challenge because we're taking highly complex stuff and I'm trying to explain it in a way that my mum can understand,
in a way that a die-hard petrolhead would understand and I'm trying to get to it as quickly as possible and then let my co-commentators,
I'm just trying to give you the headline and let the co-commentators do the context if required,
whittling that down from the massive set of regulations down to something that I can hopefully explain in one sentence.
That has been the biggest challenge going into this season's new rules.
And does your mum think you're doing a good job?
And she will tell me if I'm not. She's phenomenal and very supportive.
I have regards to Mrs James. We wish her well.
Now, Alex, from your point of view, what's it been like commentating on these new cars in competitive sessions? Has it felt different at all?
Now, the first thing I did when I went to Bahrain testing is went trackside.
I was like, well, if it's going to be different, I want to know the reality.
Did not think in any way. Went to different corners of the circuit. Didn't think it was any different at all.
Obviously, sometimes when they're in the longer race runs and they're having to recharge,
you're seeing slightly different speeds compared to what you're used to.
I think you get used to it very quickly.
A lot of the time, though, the commentary gets divided up into what's happening and why it's happening.
So when there is so much to explain, when there's a lot of explanation,
you've got to be careful to not turn it into a university lecture.
Yeah, of course.
Because it's sport and it's people's weekends and everyone wants to have a good time.
So the complexity of it is there, but it's Formula One.
It's a traditionally quite complex sport anyway.
Something I actually don't think Formula One as a sport gets enough credit for is its TV graphics.
Because now, Alex, you and I are both huge soccer fans, football fans.
But the graphics you need to put on for a football match are nowhere near as complex.
In fact, sometimes it can be as simple as 1-0, 2-0.
Usually, in the case of my football team, it's telling me that they are in fact losing.
It's all right. You had a decade where you won in every division.
Yeah, exactly. We'll move on from that.
Pack away your moans.
Quite quickly move on from that. I'm a Leicester City fan for that.
Anyway, we can wildly off topic.
Anyway, moving swiftly on.
The TV graphics that we see on screen, two questions.
Firstly, how helpful to you as a commentator are they?
Because, let's be honest, sometimes viewers are seeing stuff from them and you will be too as the commentator.
But secondly, we've got some new graphics this year as well.
How have they changed things? How do they help you?
Well, you need them a lot this year because there are so many intangibles in the state of the battery.
You've got to know whether someone's roared around the outside with the use of the battery
and in the past we had DRS.
So, no guessing because it was tangible and it was there.
Yeah, sure.
Obviously, we've gone over take mode this year and we've got different boosts.
We've got different states of the battery being full, battery being empty.
And so, the graphics this year tell us that story in a way that we could see last year and previous years with DRS.
So, you're relying on the graphics in a different way.
There are so many graphics that you get in Formula One compared to other sports as a result.
And I do think when I watch other sports, the job that they do to break it down in a simple way.
And to be honest, it sounds really, really daft.
But when you see other stopwatch sports, you're so grateful for the left-hand side timing tower.
Because that is so useful to just be able to glance down to and refer to.
And we take that for granted.
I wouldn't want to do my job without it.
It's quite funny because like when I'm watching at home and I know it inevitably happens sometimes that there's a glitch.
The timing tower disappears for a moment.
The illogical reaction in my mind is ridiculous.
What's happened?
It's the end of the world.
Where's the timing?
I don't know what's happening.
Of course, I do.
Fundamentally, the carving foot's still winning.
But it's like, oh my word, what's happening?
It must be difficult in those situations not to panic when things do go wrong.
I panic when I'm sat watching, let alone you describing it to the world.
Well, you go back to your radio days.
This happened in Bahrain last year.
We lost the timing graphics for about 10 minutes.
And I was like, my brain was just like, right, turn it into radio.
Because everyone's got to know the time.
You just mentioned the timings way more in that circumstance.
But yeah, you do lean very heavily on the graphics.
You go back to your radio days.
Right, let's check the travel news now.
No, I'm joking.
Right, in fact, I'll tell you what we will do, actually,
rather than check the travel news is we'll go for a short break.
And then after that, we will put some of your questions to Alex Jakes back in a moment.
It's the quickest Cadillac ever.
The all-electric Lyric V.
The peak performance of the CT5V Blackwing.
The nimble agility of the OPTIQ V.
And the legendary roar of the Escalade V.
All engineered to thrill.
Find out more about Cadillac's performance story in Formula One
and our race-tested V-Series lineup at Cadillac.com.
Welcome back to F1 Explains where this week we are explaining Formula One commentary.
And we always say on F1 Explains we find the best person in the paddock to answer those questions.
So of course we thought go to a Formula One commentator.
I'm joined by Alex Jakes and we are in a commentary box.
The best man for the job in the best place.
Let's go to some of your questions.
F1explains at F1.com.
Adam is in Pittsburgh.
Hello, Adam.
You're going to like Adam from Pittsburgh, Alex Jakes.
I can tell you because his first question,
where it's a big question, and it starts with,
how did Alex become so good at commentating?
It's a great question, believe it or not.
Thanks very much.
That's a great question.
Adam, the chair of the Alex Jakes fan club.
Adam says, how did Alex become so good at commentating?
What kind of prep does he have to do before the races?
And is Alex always at the track?
Or sometimes does he do commentary remotely?
So three in one from Adam in Pittsburgh for you there.
Starting with your brilliance, Alex Jakes.
The fine people of Pittsburgh.
I've always liked them.
That's the right kind of him to say.
I appreciate that.
A lot of work goes into it.
It's a little bit like when I was describing
with the timing pages.
You're taking a lot of information,
and you're trying to distill it from about 30 pieces of A4
into two.
So to describe for you,
because it's the first race of the season,
I've got the driver's T-cam colours,
very, very bright.
You've got Verstappen has a black T-cam.
Hajar has a yellow T-cam.
And just for those brand news,
everyone explain what a T-cam is.
Yeah, it's the camera on top of the car.
And it's the most identifiable thing.
We have to use that more than the crash helmets in modern times
because the halo obscures the view.
And you don't know what angle you're going to get.
So as a result, that's up there as well.
I'll have notes on every single driver and team.
Essentially, it's about 10 facts.
Some of them are about the journey that they've had
across the weekend.
Some of them are the basics.
They're previous results.
But 10 things I can say, you never use all of that.
You also have your grid.
That will be in front of me.
You also have the stats of their previous career.
That's a page I do for myself as well.
Again, just purely because I want to access the information
exactly how I want it.
So the time from me looking at the page
to talking into the microphone is as short as possible.
It means that I essentially have about 10 pieces of paper
in front of me and then a thick chunk off to the side
where you're sitting, Christian, where I can...
If it gets into real detail and you get a shock win,
then you're looking through your basically really detailed notes
to access that information.
And obviously, I've got a laptop in front of me as well
because you never know what you're going to get in Formula One.
What was the third part of the question?
The third part of the question was,
is Alex always at the track
or does he sometimes do comments remotely?
So this changed in 2020.
When COVID hit, there was a necessity
for many broadcast teams to do the commentary live remotely.
It could happen in the past,
but it was very, very difficult for that to take place.
So most of the time before 2020,
we'd always be on site every single event
looking out of the window at the track.
Now it is different.
We do about half from Formula One's media and technology centre
in the UK and half on site.
The reason for the split,
it's nice to see your friends and family from time to time,
and occasionally they're like,
it'd be nice to see you from time to time.
Also, Formula One's got sustainable goals
and it takes a lot to rig the equipment
that we've described and ship it around the world.
So we do some from the studio and some on site.
You have to come on site because you just never know
what you're going to learn when you run into someone.
I was going to get a coffee this morning in our facility,
very quickly ran into George Russell.
There is something I'm going to say about that quick interaction
in the broadcast.
It's shaped my thinking about the narrative.
If I'm back in the studio, I don't have that.
I don't have that insight.
It doesn't make it onto the broadcast.
So you can never fully do it remotely
without losing the journalistic steer of what's going on,
but for half of them we're at track
and half we're back at base.
And that journalistic steer, as you say,
is balanced, isn't it, with an increase in technology
that we've seen partly spearheaded by COVID?
You almost sounded jovial there, but there is a genuine point,
isn't there, in the Formula One world nowadays,
if there have been 24 races of people's well-being
and making sure you're not spending too much time on planes.
In the original days that you and I grew up watching
Formula One, Alex, there were 17 races a season.
That's considerably less tricky for a commentator doing 17 races.
So there is also that.
And as well, as you say, the environmental measures,
it does mean that fewer of us have to go on planes,
which really helps.
I also really enjoyed your point about the fact
you have on the drivers,
because when I was doing football reporting,
my rule was three facts to say on each player.
I think I would probably use about 4% of that information
by the end of the broadcast,
but it's just there in case you need something to say.
And yet we're recording this at the opening race of the year.
I was up at 6am.
I get to the opening race day of the year.
I get in super early because I want my notes done.
Once my notes are done, you can relax.
You can enjoy.
Until they're done, it doesn't matter if we use,
as you say, you would use 5%, 10% of what was in front of you.
Until it's done, you're not ready to go on air.
And that's just the nature of the gig.
Absolutely.
Cameron from Canada says,
I know the cars have numbers on them,
and a lot of the drivers have helmets that stand out.
But with cars moving so fast, camera angles so varied,
and those numbers not being massive,
how do you identify the drivers when commentating?
You've given us one answer to this with the T-cam
and the colours of the T-cam.
Are there any other tips and hints?
Well, you can still see...
On the on-boards, obviously, you can still see the driver's helmet.
And that will give you a steer.
But I'll give you an example of McLaren this weekend.
Oscar Piastro is running more yellow on his helmet
for his home race.
It looks very, very similar to Lando Norris' crash helmet.
For goodness' sake, Oscar.
So if there's a McLaren in the wall at some point of the race,
I'm looking to the camera at the top of the car
because there's not enough difference
between the crash helmets to identify them that way.
Numbers-wise, you would just never use the number
because you don't know what angle you're going to get.
It's not like other championships
where there are enormous numbers on the side of the car.
And, you know, for example,
overracing on the side of the car,
you're going to be able to use that a lot more.
So that's not a luxury that we have,
as useful as it would be, certainly on the opening laps.
But, yeah, so you're usually...
You know that Max Establin's got a flash of red on his crash helmet
and had jar hasn't.
So you're looking at that,
and then you're confirming it with the camera on the top of the car.
That's how I'm doing driver ID.
I guess, also, there must be an element of the truth to set you free
because sometimes in sports, you won't know.
It might be that there is a plume of smoke.
It might be that you can't see from the particular camera angle.
I remember I go back to my football reporting,
the first ever game I did for the BBC in the UK.
BBC One, the big network broadcaster.
And the first goal I had to report on was scored,
and my entire vision was obscured by a pole that kept the stadium upright.
I could not see for the life of me what had happened,
and it was my first thing to report.
And then you do have to sometimes in sport,
be honest with your audience, don't you?
I'm not sure what's happened here,
but we'll find out.
I guess it's an element of honesty.
Yeah, there's an element of trying to cover that up
as long as you possibly can.
And season viewers will know that you start padding
and you're like, when for Stappen to spun off yesterday?
In qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, yeah.
In qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, we're recording this.
My brain was like Second Red Bull had jars off.
Yes.
Understandably so, with the greatest of respect to Isaac had you.
Because of the Second Red Bull,
because of how things have been,
because Max Stappen has never in my brain spun off
and qualifying and hit a wall.
But you're like, check it, check it again.
You've got to say who it is in the wall now.
It's Max Stappen.
And then you hope that you've not just misidentified it
or seen it wrong or the clouds not come over at the wrong moment.
And it was, yeah, it was different.
But yeah, it's tricky to do,
especially given if you get something dramatic like that,
it's usually a jump cut.
It's a crash zoom or it's a car flying sideways.
And yeah, you're not being able to use the number.
Lovely question, Cameron. Thank you for that.
Don't forget F1explains at f1.com to send your questions
on anything F1 related.
A lovely one here.
By the way, we've collected these over the course of the last season.
So many questions came in on commentary last season, Alex.
This is a lovely one from Yeagos in Athens.
Yeagos says, why are the microphones in the commentary box
the way they are?
Now, I'm sure Yeagos here has seen, when Alex,
you appear in vision on F1 TV's broadcasts
from your commentary box,
where you're using a particular type of microphone.
We've got one on the desk in front of us.
Describe what he means here, Alex.
Yeah, he's talking about a lip mic, which,
funnily enough, held to your top lip.
They've had about the same design since the 1940s.
It's like the war, yeah.
And so it's got this old school texture to it.
It is essentially a directional microphone
that can be used in very loud environments.
And so that's why it looks so distinctive.
There's been no real need to redesign it through the years,
because it does work so well.
Commentators get a sort of rhythm with it.
So I like to use the old school mic.
That's what I've done for the 11 years
I've been broadcasting on motorsport.
Along this commentary box row,
Crofty, for example, prefers a headset.
And that's just the rhythm that he's got into.
That's what he wants to use.
And then obviously when we get to testing,
when we combine the teams,
the amount of swapping over is ridiculous,
because again, you want to be comfortable
and you want to do that.
And so, yeah, it's a directional microphone
and it looks old school because it is old school
and the design was so good in the 1940s,
they never needed to change it.
And Alex and his co-commentators
have the luxury of microphones each,
but there are famous stories from the 70s,
a formula one where the late great Murray Walker,
whose commentary you all have heard,
he used to share his commentary box with many great drivers,
including the British world champion James Hunt,
where they used to have to share a microphone
and got into many heated arguments because of that,
whereas you don't have to grab your microphone
off Joly and Palmer, you're fortunate.
Can you imagine the agro and arguments?
There's a great story that Murray Walker
put in his autobiography about how he had the microphone
yanked out of his hand by James Hunt
and pulled back his fist to punch him.
Which is the least Murray Walker thing ever.
The nicest man in the history of broadcasting.
But you have the microphone, you yanked out of your hand.
Murray used to stand, treat it like a performance sport.
James Hunt sitting down, feet up,
yanked it out of his hand and his producer
wags his finger and goes,
don't hit your co-commentator.
Love the BBC, sharing a microphone.
What on earth were they thinking?
What on earth were they thinking?
It's a huge coincidence because our next question is,
when have you felt most likely to punch Joly and Palmer?
No, I'm joking, of course, I'm joking.
I've been working with him for a while.
I'm just used to his antics at this point.
Although actually Cameron from Glasgow,
his question, which is our next one,
is around F1 commentary and punditry.
He says, what I would like to know is how does it work?
Is it the former driver's full-time job?
And how are drivers selected for their commentary and expertise?
So yes, of course, Alex, you commentate
with the former Formula One drivers,
Joly and Palmer and David Coulthard.
There are so many examples up and down the paddock
of ex-drivers.
Yeah, how does it work?
How do they get picked?
How do they find their way into this?
You have to essentially have performed a level
that gives you the ability to pass judgement.
But the CV alone is not enough.
You've got to be a quality broadcaster,
and if you're going to be a pundit,
you've got to be prepared to be unpopular sometimes.
You've got to say it like it is.
You've also got to have an ability to
take very complex subjects
and be able to explain them to...
And, you know, this year's rules are a perfect example of it.
So essentially, you've got to have a great turn of phrase.
You've got to make the complicated,
very simple and accessible to understand.
You've got to have a bit of flair with your phraseology.
Yeah.
There's no...
It's no good just being great but dry.
We're in entertainment.
And long-winded.
You've got to be able to sell it to everyone at home.
I've been so fortunate through the years
to have genuinely world-class sports broadcasters
who happen to have driven around in circles
for a long time beforehand.
But a CV alone is not enough.
You've got to be a great broadcaster,
and you've got to...
And honestly, I think this is the key.
You've got to want to be a great broadcaster.
This is not their first career.
For some sporting pundits,
this is not where they wanted to be at this stage,
but the great broadcasters
who are sports co-commentators
and pundits and summarisers
and analysers work at not just what they knew,
but obtaining information
and they work at the broadcast skill.
I'm going to add to that.
If you don't mind, Alex, I know,
it's a swapping role to you.
I'll tell you at the end.
Yeah.
I often think sometimes watching at home people think,
well, you know, the great...
Whether it be Formula One drivers or football players
make great commentators.
For example, there is no...
Just because he's won seven world championships,
there's no guarantee that Lewis Hamilton
would make a brilliant co-commentator.
We've got some fantastic examples of this
within our team here in Formula One,
where Jolien Palmer and James Hinchcliffe
are two examples I will use
who were excellent racing drivers,
but Jolien will be the first to admit,
you know, didn't win world championships in Formula One,
but he's a world-class outstanding,
not just broadcaster, because he is.
He's a great presenter.
He's led commentary sessions.
James Hinchcliffe presents F1 TV,
but they're also so good at explaining and unpacking.
And the two things don't necessarily always go hand in hand.
You can have someone that has done everything in a sport,
but can't necessarily describe that on air.
Yeah.
And you don't have that automatically.
You have that by trying at it.
It's really...
It's really annoying.
Oh, it's so annoying.
Because with Hinch and Jolien, both very nice men,
very talented racing drivers,
Hinch can only dance,
can dance as well.
It's just not on,
because talking is the only thing I'm even half good at.
It's frankly a disgrace.
Anyway, looking forward to Hinch coming back on the podcast soon.
Alex, your relationship with these guys who sit next to you,
you're with them for hours at a time over a race weekend.
Does it maintain and build differently?
It helps if you get on.
I imagine.
Yeah.
It's a very, very strange one,
because I grew up watching DC on the telly,
and then you're having to, you know,
ask him the questions.
If something controversial happens,
sometimes you're having to ask questions
that maybe he would want to stay away from,
but he's got to give a verdict on it,
because everyone at home is thinking,
what does David Coulthard think about this controversial incident?
So that's quite fun.
No, I'm very, very lucky in that I've not only been...
This is a good point, and I'm glad you've raised this.
I've been very fortunate in that I've been sat next to people
who are genuinely great people and wonderful to spend time with
and travel the world with,
as well as great broadcasters.
Yes.
And not always the same thing.
No, no, no.
So that's been a treat,
and it makes life a lot easier.
The one thing I'm adamant about that you need
is you need warmth in a commentary.
Everyone at home is giving you their weekend.
You don't want to be like, oh, that's terrible.
I should have passed him.
You don't want to be the Paddock police.
You want to be fun to hang out with,
and I've been very fortunate in that the camaraderie you're here on air is real.
We've both been told off by Paddock police at various points.
You do spend a lot of your time in Formula One
getting told off and being in some way.
You shouldn't be.
You're accidentally going, sorry.
And you don't want that on air.
Alex, we're nearly done, but just before we go,
we see and hear your clips of commentary on those big moments.
So let's talk about the most recent one, for example,
when you're crowning a new world champion.
We obviously crowned Lando Nariss as our world champion at the end of 2025.
You know, when you're going into that Abu Dhabi race, you know,
I'm going to crown a new world champion here.
How much do you think about that?
How much do you think about those moments where it's like, OK, this is big,
or is it best to just not think about it?
How do you go about the real big moments that you know?
OK, something big is happening here.
You think about the elements, but you don't.
So I, going into the last race in Abu Dhabi,
I'm thinking of points that I might want to hit for each three drivers.
So to run you through, before the lights went out in Abu Dhabi,
my rough thinking was, if Max wins, it's the comeback of all comebacks.
So I'm probably going to lead with that.
If Lando wins, I thought the element of him staying loyal to McLaren
when he could have left for a Red Bull seat was really interesting.
Sure.
And for Oscar Piastri, the idea that he, you know, it would slip through his fingers
and he'd get it back, that what a turnaround kind of thing.
How you say it has to fit in the moment.
And I'm absolutely adamant about this.
How you communicate that has to fit.
And there's a great example from Abu Dhabi 2021 where you can have all of the planning
and you can come up with all of the ideas of what you might say.
But because the ending was so unexpected, the words have to fit the moment.
And it's an example of, so you think of the elements that you might want to highlight,
but the formation and the phraseology has to come in the moment because it's got to fit the pictures.
And it's got to fit how it feels to everyone at home.
You can't probe by your own thinking.
Alex Shakes is a joy to commentate and I sincerely mean that.
So thank you for guiding us through the wonderful world of Formula One.
And also thank you for taking the time to answer our list of questions on a busy race weekend.
Because as I say, that is just some of the questions we've had on commentary over the last few months.
So we appreciate your time, Alex Shakes. Thank you very much indeed.
Thank you for having me on the podcast.
And as you can tell, I absolutely love talking about commentary.
So this has been a joy.
Oh, that's excellent. Well, it's been a joy to do.
Thank you very much, Alex Shakes.
We have new episodes of F1 Explains every Friday.
And of course, new for this season, we're on the same feed as F1 Nation.
So hit follow, like or subscribe for race previews and race debriefs with Tom Clarkson.
And we have new episodes of F1 Explains every Friday.
We'll be back next Friday, of course.
So do send us your questions at f1explains at f1.com.
And we'll answer more of them soon from here in Australia.
Bye for now.
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