I don't hate James Allen, but I do find the criticisms true. I'd go as far as saying he went pretty downhill last year, called an awful lot of things wrong when he was getting too excited over Hamilton, like when he was catching other drivers he wouldn't realise he had to pit again etc. Found myself shouting at the TV a few times. Brundle is excellent, Steve Rider and Mark Blundell are extremely sickly, especially chasing Lewis Hamilton's dad round all the time when he has nothing new to say. The Brazilian GP was particularly infuriating, no mention whatsoever made of Raikkonen's comeback, perhaps the greatest ever considering the gap for points between first and second is now only two...makes it much harder to make up ground.
It was almost like bloody wrestling on ITV last year, Hamilton the goodie and Alonso the big nasty baddie. Raikkonen and Massa hardly got a mention.
I think that you just summed up the ITV coverage brilliantly. While I believe some of the criticisms of Allen has been a bit unfair he is not the worse thing about the broadcast. Steve rider and Mark Blundell are about is entertaining as having cholera. Rider doesn't have a clue about F1 and needs to be replaced. Ted Kravitz or Louise Goodman might be a better choice looking at their CV's they certainly been involved in motorsport longer than Rider. Hopefully now that Lewis mania has died down a bit ITV will get back to coverage that was good during the schumi years
To be fair to Rider, he doesn't pick the people whom he must interview and he did Formula One for a while when it was on the BBC. What I do find cringeworthy about him is how startled he looks when he talks about Hamilton or talks to Hamilton. He's a like teenage girl meeting the blue-eyed boy she likes from her favourite pop group. I do agree with you that either Kravitz or Goodman deserve to be called up to presenting the show. In fact, sack Rider, get Goodman to present the show, get Kravitz to commentate and send Allen back the pits. That would solve some the problem, for we'd still be left with inadequate time for pre-Grand Prix build-ups and post Grand Prix analysis and no press conferences. 
You call an hour of grand prix build up inadequate time? That is way too long i'd rather have half an hour of a Brundle pit walk for pre race build up and extra 30 mins on the post race analysis. Rider picked Anthony Hamilton to interview after
every race whether lewis won it or not. That is not fair to me[/quote]
Steve Rider does not pick who he interviews i'm sure. I didn't like the constant Hamilton focus even in Magny-Cours when Jenson scored points in a car that had no right to be in the top 10. Why don't we have a different British driver, or different driver interview before every race. That would make it more interesting and would help the 'Hamilton-era' F1 'fans' get to know that there are 22 drivers in F1 and 11 teams not just Lewis and McLaren. IMO Lewis would perform better if everyone gave him a break. In a way, ITV's Lewis-filled coverage has helped Button and Coulthard, because they don't have as much pressure as they used to.
But, in 2008, which looks like one of the closest F1 season for a while, that all the other teams and drivers will be virtually ignored by ITV. No wonder James Allen seems to always have to explain who Trulli, Fisi or even Massa is, despite the fact they are all race winners. This is such a shame because, even though the casual fan needs to be educated sometimes with regard to the teams and drivers, some drivers aren't mentioned at all during the entire broadcast, simply because ITV are so focused on Hamilton, almost in a tabloid-style way. Sun and News of the World readers seem to be the demographic ITV are aiming for. The stupid ones - i know some intelligent people read those papers.
