I know, I know. I said I would not slag off the MSM in my next post. But here I am. Five is a nice round number, plus this post leads on quite nicely to the one I’ll post after this.

But the jaws of F1 fans up and down the country will have surely dropped after hearing the news that ITV’s coverage of last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix won the Bafta Television award for “Best Sport”. It really is a slap in the face for F1 fans. ITV’s coverage is almost universally derided, and not just because of the commercials (which are a necessary evil).

The pre-race coverage is an hour of pure garbage. As a matter of routine we have to put up with frivolous, cringeworthy features. Last week we had to endure cooking tips from Heikki Kovalainen. Past gems have included taking a trip to Jarno Trulli’s vineyard and going mountain biking with Alex Wurz.

That is not to mention the features about parties and fashion shows that are of dubious interest. We’ll have to be careful for those in particular this week, because it is the Monaco Grand Prix, the most pretentious glamorous of them all.

Most of F1 fans’ ire is directed towards main commentator James Allen, a rather inept replacement for the legendary Murray Walker. Granted, it is a tough gig. But it is difficult to think of another broadcaster who manages to put his foot in it quite so often.

James Allen sounds like a twelve year old who’s pretending to be a commentator. And his voice is still breaking. His use of colloquialisms is clunky to the point of embarrassment. It reached a new zenith at last year’s San Marino Grand Prix featuring a disastrous pitstop for Jenson Button where, in the words of James Allen, “Oh no! It’s all gone Pete Tong!” Even the ITV / North One producers must have found that embarrassing, because they edited those words out of repeat runs and replays.

James Allen’s lowest moment came when Kimi Räikkönen was battling with a flat-spotted tyre that would eventually fly off. Allen suggested that he should pit and collect a few safe points. But Räikkönen did what any racing driver worth his salt would do, and raced for the win. When the wheel finally flew off on the final lap, James Allen exclaimed — and these are his actual words — “See! I told ya!”

In short, he is an absolute stain on Formula 1. And despite the constant pleas of Formula 1 fans, ITV bosses simply refuse to listen to the chorus, and continue to employ this irritant as “the voice of F1″.

If you think I am talking about a few pockets of the internet that are critical of ITV’s F1 coverage, don’t be mistaken. Those who work in F1 are also shocked whenever they find themselves watching from home. Just a few weeks ago, former Ferrari strategist Ross Brawn derided ITV’s coverage:

“It’s definitely a new experience for me to watch it with a different perspective and also the quality of commentators on English TV,” Brawn told Autosport magazine.

“I sympathise with you – it’s a very frustrating business to watch F1 on British TV.

“We’re used to having all the data and all the split times and we can see the race developing. What’s clear when you watch it on the TV is that you don’t get that information.

“Our commentators don’t seem very good at conveying what is going on. It’s very frustrating to watch a race and not have that information which is available to everyone at the track. So condolences for that.”

He mentions no names, but it is clear that he is referring to ITV, because it is the only company that televises F1 races in Britain. And here we have Ross Brawn giving his condolences to British F1 fans for ITV’s shoddy coverage. And it isn’t even his fault! If only we heard such words from ITV themselves.

The never-ending disaster of ITV’s Formula 1 coverage doesn’t end there, as their pre- and post-race coverage is jingoistic in the extreme. That is part of what sickens me about Lewis Hamilton. In this country at least, most of the hype is down to the fact that he happens to be British. It is simply unbearable. I am half expecting to walk down the street one day and catch James Allen in a compromising situation with Lewis Hamilton in an alleyway.

At least Lewis Hamilton shows signs of talent. In previous years we had to witness ITV and the North One production team trying its best to whip up interest in the prospect of a Jenson Button win, even though the man patently couldn’t win a race in a month of Sundays. In fact, he couldn’t even win a race in four (lunar) months of Sundays, as when he finally won it came in his 113^th race.

It was the coverage of this race that ITV won its Bafta for. But there was nothing unusual that ITV did during its coverage of the race. Remember that before Jenson Button won, it was just another race. And ITV approached it in its usual way. After the race there was a bit of “yay, Jenson won”. But the reality is that this was just another race, and the coverage was the usual ITV stuff.

So why did this race win the Bafta, and not any of the other seventeen races that took place last season? I think we all know the reason. It’s because it was won by Jenson Button. We all know that.

So what qualifies it for a Bafta award? ITV didn’t decide that Jenson Button should win the race. And it is not as if ITV had any competition either, as they have had exclusive rights to F1 coverage ever since 1997.

ITV do not even have control over what pictures they show during the race, as they are at the mercy of the world feed, which is controlled by FOM — a fact that ITV always makes great pains to point out whenever the director messes up. (I have plenty to say about FOM’s role in F1 television coverage, but that is not the point of this post.)

As such, I have to conclude that the Bafta award isn’t an award for television. It was an award for the fact that a Brit won the race. Utterly, utterly pathetic. Bafta should hang their heads in shame for awarding a supposedly prestigious accolade on such flimsy, nationalistic grounds.

And it is all the worse for the fact that we will probably have to endure the ITV team patting each other on the back for a job well done during the coverage of this week’s Monaco Grand Prix.

Here is an article on Pitpass on a similar issue. But the news gets worse. Steve Rider and Martin Brundle are nominated for awards in the Royal Television Society’s Sports Awards. This, I can live with. But be prepared for a punch in the stomach: James Allen has been nominated for best Sports Commentator. He is one of just three nominees!

It is genuinely depressing. With ITV’s dire F1 coverage winning awards, this will give ITV an excuse to carry on burying their head in the sand and ignore the constant pleas of Formula 1 fans who are, as I have outlined above, almost universal in their criticism of ITV.

Incidentally, I would have understood it if ITV had won the Bafta for the coverage of the 2005 United States Grand Prix. That was a genuinely unusual race. The bosses at ITV could have pulled the plug on the coverage. Commendably, they didn’t. But it was a dark day for F1, which was — unusually for ITV — intelligently covered.

The race was taken for what it was — a farce. ITV conveyed the disgust of the fans and discussed the implications of the events, effectively turning a dull race into an interesting radio programme. ITV did not seek to sensationalise it or pretend that it was something it wasn’t. They did something brave and different, and in my view they pulled it off.

ITV didn’t win the award in the end. There is a set of perverse incentives if ever there was one. Rewarded for patronising, jingoistic tripe; snubbed for intelligent coverage in difficult circumstances. No wonder the MSM is in the state that it is.

More F1 fans waiting to walk off a cliff rather than watching any more ITV

• F1 Fanatic: Ross Brawn slates ITV F1 coverage. Make sure also to read the comments, especially #16 by Alex Andronov, who actually provides an accurate reflection of the commentary
• Pitpass: A lesson in tact
• Pitpass.com Forums: ITV-F1… Bafta winner???
• Pitpass.com Forums: Even Brawn hates ITV’s coverage!