GP Fans Forum: Your views on ESPN's coverage of the Australian Grand Prix

It would be fair to say that ESPN's hosting of the Australian Grand Prix was more Haas than Ferrari last weekend. After Liberty Media sanctioned a change of rights-holder in the United States, the first broadcast of 2018 went down so poorly that the network were forced to issue an apology.

Statement from @ESPN on Formula 1 @F1 technical issues during @ausgrandprix pre-race show: pic.twitter.com/oDY6oO9ODn — ESPN PR (@ESPNPR) March 25, 2018

Having picked up the baton from NBC, ESPN opted to simulcast the coverage of British rights-holder Sky Sports.

However, the ESPN coverage regularly cut to commercials, where gaps in Sky's coverage did not exist, taking Stateside viewers in and out of the action mid-sentence and without warning.

One such example came as Romain Grosjean retired from the race - a key turning point in Sebastian Vettel's win - leaving American viewers clueless as to why the Haas driver was out of the race.

We asked you to get in touch with your views about the coverage. Some of the best are below...

Mike Collada: The ESPN coverage was pure garbage. I missed NBC Sports in a big way.

Brad Lawrence: It all seemed intentionally pathetic to ultimately force us to pay per view. I’m not a conspiracy guy but the whole weekend was that bad.

Matt Dingman: It was awful. When coming back from breaks you had no idea what happened on track, when they sent to Paul, he was babbling about something not pertaining to what we were witnessing.

Mike Gambino: Hot garbage. Tape delay? Really? Because reruns of a 30 for 30 are more important right? ESPN can f*** off.

Bill Collum: Awful. Just awful. I've seen high school plays with better production values.

Adam Glass: Please go back to NBCS. The commentators weren't bad, but the coverage was so poor that I switched it off and looked up the results online.

Lance Turner Kennedy: I thought it was great frankly I don’t watch Formula One for the commercials I could care less about that the commentators were informed they were current they gave up-to-date analysis… Haters will hate

John Miller: At first I was hating it, but after a while I realized it they were good commentators. I didn't appreciate commercials being stuck in the way they were but that's the price you pay. No post race sucked though. I do miss Hobbs and the old crew. Been listening to them for a while but I said the same thing after Bob Varsha was ousted after Speed TV went bye bye. Not bad for first race though.

Damian Budzik: It sucked big time, I actually changed to some Spanish channel, 100% race, no commercials at all and I don't even speak Spanish!

Oliver Whyte: I find these comments amazing! The Sky F1 team are by far the best in the business. Why do you think their feed goes out to 60+ countries? They are the most respected team in the paddock, with incredible access to the teams. Sorry if the opinions of Ex drivers (one of whom is an ex-champ (2 if you include Rosberg)) are not Americanised enough for you! If ESPN cut to a US announcer before the breaks perhaps it would flow better, but can’t accept that the Sky coverage is inferior to last years US team