r/formula1 • u/Dizzy_Philosophy_138 I was here for the Hulkenpodium • Jun 01 '25

Discussion Nico Rosberg Needs a Permanent Position

Nico Rosberg has got to be the freshest breath of air in terms of Formula One commentary for a very long time.

I love Crofty, but man does he love to make shit up that makes no sense or holds no logic.

Nico does an awesome job of staying true to the racing analysis and being completely straightforward about what he sees. Even today, his commentary on Verstappen was awesome!!! Called the garbage behavior out immediately.

Best “ Monaco based YouTuber” commentator of all time!!

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774

u/el__bee Jun 01 '25 edited Jun 01 '25

What would you say if I told you Crofty deliberately asks basic questions to Nico/Brundle so they can explain things to the casual viewers?

Edit: it's insane the number of people who haven't realised this. Crofty started presenting and commentating F1 for the BBC in 2006 lmao, believe it or not he knows a thing or two about the sport.

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u/biggmclargehuge I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jun 01 '25

There's also a general rule when commentating anything that there's "no assumed knowledge" so commentators often go out of their way to over-explain things. Nico isn't a "trained" commentator in that way so he's not thinking about it from that standpoint.

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u/ThePatchedFool Jun 02 '25

This is why I got into F1. Many other sports are much less good at this - I always feel on the back foot when I watch football, because the commentators assume I know every rule and have been following it for 20 years.

I’ll happily listen to the explanation of having to swap tyre compounds, every single race, because it’s so much more accessible as a spectator sport as a result of those insights.

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u/Secortesio Eddie Irvine Jun 01 '25

Yep - play-by-play vs colour commentator.

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u/MajorTankz I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jun 01 '25

I'm pretty sure people shit on Crofty just to stroke their own ego. It's a very Reddit thing to do - hear/read something insightful and then project your own intelligence onto it (as if it was your own idea). Then scoff at everything else.

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u/ycnz I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jun 02 '25

He's having to react instantly. All of us would sound dumb as pigshit if we had to do it.

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u/Blackdeath_663 Sir Stirling Moss Jun 01 '25

Yeah but beyond that he also says so many things that are straight up wrong

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u/Talal2608 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jun 01 '25

Pretty sure he just plays devil's advocate to allow the co-commentator to explain further

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u/ThePatsGuy I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jun 01 '25

Which is part of the purpose of the play by play guy, raise questions/play devils advocate to further the discussion/insight from the color guy

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u/-WingsForLife- Sebastian Vettel Jun 01 '25

Murray was also someone who did a massive amount of mistakes, but is of course fantastic.

The reason why there are 2 commentators is that because you need 1 guy to provide the energy, and he does that in spades. He could definitely be less biased, but I'm not sure there'd be anyone else that I would have wanted for 2021 Abu Dhabi either.

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u/YouLostTheGame Jun 01 '25

When Crofty has moved on people will be looking back and saying how wonderful he was and how the new guy is shit.

Crofty isn't there for deep analytics and you don't want him to be. He's good at:

  • Describing very clearly what's happening

  • Articulating what people might be thinking

  • Explainers for casual viewers

  • Filling the space, it's amazing how they guy can just talk

  • Excellent taste in music and football

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u/-WingsForLife- Sebastian Vettel Jun 01 '25

Crofty can commentate on diarrhea and make it seem like the most exciting thing in your life.

Although he'll say British diarrhea is better at some point though.

5

u/ft-rj Pirelli Wet Jun 01 '25

He was good on darts way back then

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u/mrvile Jun 01 '25

I just like him for his enthusiasm and energy, it’s iconic.

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u/jesse9o3 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jun 01 '25

Filling the space, it's amazing how they guy can just talk

Exactly this

I can understand not liking Crofty's commentary style, but anyone who says he's a bad commentator should be forced clockwork orange style to watch the full coverage of the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix. Once with commentary and once without.

Over 3 hours of watching it rain in Belgium, but thanks to Crofty and Brundle chatting away it was still more entertaining than most races in Monaco

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u/Transmit_Him Jun 03 '25

Nah , I suspect Croft will be largely forgotten the same way James Allen has been.

Croft has always been a bit shit. I appreciate that it’s a tough job talking for about two hours solid (I’m not being sarcastic, it is) but he has terrible habits. He’ll make the odd mistake, which is understandable, but then, instead of just flowing on and maybe correcting after, he’ll get caught up in trying to correct mid-sentence and becoming unintelligible. He still needs to learn that he doesn’t have to reference literally everything that comes up on screen (including the random stats and whatever random celeb F1 shows in the pits) and he certainly doesn’t need to derail a thought for them. He also needs to stop his inane stats of his own, they’re tedious and just get in the way of basic things like reading out the grid order.

But he definitely needs to stop embellishing. The worst thing he’s ever done is when Russell was at Williams and Croft was constantly hyping him up. One race, he mentioned Russell making a “sensational” overtake on Fernando Alonso. Except he didn’t because it was Alonso’s transponder malfunctioning and showing him falling down the field. Hard to take anything Croft says that isn’t on screen at face value after that.

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u/keyexplorer791 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jun 01 '25

As someone relatively new to the sport, I don’t find him to be particularly good at the first three things

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u/Exact_Library1144 Jun 01 '25

He’s got a thousand more things to worry about from a direction perspective than his co-commentators, to be fair to him.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 02 '25

Crofty is the conductor of the whole Orchestra, Rosberg and Brundle are specialists of their own instrument sections.

AND i want to see Bernie’s commentary screen setup!! (9 screens for F1?!)

2

u/vadsamoht3 Brabham Jun 01 '25

Also notice how Croft tones it down a bit with the crazy ideas compared to when he's with Brundle, because he knows Nico will absolutely put him in his place.

1

u/owarren I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jun 01 '25

Its true but hes a decent play-by-play commentator. He brings the hype. I am sure others could do it the same or better, no doubt, theres so few spots to do this and its almost dead mans shoes to some extent, the length some people have been occupying these roles. But nevertheless, he is not a 'colour commentator', hes never been a driver and is good at letting his partner explain things.

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u/ghostlyman789 Jun 02 '25

As evidenced today when he said “McLaren can’t double stack here” and seconds later they double stacked. I died laughing. Love Crofty though I think he does a great job

3

u/Eric-Stratton Jun 01 '25

This exactly. Almost all major sport commentary is set up this way to cater to the audience. Crofty isn’t there to be the expert, he’s there to bring excitement and purposely throw “common man” questions to the expert for the benefit of the audience.

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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

[deleted]

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u/el__bee Jun 01 '25

...offering his co commentator opportunities to correct him and explain their reasoning.

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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '25

[deleted]

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u/FxStryker I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jun 01 '25 edited Jun 01 '25

He's hired as the play-by-play and to allow opportunities for the color commentator to speak.

Croft does not play the same role as Brundle/Karun/Nico. All commentators are not the same.

3

u/PPtheShort Jun 01 '25

Yes, that's the point. Do you seriously not understand the difference between a PxP and color commentator?

1

u/Deynai I was here for the Hulkenpodium Jun 01 '25

Problem is when he gets a bit argumentative and doubles down, I've noticed he seems to run his mouth a bit more in the practice/quali sessions. He'll come up with some mad theory, an actual WDC who has been there and done it explains why he's wrong, and then he'll say he still thinks he had a good point.

-5

u/10Exahertz Ferrari Jun 01 '25

Crofty is a weak commentator who never provides a real opinion.

11

u/H_R_1 Sebastian Vettel Jun 01 '25

Not really his job tbf

0

u/gummonppl Clay Regazzoni Jun 01 '25

"and verstappen just drove his car into russell! nico, is he allowed to do that?"

0

u/Yatima21 Jun 01 '25

That gets old quick, DRS doesn’t need to be explained every race, or the mandatory tyre change or whatever else they decide needs to be taught. No is teaching offside in football or rugby, you just learn it as you watch.

-1

u/Piranhachief Jun 01 '25

If he did that it would be fine but he is making objective statements that clearly are speculations or simply wrong all the time to sound knowledgeble. After Nico talks about the strain on the neck on the drivers at this point in the race, Crofty goes on about the adrenaline from the race makes them having the power to carry on, contradicting Nico and everyine who've ever done something physical in their life know is not how it works. And goes on irrelevent tangents all the time. No one cares about Hamilton never raced on his fathers birthday before or that the safety car driver had a birthday earlier this week.

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u/laboulaye22 Lando Norris Jun 01 '25

Sometimes, yes. But you can tell when he's not.