In the past I’ve been less than complimentary about ITV’s coverage of F1, and while quite a few arguments still hold, there are a few areas which have seen improvement this year.

On the plus side, and in a totally unexpected move, they have moved into the online area by allowing viewers access to not only online coverage of qualifying and the race, but also practice sessions as well - which is a very welcome move and for that I think they deserve a pat on the back.

Honda flew the nest at the end of last season which has prompted ITV to seek out a new sponsor ahead of the F1 season starting next Sunday.

Initial reports indicated that a figure of around £5million was anticipated to be required to claim the rights however the rumours are that Sony’s new contract will only see ITV claim £3million - still a pretty penny.   No doubt ITV were hoping the Lewis-factor would have loosened the pursestrings in boardooms around the globe, however it was not to be.

So why would a company want to associate themselves with F1?

Years ago, people lived in the past - that sounds stupid, but what I mean is that they found out today what had happened yesterday and so on.

Newspapers were printed to inform them of the events going on in the world in the days or even weeks previously, then these were overtaken by TV news which could tell you at night what had happened across the country that day - and soon they informed of what had happened all around the world that day.

As if it wasn’t bad enough already, it would appear that ITV’s coverage of Formula 1 is due to get worse instead of better.

No, thankfully Martin Brundle isn’t leaving (as far as I know and hope), and they aren’t officially renaming their programmes The Lewis Hamilton Show - but rather it seems that Ofcom are about to allow commercial television networks the opportunity to show up to 12 minutes of adverts per hour of programme.

Great.

If you are a regular visitor then you have probably grasped the fact that I’m an F1 fan.

I’m not a huge supporter of a particular team, and while it is true that of the current drivers I favour David Coulthard, I’m normally happy enough that the best driver on the day has won - mainly because I know DC has little chance of winning at the moment!

Formula 1 gets a lot of stick from viewers that it is boring, the races are processional with overtaking a rarity and I can see their point - a race without anyone overtaking each other is a bit like a football match without any goals, or a rugby match without any tries.