Ever wondered what goes through a commentator’s mind during those nail-biting final laps? Our collection features genuine commentary notes from one of F1’s most recognisable voices, David Croft.
David Croft commentary notes
I remember as a child watching Murray Walker, John Motson, Harry Carpenter and the other doyens of their craft on television and they’d always have their handwritten commentary notes in the background. So from day one, all of my notes have been handwritten as I believe – and Murray Walker told me this – that if you write something down you will remember it. And F1 is such a fast-paced sport that you are trying to remember things in a hurry.
For every race, I’ll sit at my kitchen table and put together notes on each driver and each team. I’ll also have my track map which I annotate with everything from the minimum cornering speeds, gears, and the fastest times from practice and qualifying, to the lap records, the distance from pole position to the first apex and other stats, history and trivia – things I might think are interesting to talk about during the broadcast.
These are all the genuine originals. They’ve not been edited – there are spelling mistakes and there are crossings out.
The British Grand Prix will be my 400th F1 race and once again I will enter the commentary box at Silverstone clutching these very notes.
They are my labours of love.
I hope you love them too.
Crofty
