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Listening to the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast, the one reprising last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, led us to wondering what we can expect when the channel takes over all Formula One coverage next year.

Frankly we didn’t get a lot of surprises – there’s plenty of enthusiastic commentary, informative interviews and expert opinion. But nothing that made us feel we’d rush to download this in preference to catching the live race or maybe reading a liveblog of the event.

Nor is it necessarily a production that you feel you could recommend to a lukewarm fan or someone who doesn’t know much about the sport but would like to find out more – existing fans will get much more from it than newcomers tempted in by Hamilton-mania and wondering what’s what.

In fact, while there was nothing massively wrong with it, there was also nothing about it that screamed out as being better than ITV’s coverage.

And this did rather concentrate our minds on next year. Bearing this podcast in mind, we wonder what the BBC will have on offer in 2009 to set the sport alight for committed fans and more casual viewers?

Apart from ad-free coverage, that is, which should not be underestimated.

We’re still in the dark about this because the BBC has yet to say very much about its plans. Probably, it hasn’t made them in any great detail yet.

However the feeling seems to be that it is unlikely to stick with many of the current ITV team – and it would be quite strange if it did so. Choosing personnel closely associated with a rival’s broadcasts is not usually a winning strategy, especially when those broadcasts have attracted as many complaints as some of the ITV ones.

And even more so when those broadcasters couldn’t retain the contract for their station.

Martin Brundle may turn out to be an exception, of course. The former Benetton and McLaren driver made a seamless switch to commentating and has become one of the most highly-regarded sports presenters in the business, winning himself six Royal Television Society awards in the process. However whether he will be recruited, whether the corporation will stick with its current lineup of David Croft and Maurice Hamilton, or maybe engage Jonathan Legard who was a stalwart of the commentary team before, is as yet unclear.

What is pretty definite is that those people hoping for the regular return of Murray Walker are on a hiding to nothing. The 84-year-old national treasure may still be more than capable of doing TV spots and the odd bout of guest commentary. But the rigours of a full season, with the number of races pushing 20, at venues around the globe – that’s something his fans simply shouldn’t wish on him, not even for the pleasure of hearing his voice on the telly again.

But even if it was somehow possible to push Walker back into the front line, no good would come from such a move. Attempting to serve up a Greatest Hits nostalgia-fest would be a disaster for the BBC.

The preservation of Brundle, a role for Walker and, above all, the reinstatement of F1’s unofficial anthem, a cracking bass riff lifted from Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain (the bit you want is three minutes in) would be misguided, however much hardcore fans would welcome the prospect of a 2009 season that’s made up of a medley of everything we’ve enjoyed about motor racing over the last decade or so.

When the story broke about the broadcasting contract changing hands it focused strongly on Bernie Ecclestone’s oft-expressed wish for innovation in the coverage. ITV has shown it can offer a little of this all-important commodity – Brundle’s excellent ‘Insight’ segments that explain some of the more abstruse points of mechanics and aerodynamic theory using simple words that we can all understand. And, quite recently, live streaming video of the races have become available on its website.

But this is clearly too little too late. The BBC needs to find a completely fresh approach. Doing the same, only better, is not going to cut it with Bernie – or with Lewis Hamilton’s new fanbase, many of whom are new to the sport and don’t have the first idea who this Senna bloke is that their hero keeps getting compared to by breathless ITV commentators.

One temptation it must avoid is simply promoting its radio team to television.

According to summariser Maurice Hamilton’s bio on the BBC website, he started his working life as an accountant and, by gosh, it shows in his commentary sometimes. That might sound a bit unkind but his interventions in the radio commentary are dry, factual and lack the instinctive feel for how to communicate the technicalities and the sheer engagement possessed by Brundle.

His co-presenter David Croft has genuine enthusiasm and sometimes an eye for the bigger picture – but more often he’s a lesser-spotted James Allen with far too high a dose of unnecessary laddishness. Whether you love or hate Lewis Hamilton it’s increasingly acknowledged that he is broadening the appeal of the sport and sometimes you feel that F1 is going to need all the public support it can get before much longer. And off-colour remarks in the commentary box will not do much for that cause.

Would the Croft/Hamilton partnership translate to television? We have to confess that we are doubtful.

A tempting distraction mooted from time to time is the involvement of the Top Gear gang. While it is unquestionable that they come up with brilliant and entertaining television, at least two of them have a professed aversion to Formula One. Their broadcasting employs three blokey stereotypes to great effect: the know-it-all who needs bringing down a peg or two; the weird, shambling eccentric; and the little guy who has to try twice as hard as the others (and look where that got him). The result of this is that the show is really about them and their interactions rather than whatever subject has caught their attention this week. Formula One coverage on the BBC would probably be enhanced by the occasional send-up by Clarkson and Co, but not by making them a central feature of it.

The BBC needs to recognise it’s time to ring the changes and bring in some new blood if it is to produce coverage that stands out as head and shoulders above what it replaced.

That might involve bringing in a popular presenter that has proved himself elsewhere, such as Adrian Chiles or MotoGP’s Charlie Cox. But given the BBC’s liking for using recently-retired sportspeople as commentators and summarisers, it’s quite likely that a familiar face from the grid will be given the chance to be the next Brundle.

That could be David Coulthard, of course, but we hope not. He still has a race drive, and his track record in live interviews has often been more profane than profound. Allan McNish was engaging in the role for ITV on a number of occasions. But the best of the lot might well be Anthony Davidson – he found himself a spot in the commentary box during Jenson Button’s Hungary win and put in a highly credible performance with plenty of insight and the articulacy and presence to share it.

Away from the personnel, podcasts, streaming audio and video, plus imaginative use of that little red interactive button or maybe even CGI animations that give viewers a better feeling for what it’s like to drive a racing car, will all be extremely welcome.

But these things are not going to form the central plank of really outstanding Formula One coverage in 2009. That is easy to define but much harder to achieve – a team that exudes personality, enthusiasm, a talent for communication and a passion for the sport which recognises that the on-track action will always be the true star of the coverage.

Let’s just hope that, in the race to introduce every technical innovation they can think of, the corporation doesn’t lose sight of these essentials.

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