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The misery phase is out of the way.” Martin Brundle was talking about a driver switching from medium to super-soft tyres yesterday, but Formula One fans could have been forgiven for assuming that the BBC co-commentator was talking about the 12 years that they had to spend watching the sport on ITV.

The BBC has one of the best publicity departments in the business and for the past month, when it hasn't been drip-feeding stories about The Apprentice, it has been churning out press releases about the return of Formula One.

Motor racing fans of a certain age started dreaming of a return to the glory days when there was some overtaking and when James Hunt, wearing shorts and flip-flops, would turn up in the BBC commentary box with a bottle of wine and ask Murray Walker: “Who's on pole?”

Those were the days. The days before races were won by the car with the best diffuser and the days before The Brawn Supremacy. Yesterday's race, Button's victory and Brawn GP's fairytale one-two, should have been captivating, but the highlight for me was the cup of tea and toast that I made on lap 29.

Perhaps we owe ITV an apology. Modern Formula One is boring. The BBC tried, but the problems in Melbourne started when the lights turned green. A couple of cars hit each other, but the battle for twelfth place was just as dull on the BBC as it had been on ITV.

“F1 is about clever people beating thick people,” Jonathan Legard, the commentator claimed, which made the sport sound as exciting as University Challenge.

Legard made the switch from radio to television with ease, but the stars were Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan. Humphrey's smoothness should ensure that he is a national treasure and his light touch brought the best out of Coulthard and Jordan, who were interesting and unpredictable.

ITV covered the Boat Race, which Middle England loves because you know exactly what you are going to get: 16 strapping posh blokes and two midgets duking it out on the River Thames and getting all worked up about something called the Surrey Station. Or as Legard would probably put it: “The Boat Race is about clever people beating clever people.”