Just wanted to note that I thought Martin Brundle struck exactly the right tone during the gridwalk. He knew none of the drivers would really want to speak and when they got to the front I think just letting the pictures speak for themselves showing the drivers speaking to the Bianchi family etc. - I wish more presenters/commentators would sometimes let the pictures speak for themselves. I also thought he and Croft called things very well and spotted things very quickly. They do seem to have good chemistry.
Just wanted to note that I thought Martin Brundle struck exactly the right tone during the gridwalk. He knew none of the drivers would really want to speak and when they got to the front I think just letting the pictures speak for themselves showing the drivers speaking to the Bianchi family etc. - I wish more presenters/commentators would sometimes let the pictures speak for themselves. I also thought he and Croft called things very well and spotted things very quickly. They do seem to have good chemistry.
Fully agree with all of this. I couldn't believe how quickly they spotted Rosberg's puncture in particular.
My only Brundle gripe is the way that he can change his opinion at times. Take the uncapping of back markers this last race. For years he's been telling us its a stupid rule, but it was the greatest thing ever on Sunday.
At least he acknowledged it wasn't his usual position. His main problem, shared by many of us on here, is the time it takes - this could be fixed by getting them to pull over or drive through the pits and then drop back, rather than having to overtake and go round far enough to be out of the way of the restart.
But this year they only have to go past and not catch up with the train like before, so it is a quicker restart.
On Sunday only 7 cars took the restart with the rest dotted around the circuit.
But this year they only have to go past and not catch up with the train like before, so it is a quicker restart.
On Sunday only 7 cars took the restart with the rest dotted around the circuit.
Yeah which was a little odd, though I agree on the decision to do it how they do it now (Singapore should be far better with the new system as previously it'd take 3-4 laps for the lapped cars to catch up to the back of the pack which was a total waste of available racing laps).
But surely that only delays for a few laps them getting in the way of the leaders. Surely better to have all lapped cars do a pit lane drive-through to drop them to the back of the snake? Ok, there may be a mix of cars lapped just once or more than once but that is of little consequence.
Maybe the one good thing about that race for Mercedes was it actually got them a lot of TV time.
Also, I really like the slightly lower down onboard they had on Verstappen's car, it feels a bit more visceral and involved than the normal T-bar onboard viewpoint.
GP2 & GP3 will be racing as support categories for the WEC round at Bahrain in November.
That's quite interesting. Obviously costs are going to be a factor but I'm a bit surprised that they aren't just tacking on to one of the F1 flyaways that they wouldn't normally do.
I wonder if they'll get the normal TV coverage on SSF1?
That's quite interesting. Obviously costs are going to be a factor but I'm a bit surprised that they aren't just tacking on to one of the F1 flyaways that they wouldn't normally do.
I wonder if they'll get the normal TV coverage on SSF1?
Presumably they want to go to Bahrain because they have existing data, having raced there before, and because it is cheaper than Brazil or Japan. The F1 flyaways will also presumably already have a full schedule of support races.
It also has TV coverage already, so that saves FOM money.
The disadvantage for GP3 is that it clashes with the Macau GP.
Standalone events have been shown on SSF1, and have generally been on par with FOM productions.
In 2012, GP2 raced as a support package to F1 in Bahrain, then stayed an extra week to have another round. I presume FOM also stayed to cover this.
More relevant to this would probably be the standalone 2013 GP3 race at Valencia. This was again shown on SSF1. Don't know who did the TV coverage, but for obvious reasons lacked extras like onboard cameras and Will Buxton (replaced by Simon Hill). Other than that, it did use the existing graphics package, and overall looked no different to an F1 event.
Pre-merger of the European and Asia series, there was a standalone GP2 race at Imola in 2011 which wasn't covered by FOM. The host broadcaster hacked together a somewhat crude imitation of the graphics package.
In the case of supporting the WEC race, per the post above, I'd expect to see FOM just hand the graphics packages over to the host broadcaster and let them get on with it. Unless they are miraculously the same system, onboards will probably be a no-go. It will be interesting to compare the differences in camera coverage between the two.
Just wanted to note that I thought Martin Brundle struck exactly the right tone during the gridwalk. He knew none of the drivers would really want to speak and when they got to the front I think just letting the pictures speak for themselves showing the drivers speaking to the Bianchi family etc. - I wish more presenters/commentators would sometimes let the pictures speak for themselves. I also thought he and Croft called things very well and spotted things very quickly. They do seem to have good chemistry.
DC on the BBC also didn't speak to drivers - presume none of the broadcasters did.
We are lucky to have three great commentary teams now. Personally Allen/McNish are the best followed by Ben/DC. On a good day Crofty/Brundle are right up there but in my opinion they're the two who have a bad day at the office the most.
Pre-merger of the European and Asia series, there was a standalone GP2 race at Imola in 2011 which wasn't covered by FOM. The host broadcaster hacked together a somewhat crude imitation of the graphics package..
The TV coverage from that round at Imola had especially bad direction to the point where the GP2 organizers & Will Buxton apologized for it. The WEC crew tend to do a good job though.
As to OnBoards We don't usually get them for the standalone races not covered by FOM & I can't see this been any different.
DC on the BBC also didn't speak to drivers - presume none of the broadcasters did.
We are lucky to have three great commentary teams now. Personally Allen/McNish are the best followed by Ben/DC. On a good day Crofty/Brundle are right up there but in my opinion they're the two who have a bad day at the office the most.
IMO DC does tend to over-complicate things in his commentary, yet he delivers it in a less than enthusing manner, so its stops being an interesting tidbit, but a boring one. A case in point being him talking about how the rain light on the cars is activated in wet weather, at Silverstone.
Got to wonder about the future of Sky Sports F1 as a channel.
Interesting! I guess this mirrors BT having a similar channel showing a selection of their content to non-subscribers. I thought I read before that F1 being on its own channel was one of the conditions of Sky's deal with Bernie.
As I've said before though, there's no way most people who have SSF1 via the legacy HD pack will pay full-price for a sports sub for the remaining races if they're only into motorsport. I know I'd rather cancel and wait for a retention deal. Let's see...
Edit: of course, another possibility is that showing 50% of the F1 races on this channel could be related to whether the BBC continue to show the same F1 coverage they have now... remember what JP said recently...
Got to wonder about the future of Sky Sports F1 as a channel.
I'm not sure how. The events to be shown on Select are the ones they share with the Beeb, at least if that forum's reports are correct. It's hardly a gain if you are disinterested in subscribing to Sky Sports (except maybe enabling some of the SSF1 haters to nitpick the coverage to death).
However, slightly OT, were SSF1 to close (and the coverage moved to the 'generic' channels), I'd be more concerned about the support packages than anything else. The beauty in my view of the standalone channel is that Sky can pretty much broadcast the entirety of the regular race weekend (Porsche Supercup withstanding - I've never understood why this is a separate package, nor why Sky mysteriously do have highlights rights).
I doubt GP2/3 would get the level of coverage they do on Sky - especially during the busier weekends - without the protection of the standalone channel.
That said, BT seem to manage the MotoGP package quite well last time I looked (last year admittedly).
I doubt GP2/3 would get the level of coverage they do on Sky - especially during the busier weekends - without the protection of the standalone channel.
Very good point. And nobody except the very most committed is going to channel hop through a half-dozen sports channels to try to find GP2/3, especially if it's not guaranteed to be shown at all.
Very good point. And nobody except the very most committed is going to channel hop through a half-dozen sports channels to try to find GP2/3, especially if it's not guaranteed to be shown at all.
The Saturday afternoon races would be most at risk much like they were on Eurosport.
So this new SkySports Select offers the same races as the BBC right ?
Jp
If so, seems like a waste of time really (from an F1 perspective). They already broadcast some exclusive qually sessions and maybe the odd race (?) on Sky 1 or a different Sky Sports channel I believe.
An F1-Lite type subscription would make more sense if you got an extra 3-4 races live, as a halfway house to paying the full subscription for everything.
Comments
Fully agree with all of this. I couldn't believe how quickly they spotted Rosberg's puncture in particular.
On Sunday only 7 cars took the restart with the rest dotted around the circuit.
Yeah which was a little odd, though I agree on the decision to do it how they do it now (Singapore should be far better with the new system as previously it'd take 3-4 laps for the lapped cars to catch up to the back of the pack which was a total waste of available racing laps).
Also, I really like the slightly lower down onboard they had on Verstappen's car, it feels a bit more visceral and involved than the normal T-bar onboard viewpoint.
That's quite interesting. Obviously costs are going to be a factor but I'm a bit surprised that they aren't just tacking on to one of the F1 flyaways that they wouldn't normally do.
I wonder if they'll get the normal TV coverage on SSF1?
Presumably they want to go to Bahrain because they have existing data, having raced there before, and because it is cheaper than Brazil or Japan. The F1 flyaways will also presumably already have a full schedule of support races.
It also has TV coverage already, so that saves FOM money.
The disadvantage for GP3 is that it clashes with the Macau GP.
In 2012, GP2 raced as a support package to F1 in Bahrain, then stayed an extra week to have another round. I presume FOM also stayed to cover this.
More relevant to this would probably be the standalone 2013 GP3 race at Valencia. This was again shown on SSF1. Don't know who did the TV coverage, but for obvious reasons lacked extras like onboard cameras and Will Buxton (replaced by Simon Hill). Other than that, it did use the existing graphics package, and overall looked no different to an F1 event.
EDIT: Actually produced by third-party Sobatech - http://www.sobatechgroup.com/#!GP3-Series-2013-Round-2-Valencia-Spain/c21xo/54c17bd10cf2cb6524270af4
Link to GP3 race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0W9xyjx5xE
Pre-merger of the European and Asia series, there was a standalone GP2 race at Imola in 2011 which wasn't covered by FOM. The host broadcaster hacked together a somewhat crude imitation of the graphics package.
In the case of supporting the WEC race, per the post above, I'd expect to see FOM just hand the graphics packages over to the host broadcaster and let them get on with it. Unless they are miraculously the same system, onboards will probably be a no-go. It will be interesting to compare the differences in camera coverage between the two.
DC on the BBC also didn't speak to drivers - presume none of the broadcasters did.
We are lucky to have three great commentary teams now. Personally Allen/McNish are the best followed by Ben/DC. On a good day Crofty/Brundle are right up there but in my opinion they're the two who have a bad day at the office the most.
As to OnBoards We don't usually get them for the standalone races not covered by FOM & I can't see this been any different.
There's absolutely no technical reason F1 couldn't look as good as this, and it absolutely should.
FOM please take note... and we'll have a few of those rotating HD roll-bar cameras as well whilst you're about it.
Got to wonder about the future of Sky Sports F1 as a channel.
Interesting! I guess this mirrors BT having a similar channel showing a selection of their content to non-subscribers. I thought I read before that F1 being on its own channel was one of the conditions of Sky's deal with Bernie.
As I've said before though, there's no way most people who have SSF1 via the legacy HD pack will pay full-price for a sports sub for the remaining races if they're only into motorsport. I know I'd rather cancel and wait for a retention deal. Let's see...
Edit: of course, another possibility is that showing 50% of the F1 races on this channel could be related to whether the BBC continue to show the same F1 coverage they have now... remember what JP said recently...
I'm not sure how. The events to be shown on Select are the ones they share with the Beeb, at least if that forum's reports are correct. It's hardly a gain if you are disinterested in subscribing to Sky Sports (except maybe enabling some of the SSF1 haters to nitpick the coverage to death).
However, slightly OT, were SSF1 to close (and the coverage moved to the 'generic' channels), I'd be more concerned about the support packages than anything else. The beauty in my view of the standalone channel is that Sky can pretty much broadcast the entirety of the regular race weekend (Porsche Supercup withstanding - I've never understood why this is a separate package, nor why Sky mysteriously do have highlights rights).
I doubt GP2/3 would get the level of coverage they do on Sky - especially during the busier weekends - without the protection of the standalone channel.
That said, BT seem to manage the MotoGP package quite well last time I looked (last year admittedly).
Very good point. And nobody except the very most committed is going to channel hop through a half-dozen sports channels to try to find GP2/3, especially if it's not guaranteed to be shown at all.
Jp
Sounds like it, so no more F1 on Sky Sports 1, use this channel to give a taste and the hard sell to upgrade
The Saturday afternoon races would be most at risk much like they were on Eurosport.
If so, seems like a waste of time really (from an F1 perspective). They already broadcast some exclusive qually sessions and maybe the odd race (?) on Sky 1 or a different Sky Sports channel I believe.
An F1-Lite type subscription would make more sense if you got an extra 3-4 races live, as a halfway house to paying the full subscription for everything.