This!

Can we get back to how FOM sucks these days Was playing F1 2016 this weekend and it had the reverse T-cam in a replay and I suddenly remembered it's not used by FOM anymore. I love that rearward view, but all onboards are forward facing this year. We have no more cool camera angles on the cars (nosecone and the one next to the drivers helmet suck). I want the rearview cam back, I want camera's facing the driver in the cockpit, camera's in the mirrors. The helmet cam! It's all gone! there simply is no effort put into the production of the races anymore. No more thermal cam, no moving onboards, nothing!

It realy is a sad state the coverage is in, it's never been this bad. I was wondering why my interest is so low when watching a practice session this year. It's not because the track action became more dull, it's because the coverage is so barebones. Think back to 1999 to 2002. That coverage still beats the crap out of anything we get these days. Why are FOM doing this? All we get is far away shots from cars with digital adverts. It's really bad, they have only themselves to thank for the decline in viewers.

Vettel swears @ Charlie = Social media carnage and OUTRAGE

Kimi swears @ Team = T-shirts made and lolz all round

F1 fans eh?

The percentage of viewers who will have turned off F1 because the camera angles are a bit higher & wider nowadays is going to be tiny.

People are not watching F1 because they desire a more open contest, rather than one domiated by a single team or driver.

The real reason why there is less variety of cameras this year is because when FOM go: "Hey Ferrari, can we put a thermal cam on your car (or rotating cam, or an unusual angle etc.) this weekend?" Ferrari reply: "erm, no."

And also because the average viewer doesn't give a damn...

Do I think FOM should be more adventurous in terms of their camera choice? Yes, absoltely, but you ask most people and they genuinley wouldn't care either way.

Also they DO still have rear-facing cams, they had one on Daniel Ricciardo at points over the US grand prix weekend. From 2017, the new F1 app will have all onboard cams available for live streaming, judging by the screenshots on twitter: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvYYs6YWEAANpx8.jpgrig

The problem isn't helped by the fact that a lot of broadcasters (Channel 4, Sky in the browser) don't bother with showing the extra feeds anymore, which include the more unusual angles more.

All the t-cams have the rear facing camera its just that FOM choose not to use them. Regarding FOM asking the teams if they can mount a for example a mirror cam, cockpit facing, 180-cam, etc, but get denied by the teams, I say - the camera positions are written into the regulations in that cars have to have a specified location for them and run a "blank" in that position, so if FOM want to mount a nose cam etc, then the cars have been designed with them in mind so tough titty on the teams! if you don't want up close and personal cameras then you're in the wrong business!

The number of people who turn off because of the wider camera angles will be tiny. The number of people who turn off because the cars look slower (as a result of the wider camera angles) will be a bit more.

But they're not slower though... They're still going fast... Just cos something looks slow, doesn't mean it is slow and that I should ignore them when the commentators say "ooh thats 80mph round that corner..."

Slight topic change here.....Daniel Ricciardo is on A League Of Their Own tomorrow night at 9pm on Sky1

That doesn't even make any sense. What changed this year?

Well maybe not this specific year, but over the past few years.

Rear facing T-cam is still there on all cars & is still used on the OnBoard feeds, It just doesn't show up on the world-feed all that much.
https://flic.kr/p/NGUTap


I asked the Ex-FOM guy over at F1fanatic about that not too long ago & he came back saying that the reason that camera went away is because the teams started mounting thermal cameras/sensors in the mirrors to monitor tyre temperatures which prevents FOM from been able to fit there cameras in them.

He also posted recently about helmet cameras & basically said that FOM need the permission of the team & drivers due to the extra cable thats required as well as the aero effect that the cameras have on the airflow over the helmets. Placing a camera inside the helmet like the old CART Visor-Cam's is supposedly no longer allowed due to helmet safety regulations banning anything from interfering with the foam padding inside the helmet.


I would guess we don't see the rear facing cockpit camera used anymore due to the new FIA safety cameras that every car carries there now..... Although that doesn't explain where it's been before this year. Don't think it's been used regularly since 2008 where there tended to always be one on a McLaren. It's popped up a handful of times since 2009 but not all that often.

They had that similar shot last year that was mounted inside the cockpit just behind the wheel on Hamilton at Silverstone, Vettel in FP1 at Hungary & Vandoorne's GP2 car in practice at Abu-Dhabi.

Mirror-Cam was last used in on both Mercedes back at Abu-Dhabi in 2014:
http://i.imgur.com/pmCf6qe.jpg
And in GP2 at Monaco that year:
http://i.imgur.com/67C5139.jpg

I remember ITV doing a feature back in 2003 at Montreal where they followed Williams Friday preparation & had access to there team radio.

FOM had put a rear facing cockpit camera on Ralf's car that day which he didn't like & asked for it to be removed & they also showed somebody from FOM removing it & I have also seen it mentioned over the years about teams asking FOM not to use certain cameras or to remove a camera that was placed there initially.


They have to have mounting points on every car ready for a camera & they all have to run the blanks on the nose & 1 on the side behind the driver, However it is apparently completely down to the team's discretion (And sometimes the drivers) on if they actually allow a camera to be put there.

Ross Brawn talking about his future in F1 in the Sky Sports News studio.
Clare Williams interviewed about it too.

This is one of the things I'm getting fed up with F1. It seems more about the politics than the racing these days.

Even when either Lewis or Rosberg wins, it's always about how one is unhappy with how it went or moaning about unfairness, and always seems to overshadow the actual race and win.

It's becoming a very tedious thing to follow.

He's got a book out. The whole 'future in F1' thing is a quite useful talking point if you happen to have a book out, with Johnny and Damon also having new books out at the same time (as pointed out on last night's RLM Midweek Motorsport).

Herbert was on radio 5 live earlier this afternoon, plugging his book. When I listened to the discussion, it became clear the researchers may have skim-read it.

Does it have a chapter in it about being a slightly crappy F1 pundit?

From the book:

Make of that what you will...

It was stocked in my local Asda store last night (which was odd, considering the release date was today), so I literally had a very quick skim through. Apparently he was offered a role on the 2002 Top Gear relaunch.

Does anyone know why the Mexican GP qualifying and race haven't been uploaded to Channel 4 catch up on Sky?

Johnny Herbert - very much the Cheggers of F1 punditry.

I could be very wrong here, but i believe they're only available for a short window of a few days and then removed!

But the Japanese and US Grand Prix races and qualifying are on there, so I don't think that's the case. I can watch on the All4 app, but just wondered why they haven't appeared.

Would be nice if FOM aimed to do something like this (Free login required):
http://premium.fiawtcc.com/en/seasons

Every session from the weekend (Apart from the China/Japan races for some reason) including all the extra video feeds. Quality is good, The highlights feature works well as does switching between video options.

There a phrase involved which I'm not sure Bernie knows exist's though, That been AND ITS FREE.

I was very wrong then

Contact C4 viewer enquiries and ask em

It's a failing of the production if it isn't able to capture that real-world speed into something that looks fast on screen as well. It shouldn't be the commentators job to have to convince the viewer that a car is going fast, it should be his job to confirm how fast they're going.