Tweets from James Allen and Allan McNish seem to confirm they are staying with 5 Live(?)

https://twitter.com/allanmcnish/stat...02784772038656
https://twitter.com/Jamesallenonf1/s...09522929762306

I don't see how it would change dramatically, graphics-wise. We'd just get a slightly modified tower tbh...

Colour-coding as yellow the driver at risk of next being eliminated with green for safe and red for already gone?

But surely the only driver at risk of being eliminated the next time the 90secs tics down is the driver in last place in that session at that point...

And FOM's tower currently already identifies those as in the drop-zone currently (could only find a 2014 example here): https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B17yflwIYAEkDvR.jpg

One is correct.

The other is very badly wrong. If you saw Ben Constanduros Tweet yesterday, you may be able to put 2 and 2 together...

This thread could be a very interesting read in the next week.

Allen returning to TV? Surely not...

I hope not, I'm colour-blind.

And before anyone mentions traffic lights - I go by the position of the light - top means stop, bottom means go

FOM finally launching an in-house live-streaming package in the UK? Possibly taking content & presentation from existing broadcasters instead of making their own (i.e. pre/post-session analysis & commentary etc.)? Allen involved in some way?

Only you could read DMN's hint in that way

I read it as being James Allen becoming C4's commentator. Which would presumably mean that Ben Edwards is at 5 Live for the coming season. That would be a shock - a tremendous shock.

On a different note, did anybody else see the BBC story in which Bernie has apparently said that the new quali format won't be able to be launched until the 5th race because the timing technology isn't ready yet. I don't think that's been discussed on the thread yet. Typical Bernie cock-up, that!

I thought Ben was definitely moving to Channel 4?

It has been discussed on the thread before, and i'm surprised it's been delayed till Spain, but then again Australia is less than a month away now.

Somewhere in the last couple of weeks I read a post that suggested James Allen was making a change and that he'd commented that it was a change for him - or something like that. The post quickly vanished and I was definitely not dreaming.

I don't see how a move to a commercial broadcaster would be a change for him, given he's worked at both ITV & the BBC now, especially given the Whisper Films team is mostly ex-BBC people.

Yep, which is why it's ridiculous to be messing around with the rules so close to the start of the season. No blame to FOM at all - didn't somebody on this thread say as soon as the rule change was announced that they doubted the flaky timing system would stand up to it? Seems that they were right!

The timing system itself is fine, it's the software interpreting the timing into the on-screen TV graphics which falls over a lot, usually at the start at the season. Now i'm a software programmer, adding a 90sec countdown to the graphics software is hardly going to make it fall over any more... It's probably only listening for a few extra signals being transmitted to it from the timing system.

It's rare that the entire timing system at the track falls over, usually it's just the graphics on the world feed that falls over more often.

Or becoming presenter / pundit. That would qualify as "making a change".

So that's okay then, is it? It doesn't matter if the fans without live timing have no idea what's going on?

Bernie now seems to be suggesting that the new qualifying format may not be introduced at all.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/20.../#720cc0ab2403

I never said it was OK. It's not OK and frankly reflects badly on the people's products (VizRT) that FOM use to drive the graphics.

Basically he says that the WMSC could still throw it out, but why would they do that this time? They've approved pretty much everything else before.... I wonder if he's thinking that the WMSC may be unhappy with it being introduced part-way through the season? Makes sense to push it into 2017 IMO.

Really surprised if JA comes back. He's found his niche, and whilst he's better than 2008 it's really a major blow to lose Ben Edwards. In fact, this might tip me into watching Sky rather than BBC for the live races.

I wouldn't mind JA on C4. I've nothing against Ben whatsoever but James has that bit more excitement in his delivery. Ben is more controlled and he's very on the ball but doesn't quite convey the enthusiasm that James does (and Murray did). But as FOM Fan said, I also thought that Ben had more or less been confirmed.

Still, it can't be long now before C4 makes an official announcement, we know they've done the team photocall.

Reading between the lines it sounds like Allen is off to Channel 4. However, Allen himself wrote a few weeks ago that Edwards & McKenzie were to be part of the Channel 4 team so James being lead commentator doesn't align with his own reporting. Perhaps he's moving into punditry or presenting as DEmberton said, I certainly hope it's not as commentator if it means Ben missing out.

Either way it looks like he's no longer with 5 Live which leaves an opening for (our very own ) Jack Nicholls. I just hope such a move won't break up his Formula E partnership with Dario, my favourite commentary lineup in a long time.

Regarding the earlier talk that Sky were cutting their pre-race to 60 minutes, it's a very good move if true and together with the reduction in The F1 Show should mean much improved coverage with less filler. Quality will always beat quantity and that's a mistake Sky have fallen foul of for 4 years which with any luck they've now put right.

Wouldn't the BBC no longer showing F1 be more likely to tip you into watching on Sky Sports?

So Guy Martin confirmed as part of the C4 F1 team then.. Looking at the title C4 have leaked one of their member's of their lineup.

Anyway a good addition to the team if a surprising one.

Forgive me as I don't watch the two wheeled sport, but I thought Melanie Sykes was the BTSport MotoGP presenter, so maybe Suzi is going to replace her??