The BBC F1 coverage thread (Legard out. Brundle and DC in.)

[Metar]

I rather respect his writing - jamesallenonf1.com if anyone's interested - and his stuff isn't bad.

 

[Sureboss]

There's a down side to that?

Shares of Kleenex man-size would go through the roof.

 

[Tired Tyres]

Yes. He's a good journalist and if he had any sense at all that's what he would have doing instead of doing something he has no talent for at all.

Not to mention all the Hamilton worship which as an Englishman I found very irritating indeed.

 

[Ardius]

There's a down side to that?

No, I would love to see him explode, at least he were still commentating I mean, struggling to decide which he loved more

I rather respect his writing - jamesallenonf1.com if anyone's interested - and his stuff isn't bad.

Agreed, he's quite insightful about this stuff and actually I didn't mind him as a pit-lane reporter, its just when he attempted to imitate Murray that he started to annoy.

 

[Metar]

At Monaco, on the final lap, the already annoying German commentators (and they've got 5 drivers to cheer for!) announced that Allen would commentate that lap. I was curious, considering his reputation as a Hamilton fanboy - and indeed, half a lap after the Germans gave him the microphone, I had the TV on half-volume.

 

[Blake]

half a lap after the Germans gave him the microphone, I had the TV on half-volume.

Just like Senna did.

 

[Ardius]

Just like Senna did.

At Long Beach, using a car that was built by people who used to be code breakers in WW2.

 

[Obli]

The BBC coverage is sounding like it'll be great - their blog and details of their coverage plans here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/2009/03/f1_editor_the_best_job_in_the.html

As Ardius mentioned, no ad breaks, red button interactivity and the return of The Chain (I am definitely having the sound hooked up to my hi-fi for this) are the main reasons it will rock.

Can't wait!

 

[Only_in_f1]

Just a quick quote from that link; For the first few races, where the time difference means that we can have more red button streams, there will also be the chance to have the on-board camera feed full screen and a choice of television commentary, Radio 5 Live commentary or even a new CBBC commentary that is especially aimed at our younger audience.

Awesome. I think i might tune into that see of i learn something new.

 

[Ardius]

CBBC commentary!!! Wow. So we have an alternative if we don't like the normal commentary? I'm very impressed actually, I was wondering if the BBC were going to scale back from what ITV did and do most of it from the studio...but no, they are going even further!

Friday practice + 5 live commentary sounds excellent, it all sounds good. Glad to hear that Martin will still do grid walks, that was definitely a highlight of the ITV coverage. 👍
They sound like they want to give us as much info as possible and use up as much air time as they can! Which obviously can only be a good thing.

 

[C-ZETA]

CBBC commentary!!! Wow. So we have an alternative if we don't like the normal commentary? I'm very impressed actually, I was wondering if the BBC were going to scale back from what ITV did and do most of it from the studio...but no, they are going even further!

Friday practice + 5 live commentary sounds excellent, it all sounds good. Glad to here that Martin will still do grid walks, that was definitely a highlight of the ITV coverage. 👍
They sound like they want to give us as much info as possible and use up as much air time as they can! Which obviously can only be a good thing.

CBBC commentary is a definite possibility, actually, for me. There are, as you could probably imagine, several people belonging to the young audience of F1 fans, so it might work, if BBC suggest that idea.

Hopefully the 5 live commentary is still as better as ever, even if the last full race I ever listened to on it was 2006 Italian GP. Although I did listen to most of the '08 Hungarian GP, but I was also checking BBC Sport for updates. Speaking of BBC Sport, their live text for F1 will probably be better than ever, now that they have the rights!

 

[Ardius]

Oh wow, I've just found this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2009/03/looking_forward_to_melbourne.html

We can vote for classic moments that we would like to see again on the website! And apparently they are going to do this for each Grand Prix.

Its also nice to see the BBC responding to the questions to and also clarifying they aren't going to focus solely on Hamilton (though they admit they will do a fair amount on him, for obvious reasons).

So the details of this service:
-Classic GP's in full and short cut versions available on iPlayer (but only races from before 1997)
-Voted for on the website
-Available in the week leading up to the current race (so, classic Australian GP available before the 2009 Australian GP, etc)
-Unknown what is happening with races such as Bahrain and Malaysia which don't have previous races (at least available to the BBC), hopefully we'll get South African, US, etc races to choose from.

Edit: Because the BBC are planning on continuing this into 2010 and are going put it on iPlayer in both full and short cut versions, it might be an idea for people to keep this thread updated before each GP on when the historic race has appeared on iPlayer just as a reminder. Or I suppose we could just start a new thread on the historic race when its available for us to watch and review, a "classic GP review thread" or something?
The only downside is that the BBC can't show races from 1997-2008 because they didn't own the rights, but there's plenty of awesome races before 1997.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

We can vote for classic moments that we would like to see again on the website! And apparently they are going to do this for each Grand Prix.

I can already think of a few that are going to be highly requested: Villeneuve vs. Arnoux at Dijon-Prenois and Mansell and Senna's wheel-to-wheel drag race down the main straight at Estoril, for a start.

 

[Obli]

I voted! For the classic Australian GP, I voted 1986. I saw that you voted for 1994, Ardius! Looks like a close battle so far but I think 1994 might just get it. I can't bare to see Schumacher deliberately take out Hill again to deny him of his world championship....

 

[GT4 genius]

Great news. But am I right in guessing it wont be available here, or will they show it late at night on TV?

Edit: Seen it'll be a red button interactive thing. Thankfully that service doesnt realise where the border is!

 

[KSaiyu]

I don't remember much telemetry showing braking/accelerating from last year during much of the weekend, I hope there's more of that especially in qualifying. Not sure the BBC can do anything about that though....

 

[Ardius]

I voted! For the classic Australian GP, I voted 1986. I saw that you voted for 1994, Ardius! Looks like a close battle so far but I think 1994 might just get it. I can't bare to see Schumacher deliberately take out Hill again to deny him of his world championship....

I'd rather not see Mansell have his tyre blow out again!
I haven't seen the full Adelaide 1994 and I would like to see the before and after of the historic collision.
Also, Nige wins in that one

Great news. But am I right in guessing it wont be available here, or will they show it late at night on TV?

Edit: Seen it'll be a red button interactive thing. Thankfully that service doesnt realise where the border is!

Yeah, sorry, I meant iPlayer-red button, but apparently they're looking at getting it on the internet too.

I don't remember much telemetry showing braking/accelerating from last year during much of the weekend, I hope there's more of that especially in qualifying. Not sure the BBC can do anything about that though....

No, its up to the teams how much telementry we get, we are at least getting more team radio from Ferrari and Mclaren. We might be getting more with the red button but its limited. They can't give us the timing sheets but you can go to formula1.com for that.

 

[Metar]

Radio this season will be openly accessible. I wonder, with the Spec ECUs, why the FIA doesn't just let us see more data...

Also, Australia 1996 was a great race too. Why not that one? (not that I'll get to see the BBC's show anyway)

 

[Ardius]

Also, Australia 1996 was a great race too. Why not that one? (not that I'll get to see the BBC's show anyway)

People have voted for it, but not many, so its a toss up between 1986 or 1994, there are never going to be enough votes for 1996, so its a little bit of a wasted vote to be honest.
Later races won't be so easy though, I'll probably vote for 1996 Monaco just for Panis + Ligier on the podium, though there are many good Monaco races.

They did mention they may be able to get hold of the tapes for some of the ITV-broadcast races, so I will vote for 1997 Hungary when it comes around 👍

 

[Ardius]

Sorry about the double post, but I think this is worth it:
The BBC have finally put up the highlights programmes for the "classic" Australian GP:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2009/03/classic_australian_gp_the_winn.html

1994 won by a close margin, so they've given us both 1994 and 1986 full highlights plus short highlights for the rest of the nominees.
We can now also start voting for a "classic" Malaysian GP.

Man, the whole of the 1994 race was summed up with Damon shaking his helmet as the Williams engineers tried to desperately fix the wishbone while Schumacher is shown elated having been told he'd won by default. Good battle between Mansell/Hakkinen/Barrichello/Alesi (awesome dive by Alesi later in the race!) as well 👍

Edit: Just checked the red button, and the 1994 race at least is up currently, not sure whether the 1986 one plays too or the others.

 

[Fastas]

Sorry about the double post, but I think this is worth it:
The BBC have finally put up the highlights programmes for the "classic" Australian GP:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/2009/03/classic_australian_gp_the_winn.html

1994 won by a close margin, so they've given us both 1994 and 1986 full highlights plus short highlights for the rest of the nominees.
We can now also start voting for a "classic" Malaysian GP.

Man, the whole of the 1994 race was summed up with Damon shaking his helmet as the Williams engineers tried to desperately fix the wishbone while Schumacher is shown elated having been told he'd won by default. Good battle between Mansell/Hakkinen/Barrichello/Alesi (awesome dive b Alesi later in the race!) as well 👍

Edit: Just checked the red button, and the 1994 race at least is up currently, not sure whether the 1986 one plays too or the others.

Good call. 👍 everyone who has a red button should watch this - great racing and funny to see the old cars

 

[Ardius]

My fave cockpit shot from the 1994 race is of the Ferrari's, loved the V12 sound too 👍
Anyone have any idea what on earth the engineer is saying to Jean Alesi in his rediculously long pit stop? Or what caused Hakkinen's crash? Palmer seems to think it was the brakes but can anyone clarify this?

Is it worth starting a seperate thread just for discussing these classic GPs? Or perhaps editing the title of this one?

Edit: Just seen the 1986 race, ok, I change my vote for best cockpit shot to Dumfries, very nice to see the manual gear shift! Oh, at Senna eating his sarnies!

 

[Fastas]

My fave cockpit shot from the 1994 race is of the Ferrari's, loved the V12 sound too 👍
Anyone have any idea what on earth the engineer is saying to Jean Alesi in his rediculously long pit stop? Or what caused Hakkinen's crash? Palmer seems to think it was the brakes but can anyone clarify this?

Is it worth starting a seperate thread just for discussing these classic GPs? Or perhaps editing the title of this one?

Edit: Just seen the 1986 race, ok, I change my vote for best cockpit shot to Dumfries, very nice to see the manual gear shift! Oh, at Senna eating his sarnies!

Not sure about Alesi. Brake failures were quite a common thing back then, usually caused by wear. I think he span trying to correct the pull of his good brake against the one not working. In those days there was no such thing as ABS or ceramic discs.

The '86 footage is incredible. The oil leaks were so common up until about 10 years ago. To watch the cockpit vew of Dumfries manual/stick shifting is something else too!

Get a new thread started Ardius 👍

 

[Jay]

I was at the 1994 Adelaide GP 👍

 

[Fastas]

I was at the 1994 Adelaide GP 👍

I bet you wish it came back there too! Do you get the BBC interactive service over there? It's deffinately worth a watch, about two hours of classic Aus. Gran Prix's.

I was just checking the BBC coverage and they will broadcast all three of the practice sessions from friday (2) and saturday morning on the interactive/red button.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I bet you wish it came back there too! Do you get the BBC interactive service over there? It's deffinately worth a watch, about two hours of classic Aus. Gran Prix's.

All we get is BBC News on Foxtel, a pay television service. On a side note, Australians who have access to free-to-air HD TV broadcasts will be happy to hear that ONE will have coverage of the Australian GP from 12:00 am-7:00 pm (AEST) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday will have a similar amount of coverage. 👍

 

[Jay]

I bet you wish it came back there too!

Should never lost it in the first place

On a side note, Australians who have access to free-to-air HD TV broadcasts will be happy to hear that ONE will have coverage of the Australian GP from 11:30 am-6:30 pm on Friday and Saturday and I assume Sunday will have a similar amount of coverage. 👍

We should be happy to finally get some decent footage of our own race (own nation)?

That sums up Racing coverage in Australia.

 

[Blake]

Our Aussie GP coverage is always extensive…

 

[MagpieRacer]

Just watched the BBC's highlight thing, wow it was so awesome to see it all! 1996 and 2007 highlights were a nice bonus!

 

[Ardius]

Wow, and now the BBC are giving us weather reports for each day of the weekend in Melbourne on their F1 page 👍