Formula 1 2012 season

[brett]

No thread yet, after all the BBC and sky stuff is finished we now have a really exciting season to look forward too.

 

6 world champions on the grid, Great to see Kimi look his normal excited best when been interviewed on the F1 show Friday.

 

Stolen from digitalspy for full details on coverage this year

 

BBC F1

- Jake Humphrey (Presenter)

- Ben Edwards (Commentator)

- David Coulthard (Commentator + Pundit)

- Eddie Jordan (Pundit)

- Lee McKenzie (Pitlane + Inside F1 [bBC News])

- Gary Anderson (Pitlane)

 

* note: Lee McKenzie will be presenter at Canada, Europe, Germany and Hungary

 

BBC will screen

1) LIVE coverage of 10 race weekends: Practice (BBC Red Button), Qualifying, Race and Forum (BBC Red Button)

- 15 April: China

- 13 May: Spain

- 27 May: Monaco

- 24 June: Europe

- 8 July: Britain

- 2 September: Belgium

- 23 September: Singapore

- 14 October: Korea

- 4 November: Abu Dhabi

- 25 November: Brazil

 

2) Highlights of 10 race weekends: Qualifying, Race and Forum (BBC Red Button)

- 18 March: Australia (afternoon - 120 minutes)

- 25 March: Malaysia (afternoon - 120 minutes)

- 22 April: Bahrain (evening - 90 minutes)

- 10 June: Canada (late night - 120 minutes)

- 22 July: Germany (evening - 90 minutes)

- 29 July: Hungary (evening - 90 minutes)*

- 9 September: Italy (evening - 90 minutes)

- 7 October: Japan (afternoon - 120 minutes)

- 28 October: India (afternoon - 120 minutes)

- 18 November: USA (late night - 120 minutes)

 

* BBC Two due to Olympics

- Qualifying highlights will be 75 minutes

 

BBC 5 Live F1

- James Allen (Commentator)*

- Jaime Alguersuari (Commentator)

- Jennie Gow (Pitlane)

 

* note: Jonathan Legard will stand-in for James Allen at Canada, Europe and several races after the Olympics

 

BBC F1 is...

- available to watch/listen to again for up to 7 days on BBC iPlayer

- available to watch live online for the 10 races that they cover

- available to listen to live online for every race in 2012

 

Sky Sports F1

- Simon Lazenby (Presenter - Main)

- Georgie Thompson (Presenter - Magazine)

- Ted Kravitz (Presenter - Magazine + Pitlane)

- Steve Rider (Presenter - Legends)

- Martin Brundle (Commentator)

- David Croft (Commentator)

- Anthony Davidson (Commentator)

- Damon Hill (Pundit)

- Natalie Pinkham (Pitlane)

 

Sky Sports F1 will screen...

- every Qualifying and Race LIVE uninterrupted advert free

- every Practice session LIVE

- every GP2 and GP3 session LIVE

- along with a Legends programme outside of race weekends

- interviews and other tidbits on Sky Sports News with Rachel Brookes and Craig Slater reporters

 

Sky Sports F1 is...

- available to people with Sky on Channel 408 from March who have the HD package OR the Sports package

- available to people with Virgin Media on Channel 516 who have the Sky Sports package (SD only, HD channel is Sky exclusive)

- not available to people with Freeview or BT Vision

- available on Sky Go with the relevant subscription

- available on Xbox 360 for Sky customers with an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription

[PunkStep]

Qualifying was encouraging, with a McLaren 1-2. If the Red Bull car isn't the quickest or even one of the quickest then Vettel and Webber have no chance of finishing at the top. Neither are great drivers, there are quite a few better drivers than them, Grosjean maybe too. Come on McLaren!

[Statto]

BBC 5 Live F1

- James Allen (Commentator)*

 

* note: Jonathan Legard will stand-in for James Allen at Canada, Europe and several races after the Olympics

 

Does this mean BBC are putting James Allen, F1 geek to the point he named his kids Enzo and Emerson, to work during the Olympics? I look forward to his insight on the judo.

 

Sky's F1 coverage sounds gloriously like the BDO World Darts Championships now. I look forward to Tony Green coming in.

[LariatTom]

Qualifying was encouraging, with a McLaren 1-2. If the Red Bull car isn't the quickest or even one of the quickest then Vettel and Webber have no chance of finishing at the top. Neither are great drivers, there are quite a few better drivers than them, Grosjean maybe too. Come on McLaren!

 

I'm sorry...what? Vettel's not a great driver? Since making his debut, he's done nothing but impress. He impressed during his Friday testing appearances for BMW Sauber, he scored a point on his debut, he won a race in a Toro Rosso and was consistently scoring points for the remainder of that season and completely destroyed his well-respected and much journeyed team-mate in Sebastian Bourdais.

 

You may say that he's not great because he's had the fastest car for pretty much the last two and a half years, but look at how he completely destroyed the competition last year. 15 pole positions, 11 victories, 17 podiums. That's in one season. Yes, he may have had a car that was virtually dominant, but that's still an impressive record. He's only 24 too and he's a double world champion. That doesn't have by not even being a great driver. Pretty much everyone who is asked says that Vettel's a great driver. He's young enough to be able to break all of the records if he gets the car to allow him to do so.

 

This year will be something of a test for him though if today is anything to go by. Red Bull look to be a few tenths off the pace, and we'll see just how good he is in a car that doesn't always deliver and put him in contention for race victories. Every top driver goes through a difficult season (choose any year at Honda for Button, Alonso in 2008/09, Hamilton in 2009/2011 as a few examples), and they tend to come out of them as stronger drivers for it.

 

Qualifying threw up some surprises though. A Mclaren 1-2 wasn't a major surprise, but I think the gap that they had over the field was significant. Grosjean did a fantastic job to get P3 after not looking as though the car had the pace for that grid position and has made it pretty clear that he won't be a pushover against Kimi. Mercedes definitely look strong though. Schumacher put in a great showing to get P4 and Rosberg seems disappointed with 7th on the grid. We'll see what everyone looks like on full tanks in the morning...it's anyone's guess as to who wins. It could be blind optimism and excitement at seeing him back at the sharp end of the grid, but I fancy Schumi for win 92.

[ajmcstyles]

Well Ive only just looked at the full results I knew it was a 1-2 for Hamilton/Button.

 

BUT WOW, in terms of results, Ferrari down in Q2 and poorly at that.

 

Now in terms of Vettel as much as I dislike him he is a smegging good driver you dont become the world champion/top of top gear leader board for being a "average driver" he is a outstanding driver.

 

But this is F1 anything can happen. Red Bull could be behind for several reasons from they are still working on the car or a bad weekend the list goes on.

 

But for Vettel to be that low down is shocking and Webber to out do him on Qualifying.

 

It'll be a good race tomorrow cant wait for the BBC highlight show.

[Loki]

Hmm. Not convinced by the new BBC lineup yet, weird seeing Jake chasing people down with the mic. Edwards sounds a bit amateur on the tv, though I hope he'll grow into it.

 

On the upside, watching quallies as highlights was pretty exciting!

[PunkStep]

I don't think Vettel is a great driver. He's very good, sure, a very good driver with the best car can win championships, but I wouldn't call him great. Look at his pole vs wins comparison- it tells a very interesting story. 30 pole position starts and 21 wins. Whereas you look at the others- Schumacher (who to be fair is one of the greatest) and Button have almost twice as many wins as they have had pole positions- because they are great drivers. Hamilton and Alonso have almost the same amount of wins as they have had pole starts, which is decent. Yet Vettel has 50% more pole starts than wins. Obviously you have to be bloody good to maintain the amount of pole positions he has to win the race, but a great driver will make the most of those pole positions more than Vettel. I guess not seeing Red Bull on pole, like today, will really give us an indication whether he is great, but personally I don't see it. I don't see Vettel covering the amount of ground someone like Button would if he started further back on the grid. Very good; but not great in my opinion.

[Ravenhill Promotions]

Great win for Button, once again proving he's the best British driver in F1.

 

And as for Vettel not being great. I strongly disagree.

[ajmcstyles]

F1 on BBC has just started (F1 for us who cant afford Sky).

 

Does Eddie Jordan and Noel Edmonds share shirts?

[jimufctna24]

SKY's coverage is very good.

 

I have always like Brundle on commentary. Will miss the bumbling antics of Eddie Jordan on the BBC now I watch on SKY though, laugh a minute that man is.

 

Race was fun to watch, think this season will be tight between the Red Bulls and McLaren. I think the Championship will be a 3 horse race between Button, Vettel and Hamilton.

 

That said, only one race down so it is early days yet. Maybe Ferrari will improve, it feels like Massa has been there forever.

[ajmcstyles]

SKY's coverage is very good.

 

I have always like Brundle on commentary. Will miss the bumbling antics of Eddie Jordan on the BBC now I watch on SKY though, laugh a minute that man is.

 

Race was fun to watch, think this season will be tight between the Red Bulls and McLaren. I think the Championship will be a 3 horse race between Button, Vettel and Hamilton.

 

That said, only one race down so it is early days yet. Maybe Ferrari will improve, it feels like Massa has been there forever.

I'm surprised Ferrari kept Massa he hasn't been the same since his accident.

 

I enjoyed the BBC Coverage liking how Jenson took alot of time out for talk with the BBC crew after his win. Would like to see the ratings between Sky and BBC.

[Sergio Bellend]

Would like to see the ratings between Sky and BBC.

 

Why? The BBC will obviously trounce Sky in that department, the same as when any event is shown on both terrestrial and satellite.

[ajmcstyles]

Would like to see the ratings between Sky and BBC.

 

Why? The BBC will obviously trounce Sky in that department, the same as when any event is shown on both terrestrial and satellite.

Oh I understand that. I just wanted to see how many watched the BBC version compared to Sky.

[Dai]

Not a huge fan of the new BBC lineup. Ben Edwards seemed OK, but not as good as Brundle. My biggest problem was with Gary Anderson. His pitlane role is alot different from Ted Kravitz's. He is basically giving irrelevant opinions about tactics, and giving such insight as "It might be lucky or unlucky for Vettel" (when talking about the safety car incident). Having him interject at different points with confusing tactic talk isnt needed in my opinion. I may be in the minority, but I dont want to hear him banging on about the potential of 4 stopping when we're only in lap 10.

[tiger_rick]

Race was OK. The first 15-20 laps were great, then it was dull until the safety and only OK after it. The fighting at the back was cool but I'm never a fan of races that lack excitement at the front and the second half really did. Glad Jenson won, I love that guy. Felt sorry for Lewis. He can't catch a break. If Vettel threw a pound into the air it'd come down as a briefcase full of fifties.

 

Coverage on Sky was good. I liked Croft last year. Brundle is solid but Croft and Davidson were such a good pairing that it's a shame to split them up.