Sky reach for the BBC

We’re four races into the UK’s shared broadcasting of Formula 1 between Sky and the BBC. Apart from providing us viewers with the massive fun of spotting the other broadcaster in the background, what are the BBC and Sky doing with this new deal and how do they compare so far?

Starting with Sky the first thing you notice is just how much depth they’re prepared to go into with their coverage. They know they’re not presenting to a mass audience of millions, they’re plying their trade for the hard core fans, the people who know what a DRS wing is without a need for explanation.

This is not to say their coverage alienates new comers to the sport, but they know their core audience and their presentation acknowledges it, as well as the fact they have a whole channel dedicated to it.

Sky are masters at sports presentation which is why it’s a bit strange that I find some of the coverage rather clunky. They’ve done many good things so far; showing all sessions live with race and qualifying uninterrupted by adverts and have the F1 show every week to keep you updated as well as F1 legends interview shows and coverage of the GP2 and when it starts the GP3 support series following the drivers of the future.

They love their technology and the use of the Skypad is a highlight to get into those technical issues with virtual cars and super slowmo clips. The actual race coverage is fine, however it does follow a very similar pattern to the way the BBC do things, with presentation from the pit lane, paddock then a grid walk, then after the race wondering the paddock again finding people to chat to.

Now there’s nothing wrong with that, I’m not sure there’s really that many ways of doing anything different with that, but I’m not sure it’s quite as slick as it could be yet. Presenter Simon Lazenby is sometimes coming across a bit nervous and the rapport between him and pundit Damon Hill (who also doesn’t seem to be overly assured all the time) hasn’t had time to build yet which leads to a few awkward moments.

Georgie Thompson is best as presenter for the F1 show and makes a good combo with Ted Kravitz. Here’s where the team excel, along with Kravitz Sky also poached from the BBC; Anthony Davidson (great analyser), Natalie Pinkham (although can be slightly cringe worthy in her VTs), David Croft and of course the jewel in the crown of Formula 1 broadcasting Martin Brundle.

Kravitz is as good as ever, Brundle and Croft make a good pairing in the commentary box which is when you really need to be good anyway. So overall Sky are doing a fantastic job but sometimes it feels as if Brundle is holding it all together, especially when wondering around the paddock.

They’ve stolen the best parts of the BBC and added that depth and detail, and the hours of coverage they have (sometimes it feels like they have a bit too much time either side of the race that they don’t know what to do with) make it a sound investment, although they know they have tough competition from the BBC.

It was noticeable that in the build-up to the Chinese Grand Prix, the only time Sky and BBC have shared live coverage of a race so far this year, Sky didn’t run adverts during the time the BBC were on air, just in case some people channel hopped over I imagine.

And they’re right to be worried because if you did pop in on the BBC to see how they’re doing then you might well have stayed because they are still just as good as ever, there is a reason they’ve won BAFTAs.

It was like sitting back down with familiar friends, despite half of them being on another channel (although if you caught the BBC Bahrain forum you can see a quick chat with Martin Brundle).

Even if the banter can get a bit much, there’s just a great sense of camaraderie between Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan. Having said that, the highlights show haven’t included EJ all that much if at all and it hasn’t suffered for that.

Jake Humphrey is a great sports presenter in general and has a real knack of sharing his passion for sport with a mass audience. David Coulthard has grown brilliantly as a pundit over the last few years to a point where I think Brundle leaving has given him more room to shine.

Gary Anderson is a fine addition as pit lane reporter, a former F1 designer he certainly knows his stuff but might need to hone his interview technique. Ben Edwards has a wealth of motor sport commentary experience for Eurosport and ITV and has fitted in perfectly with David Coulthard to form an equal partnership to Croft and Brundle.

The only lowlight is that Lee McKenzie seems underused in the programmes. She’s a great interviewer and has proved to be a good presenter before but the highlight shows prevent many VT’s leaving her in the back ground which is a shame.

I’ve mentioned them already but with their contract saying they can only cover 10 races live (all are live with a fine BBC 5live team), obviously that means the other 10 are highlights. Early races mean a 2 hour package, European timed ones 90 minutes.

The 2 hour package was great, it didn’t feel like you were missing massive chunks of the race and the commentary was seamless. Ninety minutes may not be quite enough. The analysis afterwards was to the point but not a lot of detail but they still run the F1 forums even if they’re not live which is great.

They’re a much more relaxed affair and they often provide plenty of laughs as well as insight to the behind the scenes goings on in Formula 1 after the champagne has been sprayed but you have to search for this extra coverage via red or web.

Although it’s a shame all races aren’t live on free to air, in a way it’s good to have two broadcasters as they’ll push each other along and a nice bit of healthy competition hasn’t done any harm to overall viewing figures so far.

It should be noted that they do cater to different audiences and Sky have been brilliant in pushing F1 coverage to a new level, but a comparison between them is inevitable and I feel that when the BBC share live coverage I’d still just about opt for them.

Vettel holds off battling Kimi

 
A lot has been said about the circumstances the Bahrain Grand Prix took place in this weekend, the rights and wrongs of it have been well documented so let’s focus on what Formula 1 actually came to do and that’s race.

World champion Sebastian Vettel hasn’t had the best of starts to the season but he made a dramatic return to form today, starting from pole position he lead almost every lap minus pit stops to record his 22^nd victory in a fantastically controlled drive.

Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus took second place only four races into his comeback and many would argue perhaps victory should have been his. He was a major player today.

Vettel started brilliantly and shot into the distance like we saw so many times last year. He’s certainly not forgotten how to control a race and opened up a sizeable gap in just a few laps. At the same time Kimi Raikkonen had rocketed off the line from 11th, slicing through the middle of the pack on the run to the first corner before taking the outside line into turn 1and parking himself neatly into 7^th place.

Kimi looked aggressive from the start utilising his new sets of tyres he'd saved in qualifying and was already hassling Jenson Button’s McLaren for 6^th in the early laps. A slight error dropped him behind Massa but he was soon back past on lap 5 and then on laps 7 and 9 continued to charge passed Button then Alonso to move into 5^th.

With the first pit stops completed Vettel maintained a comfortable 5 second gap back to Romain Grosjean, but Kimi by now (lap 13) had latched onto the back of Mark Webber in the second Red Bull and into turn 11 he out braked him in a clinical manoeuvre to 3^rd place and so began the next charge, to close the gap to the leaders.

He was utterly relentless, he may seem almost as if he doesn’t care outside the cockpit, but once that visor comes down Kimi is as focused as the best of them. He was around 10 seconds back from his team mate but by lap 21 Kimi was on his back ready to pass.

Now here’s the little question mark on whether Lotus should have told Grosjean to let him through? Of course you could argue that’s not racing, but the speed with which Kimi caught him and at the same time was catching Vettel surely they could see the win was on here?

Three laps circling behind Grosjean cost Kimi around two seconds, lost time which would have meant he was that much closer to Vettel when he was in a position to challenge for the lead. And challenge he did, after the second pit stops between laps 24-26 Raikkonen continued to remorselessly catch Vettel so that by lap 34 he was in a position to pass.

Perhaps if he had not been held up he’d have been able to make a move earlier, but as it was he was restricted to lap 36 where the race could have changed. DRS activated, KERs used, Kimi was in the slipstream of Vettel, this was his moment to take the lead, pulling out from behind the Red Bull to the inside line into the braking zone.

Vettel is a great defensive driver, although leaving it slightly late as Kimi pulled to the inside Vettel moved to block, unsettling the Finn just enough for him to back out of it and go to the outside which just didn’t work.

From then on he wasn’t quite close enough to make another challenge, and covering Vettel’s final pit stop on lap 40, the Lotus pitted a few laps earlier than they wanted resulting in him putting the medium compound back on so they’d be sure it would last. Ideally if they’d stayed out a few laps longer they’d have put the softer tyre back on, but it wasn’t to be and Vettel led Kimi over the line by a little over 3 seconds.

Kimi was outstanding and despite scoring a podium so early in his comeback said he was even a bit disappointed not to get the win. Vettel on the other hand was obviously elated. His index finger raised yet again, this was proof how hard Red Bull has worked to get their car back to the front.

More adjustments to the rear of the car and the exhausts have balanced it much more to Vettel’s liking and he repaid them superbly.

The other stars of the race: Grosjean, di Resta and Massa

Behind the top two Grosjean scored his first podium finish with a fantastic drive. He wasn’t all that far behind as well after making a great start and using DRS to pass Webber and Lewis Hamilton fairly quickly to move into 2^nd place before Kimi caught him up.

It’s been a good couple of races for Grosjean and he’s more than proving his worth after his first troubled stint in Formula 1 in 2009. Lotus look set to stay in contention too after exploiting their first clean weekend almost to the maximum.

Paul di Resta gave Force India something to cheer about after some team personnel were caught up in the protests happening in Bahrain on Wednesday night. After the team missed second practice it was a great result to get into the top ten qualifying and even better to be the only team to make a two stop strategy work.

di Resta picked his fights well, knowing who to battle against and who to let go to make his two stop strategy work (the only one to do so), it was intelligent racing and he’s certainly putting one over on his team mate Nico Hulkenberg at the moment which will certainly please him.

Finally my other star from today is Felipe Massa, he may have been out qualified again by Fernando Alonso and finished behind him but it was a lot more confident performance than we’ve seen from him in a long time. 

He started 14^th but had only been half a second behind Alonso who was 4^th in Q2 just showing how tight the pack is at the moment. He made a meteoric start and was up to 8^th by turn 2. He put a sneaky move on Raikkonen and although he lost it a few laps later he was always in contention for points and never far behind Alonso.

If he had been the first to pit of the two Ferrari’s in the last two pit stops I think he would have finished in front of his team mate; a good confidence booster for the Brazilian.

McLaren’s Woes

Red Bull’s renaissance came on the same weekend that McLaren seemingly imploded. After the first three races where it was generally accepted that they have the best overall package, but in race trim they can’t seem to extract the maximum pace from the tyres. 

 Apart from Australia, they haven’t had a consistent pace from the car throughout a race. Button was running 7^th in the closing laps closing on Rosberg and di Resta when a puncture forced him to pit 3 laps from the end. He came back in a lap later to retire the car with a differential failure.

Lewis Hamilton suffered three slow pit stops which cost him an estimated 17 seconds. It wouldn’t have put him in contention for the win, but he’d have been further up the order than his eventual 8^th place finish.

McLaren look like they need to regroup quickly if they’re not to let their early season advantage disappear. Although that advantage only appeared to be for one race really, since then it just so happens that 2012 is throwing up all sorts of variables, mainly to do with working the tyres that change up the order.

Other top 10 finishers

The celebrations of China were now a distant memory as Mercedes had to be content with a 5^th and 10^th place finish from Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher respectively.

Rosberg was 9^th after a terrible start from his top 5 grid slot. He had some fairly spectacular incidents when he looked like he cut across very sharply in front of Hamilton and Alonso, forcing them off the road. No action was taken however. Alonso’s reaction to this was tweeted thusly: "I think you are going to have fun in future races! You can defend position as you want and you can overtake outside the track! Enjoy!"

Schumacher charged through from 22^nd on the grid after a wing failure and gearbox penalty in qualifying. It hasn’t been a great start to the season and he seems to be becoming frustrated with having to manage the tyres all the time rather than just race as he commented to the BBC after the race.

The rest of the top 10 was completed by Mark Webber’s now traditional fourth place, he was never in the running for victory and it seems strange that as soon as Vettel is back to winning form Webber slips back a bit.

Fernando Alonso was 7^th after another combative drive. Thanks to his Malaysian win and his never say die attitude to grab points in the other races he is equal 4^th in the championship only 10 points off the lead of Vettel. If Ferrari updates work for Spain he’s positioned himself nicely as the season kicks off in Europe.

No points for Toro Rosso despite 6^th on the grid for Daniel Ricciardo who dropped back badly at the start. Williams and Sauber also had pointless days.

Updating to Europe

So now we head to the Spanish Grand Prix in three weeks. Before that there’s an in season test for the first time since 2008 at Mugello where the teams will be feverishly trying out their updates.

There’s been a lot to absorb from the first four races, no team has stolen a march and the conditions and temperatures effecting the tyres on race day have given us different pace setters at every race so far.

It’s all adding up to a classic season of Formula 1 but perversely as we head back to Europe the familiar names on top of the championship tables are Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull.

all photo's taken from autosport.com

Rosberg takes dominant first win

Today in China Nico Rosberg took his Mercedes to a perfect first career victory in a superb display that matched his equally perfect pole position lap.

In what was an action packed race he was out in front almost the entire time, looking completely at ease he hardly put a wheel out of line as he disappeared to dominate the Grand Prix by over 20 seconds. 

In Friday practice the Mercedes cars had looked quick as they have done all season, but again the longer runs weren’t up to the pace of McLaren or Red Bull and so there was a real worry that despite locking out the front row of the grid, come the race their advantage would be lost.

But they played with the setup and hoped more than anything that they’d gone in the right direction. They had, and with Rosberg they used their strategy to perfection. I’ve often been critical of Nico as he seems to go backwards in the races unable to quite make his tyres last as well as his team mate Michael Schumacher, but no such issues struck him today.

Whatever his team did, it worked. Rosberg got a brilliant start; streaking away he was on his own as the field got to turn one. Immediately he pulled a gap while simultaneously conserving his tyres beautifully.

The stops worked well, never once getting involved in heavy traffic defined by his second and last stop when he exited just ahead of the battling Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton. If he’d been stuck behind them his only real rival Jenson Button might have had a sniff of victory.

But while most of the front runners went for a three stop strategy this silver arrow managed on just those two stops, showing just how far they’ve come with their tyre management.

Perhaps the cooler temperatures worked in their favour, it’ll certainly be interesting to see how they perform in the much hotter climate of Bahrain next weekend but today they were untouchable and Rosberg was delighted in what was in many ways a breakout performance.

Schumacher continues with bad luck

Of course this glorious result for one Mercedes was in stark contrast to the fortunes of Schumacher who started on the front row for the first time since his comeback. Schumacher I would generally say has had the stronger race pace for the past year, managing his tyres better than Rosberg but today that didn’t look like it would be the case.

But he retired after his first pit stop when the team failed to attach his right rear tyre properly on lap 13, but he’d already lost five seconds to his team mate and had exited behind Jenson Button, so whether he could have come back from that is unlikely.

He certainly could have had a podium chance. A shame we didn’t get to see it play out but he’ll take heart that he has a race winning car under him for the first time since 2006.

The action Behind: Two stops vs three

Behind the Mercedes there was an epic race of different strategies converging towards the end resulting in some fantastic scraps through the field with cars having to fight their way back through the pack depending on who had the fresher tyres at the time. 

It's so tight at the moment that you often had the likes of Hamilton and Webber dropping from the top five after their pit stops to 13th or lower.

You didn't know what would work out until all the stops were completed; there wasn't much in it but three stops generally seemed the way to go so you'd have fresher tyres near the end and would be able to attack. 

However with only eight laps left second and third positions were in the hands of two stoppers Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel with the three stoppers of Button, Hamilton and Webber closing in.

On lap 48, Kimi’s tyres simply died and he went crashing down the order, from 2^nd to 10^th in the space of a lap before eventually sliding to 14^th. Vettel faired a little better. 

He took Kimi to rise to 2^nd, but Button was soon upon him and on lap 51 with his tyres slowly losing their grip his slide began too. Down to 3^rd, three laps later Hamilton was through and a lap later with only one to go his team mate Mark Webber muscled his way past too. Still fifth wasn’t a bad result from a poor 11^th on the grid and a dreadful start that had left him 15^th.

Red Bull Development split

Red Bull still has a good race pace but they have to sort out their qualifying. It can’t help that their drivers also seem to have a very different preference to the direction they want the team to take with development. 

In China, Webber was racing the newer exhaust configuration while Vettel had reverted to one they used at the start of testing. Concerning times for the team that dominated last year, but it’s still early in the year and they’ll be satisfied that they’re not even a race win away from the top of the championship. Mark Webber only nine points adrift from Hamilton having scored a hat trick of fourth places.

McLaren salvage podiums

Another driver who is rooted to the same position this year is McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton who finished in another third place, this time though he had to come through from seventh place after a five place grid penalty for changing the engine and possibly cost him a chance of winning.

He could have had a better race as he was caught up in traffic for a lot of the time and had to make a number of incisive moves including on his 2011 nemesis Felipe Massa which cost him crucial time, so in the end third wasn’t a bad result at all. But his team mate Button will wonder if he could have won this too.

When he made his third stop he was eight seconds ahead of Rosberg so would have been around twelve seconds behind when he exited the pits on fresher tyres. 

It looked like there was the potential for an epic last few laps for the win, but trouble at the stop meant he was delayed by over six seconds and came out into the train of cars headed by Kimi at the time. Button forced his way back through the pack, but any chance of the win had gone. 

 I think McLaren will be disappointed at this stage of the season. Overall they look to have the best general package but haven’t maximised it for various reasons, although they do top both championships.

The other top ten battles

Romain Grosjean finally made it through more than three laps and after a battling drive came through to record a 6^th place finish and his first points.

The Williams pair of Bruno Senna and Pastor Maldonado were involved in the main scraps throughout the race finishing 7^th and 8^threspectively, Maldonado finally getting the points he deserved. Williams continue to impress this year, it’s certainly nice to see them on an upward curve and great to see Senna and Maldonado really battling hard and showing their worth.

In 9^th we have Malaysian race winner Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari. It may seem a poor result and actually it is, but Alonso drove better than the finish showed. He was hanging onto the front runners well and challenging Lewis at one point.

But while Lewis was able to pass and scamper away from the Williams cars, Alonso struggled to get by. Attempting to pass Maldonado around the outside at turn 7 he got on the marbles, ran wide and that was that. He slipped down the order and was just able to get back past the Sauber’s to score a couple of vital points. 

Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa had a better day than of recent, but still could only manage 13^th on his two stop strategy, but he was in the mix and at least that’s progress. Major Ferrari updates are coming for Spain, they can’t come soon enough.

Kamui Kobayashi rather flattered to deceive for Sauber, although he ran strongly at various points, but having started 3^rdhe may have expected a bit more than one point for 10^th however he did get fastest lap. Sergio Perez came back down to earth with a clichéd bump as he failed to replicate his success from Malaysia with only 11^th.

Force India and Toro Rosso aren’t far behind in the midfield battle but were never in contention for points while the ‘new’ teams plodded around for an hour and a half.

Television, reflection and future

Just a mention for the television coverage, after the first two races with Sky the BBC finally went live this season, and I got to say I missed it. It was as good as always, Sky aren’t doing a bad job at all but in effect they have the exact same set up as the BBC and with the exception of the wonderful Skypad can’t really do much more. It’s also quite fun to spot Sky people in the BBC coverage and vice versa or maybe that’s just me.

Anyway that was round three of the season and already we have our third different winning driver and manufacturer. It was a pretty epic race with excitement all the way down the pack. It should be noted the DRS zone made passing far too easy last year but this time it was an option, but not a certainty which is what it’s there for and they got it perfect and made the racing all the more exciting.

It’s so close at the moment it’s hard to predict anything, the only certainty is that for right or wrong reasons we’re off to Bahrain next weekend where it could be all change again. 

all photo's taken from autosport.com 

FIA confirm race in Bahrain

It was announced last night that Formula 1 will hold the Bahrain Grand Prix next weekend. The full FIA statement can be read here.

There are many countries which hold international sporting events that have a rather dubious human rights record, but there is a distinct difference which should be made clear to why Bahrain is a different proposition.

The government in Bahrain is using the race as a political tool to present a unified country which is moving forward and are putting to rights the problems they have faced over the last year.  This is in contrast to slogans from the protesters including ‘Stop racing on our blood’.

There is the real problem; in Bahrain the race has become a focus for pro-democracy protesters, using it to show that the government would rather the world think that everything is fine. They pay upwards of £25million for the privilege of holding the race, yet are continually disregarding and cracking down on protests that demand reforms in a country ruled by the Sunni Al Khalifa family to a Shia majority.

Doctors are still being arrested for treating protesters, tear gas is fired indiscriminately and next Tuesday Amnesty International has announced a fifty page report detailing human rights abuses since February 2011 when the Arab Spring sparked to life.

As it has become a target of what is wrong with the country’s priorities, Formula 1 should have taken the decision to cancel the race, but then again money of course talks, only if Bahrain’s authorities had cancelled would F1 and Bernie Ecclestone still be entitled to the race fee.

The teams are uncomfortable with going with one unnamed team member telling the Guardian newspaper "I feel very uncomfortable about going to Bahrain. If I'm brutally frank, the only way they can pull this race off without incident is to have a complete military lockdown there. And I think that would be unacceptable, both for F1 and for Bahrain. But I don't see any other way they can do it."

It's for this reason Formula 1 should not be going. Sport and politics don't mix so everyone says, but this race is political, it is being used by both government and protesters to make a point therefore the decision should have been taken to say the race will only return when the situation has been resolved.

The teams are more concerned with their own safety, which is fair enough really, but the problems in Bahrain should not be ignored, it’s only Red Bull’s Mark Webber who has openly doubted whether Formula 1 should be in the country whereas most other drivers and teams have said it is down to the governing body the FIA to make the call to go or not. Sebastian Vettel has said it is not our business to interfere.

Vettel does have a point, it is not for a sporting series to pass judgement, they are merely there to provide entertainment, but it’s doubtful whether a motor race is the way to bring a disconnected country together.  But for better or worse, for now at least, Formula 1 will be in Bahrain.

Actually there’s a race this weekend too …

Anyway Formula 1 doesn’t stop, there is actually a race in that other human rights paradise of China this weekend where practice has been and gone with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes setting the pace. Rain is forecast over the weekend, should be an exciting one.

Will Bahrain Grand Prix go ahead?

At the moment the Bahrain Grand Prix is still scheduled to take place on April 22^nd, a week after the Chinese race, but it has come to light that the teams have already made contingency plans to head straight back to Europe should Bahrain be cancelled.

The main point of this though is that the race hasn’t yet been cancelled. Last year the race was taken off the schedule as the ruling minority Sunni Al Khalifa royal family decided, after a lot of hesitance, to deal with the majority Shiite people protesting against their rule and for democratic reforms and a Formula 1 race would not and should not have been a priority.

But over the last week, despite assurances from the Bahrain government that they are in control, there has been a fatal shooting, tear gas has been fired at protesters and Nabeel Rajab of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights has been arrested, reportedly before a planned march in the capital Manama to show support for fellow human rights activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja who is on a hunger strike (joesaward.wordpress.com).

Bahrain want to use the race to unite the country, while Bernie Ecclestone told jamesallenonF1.com that he has no problem with the race being used as ‘”a force for good”’. I find that to be uncomfortably close to the old warning of politics and sport should not mix.

Even if it is meant as a positive show of support, it is especially unwise when a lot of the protests are being directed against the Grand Prix running, especially when the country is still unsettled. The race is important to Bahrain economically and promotes them on an international stage, but when there is still so much unrest in the country is it the wisest decision for Formula 1 and its partners to associate itself with them and put the security of the teams at risk as well?

There are other places Formula 1 and other global sports visit where you could say they have a dubious past and even present, but politics and sport should not mix which is why sports go there, but these events are happening right now.

Is it right for a global sport to go to a country which seeks to use it to unite its people but will violently crack down on them to do so? The protesters are using the race as a focus point and as a sign that the rulers would rather draw a curtain around them and pretend everything is fine and surely that is reason enough not to go?

However, at the moment the teams will go where they are sent and Bahrain feel they are equipped to make the race safe. I’m not sure that is a good thing for the sport, its teams or for the people of Bahrain.