Scheduling: The European Grand Prix [UPDATED]

From the Asia’s to the European’s to the North America and now back to Europe for, rather aptly, the European Grand Prix. Both BBC and Sky are live this weekend. As with Canada, the BBC team has undergone a few changes. Lee McKenzie steps into Jake Humphrey’s shoes, while Tom Clarkson again steps into McKenzie’s shoes, McKenzie confirming on Twitter this past week that Clarkson would be stepping in for this round, Germany and Hungary. Here’s how the schedule shapes up:

Thursday 21st June
14:00 to 14:30 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 22nd June
08:45 to 10:50 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
08:55 to 10:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Red Button)
10:55 to 11:35 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
12:45 to 14:50 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
12:55 to 14:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Red Button)
14:55 to 15:35 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
16:00 to 16:30 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)

Saturday 23rd June
08:40 to 09:20 – GP3: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:45 to 11:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
09:55 to 11:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Red Button)
12:00 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
12:10 to 14:20 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
14:35 to 16:00 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:00 – GP3: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
23:10 to 00:10 – Le Mans 24 Hours Highlights (Sky Sports F1)

Sunday 24th June
08:20 to 09:05 – GP3: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
09:30 to 10:35 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
11:30 to 16:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
12:10 to 15:15 – F1: Race (BBC One)
15:15 to 16:15 – F1: Forum (BBC One)
16:15 to 17:15 – F1: Legends: Mika Hakkinen (Sky Sports F1)

One thing to note is that there is no sign of the Friday Press Conference with the Team Principles. I assume that is because the Press Conference clashes with the GP2 Qualifying session, and therefore Sky are only showing the Friday Press Conference when the two do not clash. I shall update this blog though if that changes.

Update on 19th June: Sky are showing the Team Principles Press Conference after all, at 16:00 on Friday. I’ve added that above. There are also highlights of the 24 Hours of Le Mans which I have added too. It looks like that may be the only showing, so record it while you can!

Update on 21st June: It turns out that most of my opening paragraph above is now irrelevant. Humphrey is travelling out to Valencia due to the way the Euro 2012 schedule has fallen, meaning McKenzie is doing the usual interviews and Clarkson presumably will not be with the BBC F1 team. Also, on the radio side of things Jonathan Legard is in again for James Allen. On the Sky F1 side of things, Allan McNish is the super sub in place of Anthony Davidson for practice, while Karun Chandhok is also with them for the weekend.

News Articles – Canadian Grand Prix

A summary of all the opinion and blog pieces from BBC and Sky over the past few days since the Canadian Grand Prix.

BBC
– Andrew Benson‘s Post-Race blog
– Gary Anderson‘s Technical Review
– Andrew Benson looks at the new turbo-charged engine and the dispute surrounding it
– Gary Anderson looks at the pit-lane strategies from Canada

Sky
– Ted Kravitz‘s Notebook
– Mike Wise‘s Diary
– Pete Gill‘s Conclusions
– William Esler‘s updated Qualifying comparison
– Mark Hughes analysis on Jenson Button
– James Galloway assesses Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren future after his Canadian win

The Twitter outlook

A fantastic Canadian Grand Prix is followed up by some milestones being passed in the week’s Twitter outlook.

Drivers – The Top 10
01 – 977,711 – Jenson Button (McLaren)
02 – 849,104 – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
03 – 648,581 – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
04 – 427,279 – Bruno Senna (Williams)
05 – 356,274 – Mark Webber (Red Bull)
06 – 210,031 – Sergio Perez (Sauber)
07 – 209,805 – Pastor Maldonaldo (Williams)
08 – 163,559 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
09 – 152,423 – Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)
10 – 138,753 – Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)

Drivers – Biggest Increases
01 – 37,713 – Fernando Alonso
02 – 17,211 – Lewis Hamilton
03 – 11,640 – Jenson Button
04 – 5,801 – Bruno Senna
05 – 5,783 – Felipe Massa

Drivers – Smallest Increases
01 – 444 – Charles Pic
02 – 811 – Jean-Eric Vergne
03 – 905 – Timo Glock
04 – 966 – Daniel Ricciardo
05 – 1,199 – Nico Hulkenberg

After a super late surge to the podium thanks to Sebastian Vettel’s and Fernando Alonso’s tyre problems, Sergio Perez surges up the Twitter standings, overtaking Pastor Maldonaldo and back into sixth place. Perez did not enter the top five for the biggest increases this week, but two people that did enter were Brazilian duo Bruno Senna and Felipe Massa. Massa, who joined Twitter in March alongside Alonso, broke past the 100 thousand follower barrier with an increase of nearly six thousand followers week on week. At the end of the standings, Charles Pic again draws the short straw.

Teams – The Top 10
01 – 283,873 – Ferrari
02 – 198,073 – McLaren
03 – 131,292 – Mercedes
04 – 120,701 – Red Bull
05 – 111,440 – Lotus
06 – 76,216 – Caterham
07 – 66,666 – Marussia
08 – 66,201 – Williams
09 – 65,836 – Force India
10 – 57,761 – Sauber

Teams – Biggest Increases
01 – 4,302 – Ferrari
02 – 3,639 – McLaren
03 – 2,496 – Red Bull

Teams – Smallest Increases
01 – 629 – Toro Rosso
02 – 645 – Williams
03 – 669 – Marussia

Even stevens in the Team placings, Ferrari still recording the biggest increase of the week, although McLaren recorded a higher than usual increase thanks to their victory last weekend. Toro Rosso, Williams and Marussia are all together, albeit at the opposite end of the increases.

Driver and Team statistics as of Monday 11th June 2012.

Wimbledon set to shunt the British Grand Prix to BBC Two

The respective Men’s and Women’s finals at this years Wimbledon looks set to bump the British Grand Prix to BBC Two. According to the schedules page on the BBC F1 website, the schedule is as follows:

Saturday 7th July
12:10 to 14:30 – Qualifying: BBC Two

Sunday 8th July
12:10 to 12:55 – Race Build-up: BBC One
12:55 to 15:30 – Race Live: BBC Two

I imagine a man named Bernie won’t be too pleased if this turns out to be true. That particular page has made errors before with channel listings, so it shall be interesting if this is true in the finalised schedules in a few weeks time.

In an already difficult season ratings wise for Formula 1 with the change in the contract as a result of the licence fee reductions, it appears this will be the latest blow for Formula 1 in the UK this season. One has to wonder if the conclusion of the British Grand Prix is less important than the first few sets of the Wimbledon Men’s Singles final, and also whether the Qualifying session is less important than the Women’s Singles final.

Either way, F1 is definitely drawing the short straw this year…

As always, I shall publish the confirmed schedules in a few weeks time.

Canadian Grand Prix: The ratings around Europe

While this blog does tend to focus on the United Kingdom television and broadcasting picture, along with the respective ratings, of course, the UK is only one small part of the puzzle. Around Europe, Formula 1 found itself overshadowed by football.

In Spain, the race had 5 million viewers, with a 33.5% viewing share on Antena 3. The figure was significantly lower than the 10 million viewers that watched Spain versus Italy, but higher than the 1.76 million that watched Ireland vs Croatia. Over in Italy, the race started on Rai 2 before switching to Rai 1 twenty-five minutes into the race. The Rai 2 portion had 5.67 million (25.7%), with the Rai 1 portion recording 7.93 million (32.4%). In comparison, Italy’s Euro 2012 game a mammoth 12.7 million, a 62.7% viewing share.

In the Netherlands, according to rating bureax Kijkonderzoek, where there are no Formula 1 drivers of course, the race had 537 thousand viewers, a 7.7% share, on RTL7. The football there recorded 4 million viewers, again with a mammoth share – this time of 65.7%. In France, looking at these comments, it appears the F1 was not actually broadcast live there last night thanks to their election coverage.