Month: July 2012

McLaren launch animation unit with new animation series ‘Tooned’ on Sky Sports F1

Yes, I did just write that title. According to Broadcast, McLaren have launched an animation unit with ‘Tooned’, a CGI series debuting on Sky Sports F1 this Sunday. The CGI series will feature the voices of Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and comedian Alexander Armstrong.

Furthermore, Marketing Magazine says each episode is three minutes long, with twelve episodes in total. Either way, I expect it to be either funny or cringeworthy (or I am just not in the age bracket that the animations will be aimed at).

'Tooned', a CGI series coming to Sky Sports F1.

With relation to the CGI’s, Ron Dennis said that “Tooned is the result of extensive market research carried out by McLaren, which John [Allert], our Group Brand Director, and I then analysed carefully together. It’s an exciting and creative concept that addresses the insights gleaned from our research in a very innovative way”, adding that the animations would create a more “demographically accessible ‘face’ for McLaren”.

The animations are a joint venture between McLaren Animations and Oscar award winning animation studio Framestore.

The Twitter outlook

Starting tomorrow, Formula 1 is at Silverstone, with practice beginning tomorrow at 10:00. For now though, here are the tallies in the Twitter outlook:

Drivers – The Top 10
01 – 1,006,951 – Jenson Button (McLaren)
02 – 884,029 – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
03 – 774,309 – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
04 – 441,288 – Bruno Senna (Williams)
05 – 370,005 – Mark Webber (Red Bull)
06 – 222,129 – Sergio Perez (Sauber)
07 – 222,064 – Pastor Maldonaldo (Williams)
08 – 173,657 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
09 – 157,705 – Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)
10 – 149,000 – Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)

Drivers – Biggest Increases
01 – 44,551 – Fernando Alonso
02 – 10,243 – Lewis Hamilton
03 – 9,397 – Jenson Button
04 – 5,033 – Nico Rosberg
05 – 4,438 – Bruno Senna

Drivers – Smallest Increases
01 – 358 – Charles Pic
02 – 545 – Jean-Eric Vergne
03 – 555 – Timo Glock
04 – 802 – Vitaly Petrov
05 – 833 – Nico Hulkenberg

As I noted last week, Jenson Button has passed the one million follower barrier, a fantastic feat. With Button now past one million followers, it is between Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton as to who will be the second current Formula 1 driver to surpass that mark.

A comparison of the amount of Twitter followers Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton have between April 2012 and July 2012.

As the graph above shows, Alonso is closing in massively on Hamilton, and based on their current rate of progress, I would expect Alonso to overtake Hamilton in the August break and break the one million follower barrier before the end of the year.

Teams – The Top 10
01 – 296,131 – Ferrari
02 – 204,279 – McLaren
03 – 134,596 – Mercedes
04 – 127,081 – Red Bull
05 – 115,462 – Lotus
06 – 78,238 – Caterham
07 – 68,661 – Marussia
08 – 67,623 – Williams
09 – 67,574 – Force India
10 – 60,766 – Sauber

Teams – Biggest Increases
01 – 3,292 – Ferrari
02 – 1,902 – McLaren
03 – 1,855 – Red Bull

Teams – Smallest Increases
01 – 502 – Toro Rosso
02 – 505 – Williams
03 – 577 – Marussia

In the Teams table, the only milestone is that Sauber have broken the sixty thousand barrier. Toro Rosso gained three followers less than Williams meaning that they recorded the smallest increase for the week. Up front, Ferrari again led with McLaren and Red Bull scrapping over second.

Driver and Team statistics as of Monday 2nd July 2012.

Sky Sports F1 schedule times for GP2, GP3 and Season Review repeats next weekend

Next weekend, Sky Sports F1 is showing every GP2 and GP3 Series race from the season so far. Which is a pretty good idea when you think about it, instead of showing the latest F1 race, as it is quite easy to miss a GP2 or GP3 race, so it is a good idea for them to repeat them back-to-back.

Sky are also going back to the start with their Season Reviews. They did broadcast 1988 onwards beginning in March when the channel launched, and are now going back in a full circle starting back in 1988. Here are all the times you need if you want to play catch up.

GP2 Series – Saturday 14th July
07:00 – Malaysia, Race 1
08:25 – Malaysia, Race 2
09:30 – Bahrain, Race 1 (Round 1)
10:55 – Bahrain, Race 2 (Round 1)
12:00 – Bahrain, Race 1 (Round 2)
13:25 – Bahrain, Race 2 (Round 2)
14:30 – Spain, Race 1
15:55 – Spain, Race 2
17:00 – Monaco, Race 1
18:30 – Monaco, Race 2
19:35 – Europe, Race 1
21:00 – Europe, Race 2
22:05 – Britain, Race 1
23:30 to 00:35 – Britain, Race 2

GP3 Series – Sunday 15th July
07:50 – Spain, Race 1
08:40 – Spain, Race 2
09:30 – Monaco, Race 1
10:20 – Monaco, Race 2
11:10 – Europe, Race 1
12:00 – Europe, Race 2
12:50 – Britain, Race 1
13:40 to 14:30 – Britain, Race 2

The EPG should have each race in a separate ‘programme’, so if you for example missed the second GP2 race at Monaco, you can just record that race if you wished to. Although they are not screening full Classic F1 races, the above is definitely a good way to utilise the weekend on Sky Sports F1.

Aside from that, there are the Season Review programmes, which are as follows:

– 1988: 21:00 to 22:15, Thursday 12th July
– 1989: 22:15 to 23:25, Thursday 12th July
– 1990: 21:00 to 22:00, Friday 13th July
– 1991: 23:00 to 00:10, Friday 13th July
– 1992: n/a
– 1993: 22:00 to 23:05, Sunday 15th July
– 1994: 23:05 to 00:05, Sunday 15th July
– 1995: 21:00 to 22:00, Monday 16th July
– 1996: 21:00 to 22:00, Tuesday 17th July
– 1997: 21:00 to 22:00, Wednesday 18th July
– 1998: 21:00 to 22:00, Thursday 19th July

As the channel had only just launched when the majority of the above were shown, chances are a lot of people did not spot them first time around, so definitely worth watching if you did not see them.

As always, timings are subject to change, and I shall update this blog if they do.

BBC to stick “with F1 until the end of the current deal and perhaps longer”

The BBC are set to remain covering Formula 1 until at least 2018. That is according to an interview conducted by Phil Duncan of the Daily Mail with BBC’s Formula 1 presenter Jake Humphrey.

In the interview with Duncan, Humphrey noted that he has “been told categorically that the BBC are sticking with F1 until the end of the current deal and perhaps longer”, while he cannot see “be astounded and massively shocked if the BBC say: “we’re stepping away from F1″”.

The comments from Humphrey follows an interview Bernie Ecclestone gave to The Guardian last month, suggesting that free-to-air Formula 1 could end on the BBC.

This line from Humphrey interests me though: “Internally, I can promise you there has not been a single discussion”. I’m not sure how factually accurate that statement is myself. Let us rewind back to last July and work ourselves up the chain. We have the Head of Formula 1 at the BBC, Ben Gallop. Ahead of Gallop in the chain, so to speak, is Barbara Slater, Head of BBC Sport. And ahead of her is the new Director General at the BBC, George Entwistle. Last July, the new rights deal between BBC and Sky Sports was announced on Friday 29th July at 07:00. The BBC Formula 1 team were not told about the new deal until the night before. We know that, Martin Brundle specifically tweeted that himself.

As they were told the night before, we can assume that Ben Gallop (and Mark Wilkin, the editor for BBC F1) was not told until the Thursday as well as the deal was thrashed out primarily between Barbara Slater, Jeremy Darroch (the managing director of Sky Sports) and Bernie Ecclestone.

The point is, with regards the line from Humphrey above, just because there has been no discussion within the Formula 1 team, it does not mean that discussion has not taken place higher up, if they really wanted to exit the contract earlier. I’m not sure that would be in their financial interests, of course, legally binding contracts have such things called get-out clauses.

Humphrey also said that he has been “have been really impressed” with Sky’s coverage, but noted that he “still think[s that] we hold the edge”.

Sky Sports F1 confirm Allan McNish as pundit for next 3 races

Sky Sports F1 have today confirmed via their Twitter account that Allan McNish will be a pundit with them for the next three races. McNish will be with the team for the British, German and Hungarian Grand Prix’s.

This will be McNish’s third appearance with the Sky Sports F1 team, having previously appeared with them for Monaco on The F1 Show and throughout the European Grand Prix race weekend.

As I’ve noted on my Twitter account several times, I think McNish is one of the best pundits on the Sky Sports F1 team with his breadth of knowledge on all areas of Formula 1 and motor sport. McNish will likely be on the Sky Pad alongside Georgie Thompson and commentating alongside David Croft for practice while Anthony Davidson continues his recovery after his crash at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

On a side note, Johnny Herbert’s five race deal expires this weekend, so it shall be interesting if we see him later in the season, while Damon Hill will be with the Sky F1 team as well for this weekend’s British Grand Prix.