Live Blog: The 2012 Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying session

12:50 – Hello, and welcome to The F1 Broadcasting Blog’s live coverage of the 2012 Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying session. I have had this idea for a few weeks of live blogging the Qualifying session, but with a broadcasting slant on it. This live blog will not be a live “blow-by-blow” account of the Qualifying session, if you want that, I suggest you go to AUTOSPORT.com‘s or BBC F1‘s live text services. This is the anticipated timetable of this afternoons proceedings. From 13:00 to 13:55, I will be live blogging coverage of Sky Sports F1 and BBC F1‘s build-up to the Qualifying session. The idea is that I will start off with a broadcaster which I will determine randomly, watch their coverage, until I get bored or a feature does not interest me. That shall continue until 13:55. From 13:55 to 15:05, I will be live blogging the Qualifying session itself, with commentary from whichever channel I am watching. As well as noting the commentary, I shall also be looking at Formula One Management‘s coverage of the Qualifying session. Have they missed anything? Did they ignore the fastest lap? At 15:05, I shall switch to the other broadcaster until the end of the programme (if this is BBC F1, then I shall switch to Sky Sports F1 again at 15:30).

12:55 – The comments are open ready for your thoughts and opinions. This blog may go well, but be warned, it may backfire too. I hope not! Tweet as well @f1broadcasting, and I may include your comment in the blog. The blog will wrap up at about 15:45, but as always, you can comment irrespective of what time it may be. I should also note that like you, I am a fan and I have allegiances towards certain drivers’ and teams’. I will try and keep this blog as neutral as possible, but if there is a feature on a driver that makes me grate, I will be turning over.

12:57 – Following a random draw, I shall be starting off by watching BBC F1 from 13:00.

13:00 – And we’re on, with The Chain!

13:03 – Loved the opening VT with the toy car, great opening. Jake Humphrey, Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard as usual in the paddock.

13:06 – Nice to see that they noted the Singapore contract extension early on in the discussion. Now onto the challenges of night racing and attempting to stay on European timezone.

13:07 – This is what I like about the BBC programme, the ability to adapt based on news that broke an hour ago instead of sticking to a pre-determined plan. Lee McKenzie now interviewing Colin Syn (senior president of the Singapore circuit).

13:10 – Not sure I agree with Coulthard about a 90-degree left hander instead of the mickey-mouse chicane. As was alluded to earlier on Sky in practice, they can’t knock down the town hall building to create a run-off area!

13:12 – I didn’t realise that BBC did a Friday practice report in their main programme. A nice addition and helps create a story to the weekend, this weekend it looks like Vettel flying…

13:14 – All was going well, and now they’re interviewing Bruno Senna. Sky Sports F1, here I come. Which is showing a slow-mo VT. About Hamilton. Talk about banging an old record. Back to BBC F1 then.

13:16 – BBC have gone to the ‘Last Time Out’ VT, so Sky Sports F1 gets another chance. They are interviewing Martin Whitmarsh, so still sticking with McLaren.

13:18 – Sky still interviewing Whitmarsh, so back to BBC F1.

13:20 – BBC are about to interview Christian Horner, I’ll stick with BBC for the moment (Sky are in a ‘scenic VT’ it appears).

13:21 – Rather frustratingly, it seems I’ve missed a Sid Watkins tribute on Sky, according to Daniel Fawcett on Twitter. Credit where due, Sky started off with the right piece, but on the other hand, I imagine BBC are saving their Watkins piece for Sunday.

13:23 – BBC are now interviewing Whitmarsh, presumably live.

13:24 – Quickly switching to Sky Sports F1, they are interviewing Paul di Resta live. di Resta does not work well in live interviews, and I’m not a particular fan of his so back to BBC F1.

13:27 – Great piece by Gary Anderson. And some interesting imagery from 1978 there too! Interesting to see the things used to cool the car and driver now.

13:29 – Although I expect them to air a piece tomorrow, disappointing to see no mention of Sid Watkins half an hour into BBC F1’s programme.

13:31 – BBC have gone to the news bit with Lee McKenzie, so I’ve switched to Sky Sports F1. Simon Lazenby and Martin Brundle currently chatting in the pit lane.

13:32 – I think they’re talking about Sebastian Vettel and self doubt.

13:33 – Sky’s news VT is now airing, with Ted Kravitz doing the voiceover.

13:35 – Robert Kubica gets a mention in the news VT. Although they had an interview with him (albeit not in English) on the F1 Show last week, I do hope they get a sit-down interview with him at some point. The 2013 calendar also gets mentioned, thirty minutes later than the first mention in BBC’s programme.

13:37 – Lazenby, Brundle, Damon Hill and Johnny Herbert now talking about American interest in F1. An American driver in Formula 1 would always help the interest! (not Scott Speed)

13:40 – Ted Kravitz now interviewing Felipe Massa on Sky. Nice piece, and Massa’s one of my favourites, which always helps. Hope he does get a win before the end of the year. Aside from the focus at the start of the programme, both BBC and Sky have a similar layout programming wise, not much to pick between them.

13:43 – Kravitz now interviewing Webber about his helmet. Liking the fact that Kravitz is doing a few driver interviews, much prefer him to Natalie Pinkham, who I’m afraid grates with her ‘too nice’ style in the paddock.

13:46 – Sky have gone to Georgie Thompson and Anthony Davidson in the Sky Pad. Having seen similar analysis on last week’s The F1 Show and last night’s The F1 Show, it is back to BBC F1 for me.

13:47 – And great timing, BBC just beginning live interview with Jackie Stewart.

13:49 – Have to say I completely agree with Stewart’s words about the current generation of Formula 1 drivers’. The work that Watkins has done will help those in the current generation, and the generations to come.

13:50 – Track guide with Paul di Resta. Back to Sky Sports F1.

13:53 – Sky are previewing Qualifying and having a few predictions before the usual ‘Ways to Watch’ VT.

13:55 – Looks like I will be watching Sky Sports F1 for Qualifying, with commentary from David Croft and Martin Brundle. As I noted earlier, I shall also focus on Formula One Management during the session itself.

14:00 – The Qualifying session is under way.

14:05 – Completely agree with Brundle about crash helmets. I think it was Will Buxton that said on Twitter that they should sign off the crash helmets at the start of the year and keep it at that.

14:08 – One thing that we need for later on the timing tower is a colour code for which drivers are on super softs and which are on softs. With the gap between the two tyres over one second, we may see a few drivers’ in unusual positions, yet the timing tower doesn’t display which tyre compound the drivers’ are on. Would be a small, but helpful, addition for late in Q1 and Q2.

14:11 – One of the joys of watching a night race is that some of the shots FOM deliver to the viewers are utterly fantastic.

14:15 – So now the attention turns to the bottom seven. Interestingly Vitaly Petrov is outside of the bottom seven, Jean Eric Vergne and Kamui Kobayashi are in the drop zone. Kobayashi is out on the track, however, so hopefully FOM pick it up. At the moment, they’re focussing on Kimi Raikkonen, who is 1.2 seconds above the drop zone and relatively safe.

14:18 – Kobayashi gets out of the drop zone, FOM didn’t show the end of the lap. And probably the wrong time now to show Webber replays…

14:19 – I think it is Ricciardo vs Petrov vs Vergne, despite what Brundle and Croft want us to believe.

14:20 – Kobayashi is out, I guess relatively speaking a Sauber is a ‘big scalp’, although I think Kobayashi has already been out in Q1 once this year.

14:22 – No big scalps. Nowadays it requires a Caterham or Marussia to do a fantastic lap, but even then they are not developing fast enough to catch the midfield teams, thus making Q1 sometimes a damp squib.

14:25 – In between Q1 and Q2, Sky go to the Sky Pad with Thompson and Davidson. It is pretty good here if it demonstrates a point, in this case Lotus struggling badly.

14:27 – Q2 is under way.

14:31 – The track is fairly quiet, Raikkonen the first driver to set a time in Q2. Grosjean however is again having troubles, good of FOM to quickly get a replay up for us.

14:33 – More yellow flags, looks like Bruno Senna.

14:35 – FOM on form so far, they haven’t missed anything…. yet. It looks tight on the edge of the top 10 though.

14:35 – The track again is quiet, so much so that the timing tower has disappeared.

14:39 – The timing tower has returned. I am not sure Mark Webber deserves a five place drop for impeding Timo Glock, after all the latter was never likely to get out of Q1.

14:40 – A lot of movement is possible here. Hopefully FOM just leave the camera on the start finish straight and keep it there in the final few seconds to avoid missing anyone pop a surprise in.

14:43 – Good directing there from FOM, I think they caught just about everyone across the line there.

14:47 – Q3 is coming up soon. A quick reminder that as with Monaco, it will probably not be FOM directing in Japan, more than likely it shall be Fuji Television.

14:50 – The final part of qualifying has now started.

14:51 – The main battle here is definitely between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, so expect FOM to focus more on them.

14:55 – New rule needed for Q3 in 2013: “Any driver who does not set a competitive lap time will be sent to the back of the grid.”

15:01 – FOM detected Maldonaldo’s super lap before he got across the line, good direction by them. Fantastic direction by them, and a fantastic lap by Pastor Maldonaldo!

15:02 – The first time since 1999 that McLaren have had four pole positions in a row, nice statistic by Croft!

15:03 – Time to switch back to BBC F1 until 15:30, then I shall switch back to Sky until the end of their show.

15:05 – Obvious shout by Eddie Jordan that McLaren need to re-sign Lewis Hamilton immediately. Difficult to disagree with him at this moment in time.

15:08 – BBC interviewing Christian Horner and Paul di Resta. For those wondering, BBC wouldn’t be able to interview the top three straight away as they are in the post-Qualifying press conference.

15:12 – The press conference is now on BBC One, Bob Constanduros doing the unilaterals.

15:16 – Coulthard has joined Humphrey and Jordan as they review Qualifying. So far so good, always a slick show from the BBC, and today is no different. It will be interesting to see if the show is as slick next year with a new presenter.

15:18 – Surprised Jordan did not doorstep Button just then! Button looking like he was walking faster so as to avoid them.

15:19 – Heh, Coulthard’s mic just got cut at the end of him talking over Hamilton’s onboard lap. Thankfully we can hear him now.

15:22 – Thanks to stevvy in the comments for noting that Sky are talking to Toto Wolff. Hopefully BBC can get Maldonaldo for a live interview before the end of their programme.

15:24 – BBC now showing Fernando Alonso’s interview in the pen. I think they have managed to get a soundbite from all of the top contenders now, aside from the Mercedes drivers’ and Romain Grosjean.

15:26 – And as expected, BBC are now interviewing Schumacher. I guess BBC could have got a live piece with Maldonaldo, but that would mean not showing one of the pen interviews, which they would probably want to avoid as they would want to get as many people as possible.

15:27 – BBC are rounding up, so over to Sky Sports F1 I go.

15:28 – Lazenby is interviewing Vijay Mallya. But the more important question is: How many minutes until they go to a commercial?

15:29 – Well now, there’s a surprise. Not…

15:30 – I knew it was coming, as BBC have just gone off air, but it is incredibly petty that Sky only go for breaks when BBC are not on air.

15:33 – And they’re back from commercial.

15:34 – Kravitz is now interviewing Christian Horner.

15:37 – Sky are now rounding up, ready to go off-air. Very glad to see that there will be a piece on Mitch Evans in tomorrow’s programme, however.

15:40 – That concludes this broadcasting blog, which I thought I would write as an experiment. As a regular piece, I don’t believe it will work, but I shall definitely think about doing it in the future. Both BBC and Sky had good build-up’s today, although both broadcasters’ started with different stances, Sky had a Sid Watkins tribute, while BBC talked about the Singapore Grand Prix contract extension.

Overall, it is extremely difficult to say overall X is better than Y, both broadcasters’ have their strengths and weaknesses, some more than others as I have outlined before on this blog over the past few months. As always, your comments and thoughts on any of my blogs are welcome.

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this blog piece, and hopefully we have a fantastic Singapore Grand Prix tomorrow!

Predicting the 2013 calendar pick order

The 2013 Formula One calendar has been revised today (December 5th). New Jersey, which was meant to be replacing Valencia has been dropped with ‘a European round’ on July 21st. The calendar is therefore as follows:

March 17th – Australia (Melbourne)
March 24th – Malaysia (Sepang)
April 14st – China (Shanghai)
April 21st – Bahrain (Sakhir)
May 12th – Spain (Barcelona)
May 26th – Monaco (Monte Carlo)
June 9th – Canada (Montreal)
June 30th – Britain (Silverstone)
July 7th – Germany (Nurburgring)
July 21st – ‘a European round’
July 28th – Hungary (Hungaroring)
August 25th – Belgium (Spa)
September 8th – Italy (Monza)
September 22nd – Singapore (Marina Bay)
October 6th – Korea (Yeongam)
October 13th – Japan (Suzuka)
October 27th – India (Buddh International Circuit)
November 3rd – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina)
November 17th – United States (Austin)
November 24th – Brazil (Interlagos)

The European round on July 21st is subject to confirmation but the rest is confirmed. Because of the way the BBC and Sky deal works, both sides have to ‘pick’ races. The races that BBC pick will be shown live on BBC One and Sky Sports F1, while the races that Sky pick will be shown exclusively live on Sky Sports F1, with highlights on BBC One. The picks go as follows:

– BBC pick three races (pick 1, 2 and 3)
– Sky pick three races (pick 4, 5 and 6)
– BBC pick one race (pick 7)
– Sky pick one race (pick 8)

This continues until every race has been picked. Next season is provisionally scheduled with twenty races, but if it was a odd race season, then Sky get the deciding pick, so that they have either half of the total number of races, or “half + 1 race”. Basically here, I’m predicting how the pick orders will go. You’re probably thinking “surely it will be the same as last year, just replacing Valencia with ‘a European round’? I don’t think so. Firstly, because there are no major sporting events in the Summer that clash with Formula 1, which may influence the pick orders. And secondly, if we remained with the same picks as last year, then BBC would not be screening any races for nearly two months, which may be a situation they wish to avoid. This year it was not so bad because they had the Olympics, but there is no Olympics next year for them.

So in effect, I’m going to rip up last year’s pick order and start from scratch.

BBC pick Britain, Monaco and Brazil – Which are presumably the same three first picks as this year. Monaco and Brazil are both the blue ribbon events, the latter again the season finale and potential title decider. Britain is obviously the first pick. Interestingly, it falls on the ‘middle Sunday’ of Wimbledon, which may be the reason why it is in June and not July, to avoid a clash with the Wimbledon final. So the British Grand Prix should be on BBC One next year and not BBC Two as it was this year.

Sky pick Canada, United States and ??? – This is where things get interesting. Sky pick Canada and United States as with this year. But their third pick? For me, it is a toss up between Melbourne and New Jersey in June. From Sky’s perspective, Melbourne is the unfriendliest slot of the entire twenty races, but it is also the season opener. Is it as important for them next year as it is this year? This year they were starting their coverage for the first time, so arguably getting Australia was more important than ever before. Is next year as important? I don’t think so. Plus, with no football competition in June, Canada and New Jersey surely will bring Sky Sports F1 the channel’s highest ever peaks. Whilst Canada’s overall viewing figures were very poor, Sky Sports F1’s highest peak so far also came from that race.

Therefore Sky pick America. As Sky did not pick Australia, that inevitably means BBC pick Australia, potentially even luring viewers into a false sense of security that every race of the season is back on BBC as the season opener is. In any case, as with this year, Sky pick Malaysia.

Okay, the above does not look pretty, but I wanted to keep it there for future reference, so have struck it off. As I noted above. Sky pick Canada, United States and ??? – Had New Jersey been on the calendar, they would have had a choice between that and Australia. But as New Jersey is not on the calendar, Sky will go for the season opener, meaning that it would be exclusively on Sky again. Therefore Sky pick Australia, BBC pick Malaysia and Sky pick China.

Attention at this point I think would move back to the European season with the pick order as follows:

March 17th – Australia (Melbourne) – Sky
March 24th – Malaysia (Sepang) – BBC
April 14st – China (Shanghai) – Sky
April 21st – Bahrain (Sakhir)
May 12th – Spain (Barcelona)
May 26th – Monaco (Monte Carlo) – BBC
June 9th – Canada (Montreal) – Sky
June 30th – Britain (Silverstone) – BBC
July 14th – Germany (Nurburgring)
July 21st – ‘a European round’
July 28th – Hungary (Hungaroring)
August 25th – Belgium (Spa)
September 8th – Italy (Monza)
September 22nd – Singapore (Marina Bay)
October 6th – Korea (Yeongam)
October 13th – Japan (Suzuka)
October 27th – India (Buddh International Circuit)
November 3rd – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina)
November 17th – United States (Austin) – Sky
November 24th – Brazil (Interlagos) – BBC

Logically, BBC pick Belgium and Sky pick Italy so that BBC get another blue ribbond event. Unlike in previous year’s, where Germany and Hungary were late in the pick line with BBC not having either event live due to the Olympics, I anticipate that both events will be wanted this time around. With that in mind, I can see BBC picking Hungary and Sky picking Germany. It also means that BBC viewers do not go nearly two months without seeing a live Formula 1 race on the BBC, which would have broken the season up massively. From this point, I think picks would essentially ‘transcend’ up the calendar alternatively. So we have BBC pick Abu Dhabi, Sky pick India, BBC pick Japan, Sky pick Korea, BBC pick Singapore.

Which means, we are left with this:

March 17th – Australia (Melbourne) – Sky
March 24th – Malaysia (Sepang) – BBC
April 14st – China (Shanghai) – Sky
April 21st – Bahrain (Sakhir)
May 12th – Spain (Barcelona)
May 26th – Monaco (Monte Carlo) – BBC
June 9th – Canada (Montreal) – Sky
June 30th – Britain (Silverstone) – BBC
July 14th – Germany (Nurburgring) – Sky
July 21st – ‘a European round’
July 28th – Hungary (Hungaroring) – BBC
August 25th – Belgium (Spa) – BBC
September 8th – Italy (Monza) – Sky
September 22nd – Singapore (Marina Bay) – BBC
October 6th – Korea (Yeongam) – Sky
October 13th – Japan (Suzuka) – BBC
October 27th – India (Buddh International Circuit) – Sky
November 3rd – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) – BBC
November 17th – United States (Austin) – Sky
November 24th – Brazil (Interlagos) – BBC

The remaining races are therefore Bahrain, Spain and ‘a European round’. Spain falls on the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season, therefore I don’t believe Sky would want this race exclusively. Therefore Sky pick Bahrain. From a timezone standpoint and commercial stand-point, Spain however is better for Sky than China, meaning BBC pick China and Sky pick Spain. The timezone and commercial reason does not exist anymore, instead it is a matter of which race exists and which one may not exist. Therefore BBC pick Spain and Sky pick ‘a European round’.

Which leaves the final calendar as follows:

March 17th – Australia (Melbourne) – Sky
March 24th – Malaysia (Sepang) – BBC
April 14st – China (Shanghai) – Sky
April 21st – Bahrain (Sakhir) – Sky
May 12th – Spain (Barcelona) – BBC
May 26th – Monaco (Monte Carlo) – BBC
June 9th – Canada (Montreal) – Sky
June 30th – Britain (Silverstone) – BBC
July 14th – Germany (Nurburgring) – Sky
July 21st – ‘a European round’ – Sky
July 28th – Hungary (Hungaroring) – BBC
August 25th – Belgium (Spa) – BBC
September 8th – Italy (Monza) – Sky
September 22nd – Singapore (Marina Bay) – BBC
October 6th – Korea (Yeongam) – Sky
October 13th – Japan (Suzuka) – BBC
October 27th – India (Buddh International Circuit) – Sky
November 3rd – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina) – BBC
November 17th – United States (Austin) – Sky
November 24th – Brazil (Interlagos) – BBC

If ‘a European round’ disappears, then BBC lose Hungary live. Unfortunately, that would mean a two month gap between two live races, but there is little workaround, it is either lose Hungary and Belgium, and Hungary would be the race you prefer to lose. That is how I anticipate the picks will shape up.

Updated on December 5th, 2012.

The Twitter outlook

No race last weekend meant things stayed fairly stable in this week’s edition of the Twitter outlook..

Drivers – The Top 10
01 – 1,130,558 – Jenson Button (McLaren)
02 – 1,090,410 – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
03 – 1,069,547 – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
04 – 486,710 – Bruno Senna (Williams)
05 – 434,569 – Mark Webber (Red Bull)
06 – 272,647 – Sergio Perez (Sauber)
07 – 261,786 – Pastor Maldonaldo (Williams)
08 – 196,761 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
09 – 177,277 – Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)
10 – 175,809 – Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)

Drivers – Biggest Increases
01 – 16,366 – Fernando Alonso
02 – 15,599 – Lewis Hamilton
03 – 12,268 – Jenson Button
04 – 4,851 – Sergio Perez
05 – 4,825 – Bruno Senna

Drivers – Smallest Increases
01 – 394 – Charles Pic
02 – 582 – Timo Glock
03 – 682 – Daniel Ricciardo
04 – 761 – Jean-Eric Vergne
05 – 901 – Kamui Kobayashi

Sergio Perez stays in the top five for biggest increases, meaning that Mark Webber is outside of the top five. It does not affect the overall charts, however, with the gaps between the drivers’ fairly substantial.

Teams – The Top 10
01 – 337,015 – Ferrari
02 – 233,320 – McLaren
03 – 156,409 – Red Bull
04 – 148,256 – Mercedes
05 – 135,964 – Lotus
06 – 86,395 – Caterham
07 – 80,686 – Marussia
08 – 77,864 – Force India
09 – 75,368 – Sauber
10 – 74,963 – Williams

Teams – Biggest Increases
01 – 2,632 – McLaren
02 – 2,480 – Ferrari
03 – 2,317 – Red Bull

Teams – Smallest Increases
01 – 378 – Williams
02 – 586 – Toro Rosso
03 – 688 – Caterham

For the first time ever in the Twitter outlook, McLaren recorded the highest increase of the week, definitely thanks to their three wins in Hungary, Belgian and Italy. As predicted last week, Sauber’s move up the table begins, overtaking a slow moving Williams into ninth position. Also, Marussia breaks the 80,000 mark, which I think is worth noting given that teams’ tend to increase a lot less than the drivers’ week on week.

Driver and Team statistics as of Monday 17th September 2012.

A few thoughts on Jake Humphrey leaving the BBC

As noted earlier this morning, it has been confirmed today that Jake Humphrey is leaving the BBC at the end of 2012, to join BT Vision from 2013 as presenter for their Premier League football coverage.

Since I wrote that article, Media Guardian have revealed a few details about Humphrey’s contract. They say that Humphrey’s contract is four years long (so from January 1st, 2013 to December 31st, 2016), at approximately £250,000-plus per year (the Daily Mail say £800,000 per year). Interestingly the article also says that the deal is ‘not exclusive’ and that he can work for the BBC outside of his contract period. I am not quite sure what that means, as far as I read it, he cannot work for the BBC between January 2013 and December 2016, I won’t claim to be an expert in how these things work, so I may be reading that wrong.

Some will argue that Humphrey has left the BBC, as a result of them sacrificing half of their Formula 1 rights to Sky Sports in July 2011. I do not believe that is necessarily true. If it was true, then why did Humphrey not move to pastures new at the end of 2011? Personally, I suspect the reason he is leaving is due to his wife having a baby, due in March 2013. It is a perfectly reasonable reason, after all if you want to start a family, would you rather have work based in England an hour or two away, or be travelling around the world twenty times a year? A no brainer for me. The interesting point for me is when did BBC find out that Humphrey was leaving? I can see why Humphrey wanted to continue with BBC for 2012, because of the Diamond Jubilee, Euro 2012 and the Olympics, whereas in the next few years on BBC, there is not much ahead for Humphrey apart from Formula 1. This tweet from Humphrey twelve days ago now makes a lot of sense: “If I was Lewis, I think I’d give it a go elsewhere. New faces, new challenges. As my old boss once said ‘never sit in the comfy chair’…” – new faces, and new challenges is what lie ahead in his future.

In my opinion, Humphrey has been the best Formula 1 presenter we have had in this country, and he will be missed on the BBC F1 show next year. The thing about Humphrey is that he makes presenting look effortless in the Formula 1 paddock, it is a joy to watch. Humphrey’s four year stay as BBC F1 presenter between 2009 and 2012 compares with Jim Rosenthal’s nine year stay as ITV F1 presenter between 1997 and 2005, and Steve Rider’s three years as ITV presenter from 2006 to 2008. Hopefully the three amigos, Humphrey, David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan can go out with a bang at the end of the season.

The question now is, who will replace Humphrey? The most obvious, and likely, choice is Lee McKenzie. This year, she has hosted the Canadian, German and Hungarian highlights shows as well as presenting live coverage of the Japanese Grand Prix in 2010. McKenzie is a safe pair of hands, has motor sport presenting experience, and is already a BBC employee, so is therefore the most likely candidate. Outside of McKenzie, could David Coulthard step up to be presenter? Unlikely, but we seen Martin Brundle present the Japanese Grand Prix in 2008 on ITV, so it is not impossible. I don’t see that myself. Moving outside of the BBC Formula 1 team, but staying within the BBC, one sports presenters I was thinking of is Gabby Logan. Logan does not do a lot of work at present at BBC Sport and if they do draw up a shortlist, I think Logan would be on there with nearly fifteen years of sports presenting. As far as I know (someone correct me if I am wrong), she has not presented a motor sports programme before, which may count against her. The other BBC Sport presenter I was thinking of is Matt Roberts, the current MotoGP presenter. Surprisingly, his name has not been mentioned once, but Roberts I think is a definite contender, having already ousted Suzi Perry as MotoGP presenter at the end of 2010. I’m unsure of whether Roberts is contracted through BBC directly or whether he is contracted through Century TV, the company which produces BBC’s MotoGP coverage, so that may complicate things slightly.

Outside of the BBC? Steve Rider potentially, but I don’t see him wanting to present on location at every race again, his current deal with ITV for the British Touring Car Championship and Sky for the F1 Legends programming seems to suit him at the moment. There are no other obvious people to me, I don’t forsee anyone moving over from the Sky Sports F1 team to present Formula 1 on the BBC. The shortlist is a short one, but I think McKenzie and Roberts are the front runners here.

The above however all relies on one assumption: that BBC are not planning on pulling out of Formula 1 at the end of the year. I don’t think they are, personally I anticipate the deal that was signed last July will remain in place. But no doubt the announcement today may well fuel speculation that the BBC may be about to pull out of showing Formula 1 live altogether. I sincerely hope that does not happen, but we were surprised with the news last July. I just hope, we are not about to be surprised again with news for the worse…

As always, your comments, thoughts and speculation about the future of Formula 1 on BBC, as well as who will be the new host of BBC F1 are welcome.

Jake Humphrey to join BT Vision, leaving BBC at the end of 2012

Jake Humphrey is to leave the BBC at the end of 2012, becoming the host of BT Vision’s coverage of the 2013-14 Premier League season, the company has announced, as few days ago by Charles Sale.

In the press release, Humphrey says “I am incredibly excited to be joining the team at BT not just because I get to fulfil a lifelong dream of presenting the Barclays Premier League but because of the fresh perspective that BT will bring to both sport and broadcasting in this country. To be a part of this young, vibrant team who are as passionate about sport, as I am, is a privilege.

“I’ve grown up at the BBC, and whilst I hope to work with them in the future, I’d also like to place on record my thanks to them. I am incredibly grateful to all colleagues, and of course the viewers, for their incredible support from CBBC all the way to Formula 1. My focus from the start of 2013 is on making BT’s coverage of football the best this country has ever seen.”

Marc Watson, chief executive of BT Vision, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Jake has chosen to join our new sports channel to anchor our Premier League programming.

“Jake is a tremendously experienced and popular sports broadcaster and a fresh, young and innovative talent. He impressed us with his willingness to get deeply involved in the development of our live football programming and we took into account his track record of excellent presenting across many sports. He fits our plans for the new channel perfectly and we are very excited to be working with him.”

With that news, BBC are looking for a new Formula 1 presenter. I don’t think they will be looking far though, as I imagine Lee McKenzie will step up to the presenters’ breach with Tom Clarkson taking over McKenzie’s role, like what happened earlier this year when Humphrey was presenting Euro 2012 and the Olympics.