Scheduling: The German Grand Prix

F1 heads off from Britain to a slightly more drier Hockenheim circuit in Germany. I’ve probably just jinxed it saying that… in any case, this weekend Sky Sports F1 have exclusive live coverage with BBC having highlights only. This also applies for the Hungarian Grand Prix, meaning the next live action for BBC viewers will not come until the Belgian Grand Prix at the very back end of August. The BBC highlights are being shown on BBC Two thanks to the Open Golf Championship on BBC One. If you can’t watch the first showing of the race highlights on Sunday, then they are repeated at 23:40 on BBC One.

On the personnel side of things, the BBC’s Summer line-up changes are back into effect this weekend, this time thanks to the Olympic Games. As I noted a while back, due to Jake Humphrey covering the Olympics for BBC, Lee McKenzie is presenting this weekend’s Grand Prix. With McKenzie presenting, it means that Tom Clarkson steps into her shoes again interviewing drivers.

For Sky, they are screening an extended interview with Jenson Button in the build-up to the race, the schedule times for that can be found here. Sky this weekend have Allan McNish again with them, but I am not sure if Johnny Herbert will be there now that his five race deal has expired. Time shall tell.

As I did with Canada, I’ve added the 5 Live F1 schedule below in italics for those without access to Sky Sports F1. Neither Practice 2 or Practice 3 are on 5 Live or 5 Live Sports Extra, thanks to Golf and Cricket.

UPDATE on 17th July: Sky have confirmed on their website that Anthony Davidson is back with them for the remainder of the season after his horrific crash at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, while Johnny Herbert is back with the team. Rachel Brookes of Sky Sports News is replacing Natalie Pinkham for the weekend, the latter is getting married. I’m especially pleased that Brookes is getting a promotion to the Sky Sports F1 channel for the weekend, as I do think her F1 efforts on Sky Sports News do go unnoticed, she has definitely grown as F1 reporter for the channel since February in my opinion.

Thursday 19th July
14:00 to 14:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 20th July
08:45 to 10:55 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
08:55 to 10:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
10:55 to 11:35 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
12:45 to 14:45 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
14:45 to 15:25 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
16:00 to 16:45 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 21st July
08:40 to 09:20 – GP3: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:45 to 11:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
12:00 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
13:00 to 14:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live)
14:35 to 16:00 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:05 – GP3: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:10 – F1: Qualifying Highlights (BBC Two and BBC HD)

Sunday 22nd July
08:20 to 09:10 – 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)
13:00 to 14:30 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
17:30 to 19:00 – F1: Race Highlights (BBC Two and BBC HD)
19:00 to 20:00 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
19:00 to 21:30 – IndyCars: Edmonton (Sky Sports 4)

Sky Sports F1 showing extended interview with Jenson Button this week

A new show has popped up on the EPG listings for this week, that being an extended interview with Jenson Button. I assume the interview is an extended cut of that he did with Natalie Pinkham prior to the British Grand Prix weekend. Another option is that it could be his Legends interview with Steve Rider, assuming Rider has interviewed Button yet. In any case, Sky Sports F1 have managed to extend it out to a 30-minute slot, with it being shown at the following times:

– Monday 16th July, 19:00
– Tuesday 17th July, 19:00
– Wednesday 18th July, 20:30
– Thursday 19th July, 19:45
– Friday 20th July, 07:30
– Friday 20th July, 12:30
– Saturday 21st July, 11:15
– Saturday 21st July, 23:35
– Sunday 22nd July, 11:00
– Sunday 22nd July, 20:30

So with a total of ten screenings in total, you have very little excuse to miss this!

News Articles – British Grand Prix

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

BBC
– Andrew Benson‘s Post-Race blog
– Gary Anderson‘s Technical Review
– Jaime Alguersuari‘s weekly blog
– Mark Webber blogs about his British Grand Prix victory and his new contract

Sky
– Ted Kravitz‘s Notebook
– Pete Gill‘s Conclusions
– Mike Wise‘s Diary
– Martin Brundle looks at the lessons from Silverstone
– Analysis of how Mark Webber’s contract decision affects the remainder of the pitlane
– Mark Hughes on McLaren’s current form
– Pete Gill and Mike Wise look at what went wrong at Silverstone off the track

The Twitter outlook

It was a second win of the season for Mark Webber as he overtook Fernando Alonso in the closing stages to win the British Grand Prix. Did that result in a larger than usual Twitter gain for the Australian? Let’s find out:

Drivers – The Top 10
01 – 1,022,952 – Jenson Button (McLaren)
02 – 898,598 – Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
03 – 823,685 – Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
04 – 446,540 – Bruno Senna (Williams)
05 – 381,592 – Mark Webber (Red Bull)
06 – 228,955 – Sergio Perez (Sauber)
07 – 227,102 – Pastor Maldonaldo (Williams)
08 – 176,974 – Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
09 – 160,182 – Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)
10 – 153,441 – Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)

Drivers – Biggest Increases
01 – 49,376 – Fernando Alonso
02 – 16,001 – Jenson Button
02 – 14,569 – Lewis Hamilton
04 – 11,587 – Mark Webber
05 – 6,826 – Sergio Perez

Drivers – Smallest Increases
01 – 837 – Jean-Eric Vergne
02 – 941 – Charles Pic
03 – 1,337 – Nico Hulkenberg
04 – 1,428 – Vitaly Petrov
05 – 1,479 – Timo Glock

It was the highest average gain since the Spanish Grand Prix for the entire field this week, with everyone gaining an average of 6,800 followers, which shows the popularity of the British Grand Prix. Mark Webber’s win moved him into the biggest increases table, with his 11,587 follower increase the biggest yet since I started tracking this in April. Whilst it was also Jenson Button’s highest gain yet, it was not Lewis Hamilton’s biggest gain, on two occasions he has gained more than 14,000 followers, during the Spanish and Canadian Grand Prix weeks.

At the other end of the table, hold the papers, Charles Pic is not last! For the first time since I started the tracking, Pic recorded a bigger gain than another driver, in this case Jean-Eric Vergne.

Teams – The Top 10
01 – 301,373 – Ferrari
02 – 208,176 – McLaren
03 – 136,382 – Mercedes
04 – 131,259 – Red Bull
05 – 117,759 – Lotus
06 – 79,544 – Caterham
07 – 72,267 – Marussia
09 – 69,265 – Force India
08 – 68,744 – Williams
10 – 62,975 – Sauber

Teams – Biggest Increases
01 – 5,242 – Ferrari
02 – 4,178 – Red Bull
03 – 3,897 – McLaren

Teams – Smallest Increases
01 – 920 – Toro Rosso
02 – 1,121 – Williams
03 – 1,306 – HRT

Thanks to their pitiful gains in the past few weeks, Force India have jumped back in front of Williams. Ferrari jumped over the 300,000 follower barrier, while Red Bull and McLaren also recorded solid gains. I should note that behind them, Marussia recorded their highest gain yet, with an increase of 3,606 followers, compared to an average increase of just 691 followers per week for all the weeks preceding that. I can only put that down to the accident of Maria de Villota last Tuesday with people wanting to get the latest up-to-date news.

Driver and Team statistics as of Monday 9th July 2012.

Sky Sports F1 – Top 10 ratings (week ending 1st July, 2012)

From BARB:

1 – 33k – The F1 Show (Friday, 20:00)
2 – 25k – Canadian Grand Prix Highlights (Monday, 16:30)
3 – 20k – 2009 British Grand Prix (Sunday, 17:00)
4 – 15k – Fast Track (Wednesday, 19:00)
5 – 15k – 2008 British Grand Prix (Saturday, 21:40)
6 – 10k – 2007 British Grand Prix (Saturday, 18:01)
7 – 10k – Fast Track (Tuesday, 19:30)
8 – 10k – GP Classics: 11th GP D’Europe (Friday, 19:40)
9 – 10k – 2011 British Grand Prix (Sunday, 21:30)
10 – 8k – The F1 Show (Sunday, 15:00)

Not a great set of figures there. The Classic races did not do as well as in Monaco, although the scheduling left a lot to be desired. I would be more likely to watch them on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon when nothing is on compared to a Saturday night when there is programming to watch on. Hopefully they revert to the Monaco scheduling, and maybe actually put some Classic races on. 2007 definitely is not a classic by any stretch of the imagination.

The thing is that they need to promote it more, I think some people have the assumption that outside of The F1 Show, they screen absolutely nothing outside of race weekends, which is actually quite true when you think about it. They need to make more of an effort, as I have said numerous times on this blog.

The F1 Show also slumped to its lowest figure yet. Not quite sure why, but for whatever reason, it did. Over on Sky Sports 3, the Live Goodwood Festival of Speed did very well, with 67,000 viewers watching on Sunday afternoon. A further 30,000 watched the repeat later in the evening on Sky Sports 4. Both of those figures dwarf the set of Sky Sports F1 figures above. Last year, live coverage of the festival had 60,000 viewers, while in 2010 it had 89,000 viewers.