Formula 1 heads for its annual trip across the pond for the Canadian Grand Prix. The good news is that the race is live on both BBC One and Sky Sports F1, in my view it is always good to see a live race airing in primetime on free-to-air television. It’ll be interesting to see how the race coverage rates given that it is going up against Soccer Aid on ITV.
For the second year in a row, Natalie Pinkham will not be in Canada, this year she is presenting Sky’s coverage of the Hockey World Cup throughout the first half of June. I’m guessing both Rachel Brookes and Craig Slater will be out in Canada, Brookes presenting The F1 Show alongside Ted Kravitz. Kravitz will be back with the team after needing to go home from the Monaco Grand Prix weekend early. On a scheduling related note, I’m disappointed that BBC Three’s practice two coverage will not have more reaction and analysis, that being one of the highlights of last year’s coverage.
Whilst there is no GP2 and GP3 during the Canadian Grand Prix weekend, there is BTCC and the IndyCar Series to whet the appetite. Below is the full schedule:
Thursday 5th June
16:00 to 16:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
21:30 to 22:00 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
Friday 6th June
07:00 to 07:15 – F1: Gear Up for Canada (Sky Sports F1)
14:45 to 16:50 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
14:55 to 16:30 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Two)
18:45 to 21:00 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
19:00 to 20:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Three)
21:00 to 21:45 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
23:00 to 00:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
Saturday 7th June
14:45 to 16:15 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
14:55 to 16:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Two)
17:00 to 19:20 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
17:00 to 19:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
Sunday 8th June
01:30 to 04:00 – IndyCars: Firestone 600 (BT Sport 2)
– repeated on Sunday 8th June at 13:00
11:15 to 17:40 – BTCC: Oulton Park (ITV4)
17:30 to 22:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
=> 17:30 – Track Parade
=> 18:00 – Race
=> 21:30 – Paddock Live
18:20 to 21:00 – F1: Race (BBC One)
21:00 to 22:00 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
22:15 to 23:15 – GP Heroes: Clay Regazzoni (Sky Sports F1)
Wednesday 11th June
20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)
Classic F1 on Sky Sports F1
I believe this is the first time that Sky have shown the 1998 Canadian Grand Prix. I am disappointed that it is not the full race given that races post 1996 have tended to be the full race, so one assumes this is the original ITV highlights minus pre and post race analysis. EDIT on June 5th: Or not, its since disappeared from the schedule.
31/05 – 21:00 to 21:40 – 1982 Caesars Palace Grand Prix Highlights
01/06 – 21:00 to 23:30 – 2007 Chinese Grand Prix
02/06 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 2012 Canadian Grand Prix (Sky commentary)
03/06 – 21:00 to 00:00 – 2011 Canadian Grand Prix
04/06 – 21:00 to 23:15 – 2007 Canadian Grand Prix
05/06 – 21:00 to 23:30 – 2008 Canadian Grand Prix
06/06 – 22:00 to 23:00 – 1978 Season Review
07/06 – 19:45 to 20:45 – 1991 Canadian Grand Prix Highlights
09/06 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix Highlights
10/06 – 21:00 to 23:15 – 1998 Japanese Grand Prix
11/06 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1983 United States Grand Prix West Highlights
12/06 – 21:00 to 23:00 – 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
13/06 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix Highlights
As always, if there are any amendments, I’ll update this schedule.
Motorsport Broadcasting 
Very disappointing that Canada 1998 isn’t the full race especially as Japan from the same year is the full race (what about Canada 1999 sometime too, or 1997?). Anyway, it’s fantastic for me that I can basically watch a full day of BTCC/support race action before heading straight into the F1 coverage! Around 11 hours of non stop live motorsport, awesome! The usual mish-mash of classic races though. How about some French GP ones? France 1999 was exciting. Hopefully for Austria they’ll use some previous Austrian GP’s.
last race before the world cup starts. I think f1 is very lucky the games are in the evening not in the day time..
so this is the bbc primetime race live.
so why is the race show only2hrs 40min when usualy its 3hrs 30min. the bbc news doesnt start till ten. bbc pick the primetime races for more viewers so why go and change the tv show lengths. we will just about catch the podium on bbc 1 . poor show bbc
Totally agree f1! Have you also noticed that of the last few live races the BBC have screened the pre-race build is never an hour or 50minuties like it used to be – why is this? I feel they are gradually dwindling down their coverage to then totally dump it next year. I really hope I’m wrong as I think generally the BBC do a great job with the F1! (even though the quality has gone down compared to Humphrey’s days!)
It is disappointing that its not the full 1998 race but if anyone wants to see the full race using the old pay per view pictures all be it with German commentary then its on you tube formel 1 1998 should get you there
Looks like this Saturday (7th June) Classic F1 will be the 1991 Canadian GP instead of 1998.
Have edited, thanks Alex.
It’s bloody annoying when they schedule a classic race, then at the last minute, they change it. It’s even more annoying when it’s 1 I was really looking forward to watching!