Scheduling: The 2015 Australian Grand Prix

Three and a half months after Lewis Hamilton won the 2014 championship, Formula 1 is back! The first round of 2015 takes place at Albert Park, Melbourne, traditionally the season opener. Whilst there have been a lot of high profile changes in the driver line-up, with Sebastian Vettel heading to Ferrari and Fernando Alonso off to McLaren, it has been an extremely quiet off-season on the broadcasting side of things.

Both BBC and Sky are, as of writing, fielding the same teams as last season. Suzi Perry returns as presenter of BBC’s coverage. She will again be joined by Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard, the latter also alongside Ben Edwards in the commentary box. Tom Clarkson and Lee McKenzie round off BBC’s television team. Over on radio, Jennie Gow will lead the coverage. James Allen and Allan McNish will commentate on proceedings, with Jack Nicholls commentating on several rounds in place of Allen. Gow is ITV’s Formula E presenter, and will not be in Melbourne, which may in turn explain the skeleton BBC radio schedule for Australia. Commentary should turn up on the BBC Sport website, though.

Meanwhile the situation on Sky Sports F1 remains the same as 2014. Simon Lazenby heads into year four as Formula 1 presenter, alongside him on rotation is Anthony Davidson, Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and Bruno Senna. Ted Kravitz, Natalie Pinkham and Rachel Brookes will continue to trawl pitlane, with Martin Brundle and David Croft on commentary. One thing worth pointing out is that it appears there will be more integration with Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia this year based on their testing coverage, so don’t be surprised if Tanja Bauer turns up periodically this season.

As has been the case since the shared deal came into effect in 2012, Sky Sports F1 are covering the weekend exclusively live, with highlights on BBC One. The programming slate is largely identical to 2014, although BBC TV’s run-times are shorter due to the Six Nations, whilst over on Sky, there are not many new classic races and qualifying is being simulcast live on Sky1 and Sky Sports 1. Elsewhere, Formula E is back with round five of their season from Miami. The aforementioned Jennie Gow presents the coverage from ITV’s London studios with Mark Priestley and Jann Mardenborough joining her as guests. Below are all the scheduling details you need…

BBC F1
BBC One
11/03 – 23:15 to 00:25 – 2014 Review (R)
14/03 – 12:50 to 14:00 – Qualifying Highlights
15/03 – 13:15 to 14:40 – Race Highlights

BBC News Channel
13/03 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1
14/03 – 18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1

BBC Red Button
10/03 – 22:00 – Season Preview

BBC Radio 5 Live
05/03 – 19:30 to 20:00 – Season Preview
12/03 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Australia Preview
15/03 – 04:30 to 07:00 – Race

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
13/03 – 01:00 to 03:20 – Practice 1
13/03 – 05:15 to 07:30 – Practice 2
14/03 – 02:45 to 04:15 – Practice 3
14/03 – 05:00 to 07:45 – Qualifying (also Sky1 and Sky Sports 1)
14/03 – 06:00 to 08:45 – Qualifying (Sky1 +1)
15/03 – 03:30 to 08:15 – Race
=> 03:30 – Track Parade
=> 04:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 04:30 – Race
=> 07:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
06/03 – 20:00 to 21:00 – The F1 Show
06/03 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Mercedes F1 Team: Road to 2015
07/03 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Sauber’s Secrets of F1
12/03 – 04:00 to 04:30 – Driver Press Conference
12/03 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Australia
13/03 – 07:30 to 08:15 – Team Press Conference
13/03 – 09:30 to 10:30 – The F1 Show
18/03 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Midweek Report

NEW Classic Races
10/03 – 21:00 to 23:30 – 1999 Canadian Grand Prix
20/03 – 21:00 to 21:45 – 1995 Pacific Grand Prix Highlights

Formula E – Miami (online via FIAFormulaE.com)
14/03 – 12:10 to 13:10 – Practice 1
14/03 – 14:25 to 15:10 – Practice 2
14/03 – 15:45 to 17:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – Miami (ITV4)
14/03 – 19:00 to 21:30 – Race
15/03 – 10:00 to 11:00 – Highlights

If anything changes, I’ll update the post as usual.

Update on March 5th – Some changes based on confirmation of BBC line-up, along with Sky’s race day changes.

Update on March 8th – The 1995 Pacific Grand Prix, which was scheduled for Monday 9th March on Sky Sports F1, has disappeared. In its place is a repeat of the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Update on March 12th – The 1995 Pacific Grand Prix has returned, in highlights form, which will air on Friday 20th March. Also of note is the fact that, for Australia at least, Natalie Pinkham is presenting the Midweek Report alongside Mike Gascoyne and David Brabham. Hopefully Anna Woolhouse is back later this year as the Midweek Report was much more watchable than The F1 Show at points last year, in my opinion.