Revamped Formula 1 website unveiled

The revamped version of the official Formula 1 website has been unveiled in time for the 2015 Formula One season. The website officially went live on Thursday 12th March after several days of users seeing beta versions located at various URLs.

It has been a fast paced week where the new website is concerned. The beta version did go live for about two hours on Monday evening (9th March), however it soon disappeared, so it presumably was not meant to be launched quite like it was! Early on Thursday, both versions started 404’ing out, making it clear that the move was happening. Later on, the new website went live. So, how has it gone down with me?

On the eve of the 2015 Australian Grand Prix, the homepage of the brand new Formula 1 website.

Look and feel
The screenshot posted above of the homepage does not even tell half of the story. The new website, on tablets, phones and desktop, is very, very slick. It’s quite clear that a lot of effort has gone into the new version of the website, which Formula One Management should be commended for. My initial impressions are largely positive. It was evident that this needed to catapult FOM into the 21st century, and I think it has gone some way to achieving that. The old version of the website was nearly a decade old. It desperately needed some life thrown into it, the world wide web has moved on a lot from the mid 2000s, and FOM were struggling to keep up.

One point that could be made is that the homepage is too long, however it should be recognised that things are moving away from desktop and towards the tablet. The homepage takes that into account with very specific sections: banner, news, current race, championship standings, video and the footer. It looks impressive, and easy on the eye. In the footer, we see a link to F1’s Twitter feed. No Facebook or YouTube yet, so, despite a verified YouTube channel, it looks like we will be waiting a bit longer for that, corroborating with previous comments made by Marissa Pace, who is Formula One Management’s Digital Media Manager.

F1 Access pricing and details
This is the membership area, which should not be a surprising introduction, given that Pace mentioned it back in December. The beta also confirms that this area will be behind a pay-wall. Pricing for UK users will be £2.29 a month or £19.99 a year. Neither of those prices seem extortionate to me, although it depends on whether you feel the content will justify the price, we will only find out the answer to that in the coming months. Over in the US, the price will be $2.99 a month or $26.99 a year, which should be of massive relief to some users, the early beta showed the price as $129.99 a year in error!

They are giving away a free one-month trial until April 13th, which is similar to what the WWE do with their online network. It normally boosts the subscription numbers and hooks people on for the longer term, so don’t be surprised if the ‘free month’ is a tactic that is repeated as the year progress, perhaps in the Summer break would be my guess. It is important to note that access to the membership area will work in tandem with the Official F1 App. There will not be two separate fees to pay. If you pay £19.99 for the year, you will be covered for the app and the membership area. From that perspective, I get the impression that FOM loved the figures that they were getting for the app in 2014 and want to exploit that further this year, hence the membership area. I can’t say I blame them, in that respect.

No live video, either, the only thing surrounding video concerns “HD video edits, highlights and behind the scenes.” The description for F1 Access is as follows: “Enhance the way you experience Formula 1 racing. Discover a level of detail you won’t find anywhere else – complete with in-depth insights, exclusive content, up-to-the-minute race data, and more.”

A look at what anyone can access on the new Formula 1 website, versus what those with F1 Access can access.

Video and radio content
The million dollar question was always going to be video content considering the old website had very limited video content, with most of it consigned to the app. The good news is that there appears to be significant improvements in this area. Free users, those who are not members as shown above get access to race weekend interviews and some archive footage. I suspect the archive footage will be retrospectives, which was also free occasionally on the F1 App last year as well. In contrast, those who are members will also get access to daily videos from the circuit, session highlights, technical content and updates from Formula 1 testing. The way I read that means, this time next year, all Winter testing content will be behind the pay-wall in order to drive people towards the membership area.

Elsewhere, the editorial section makes reference to the membership area receiving “industry-leading editorial content featuring video supplements and historical footage from the archives.” Overall, if you’re looking from archive content, there is no major benefit to becoming a member, in my opinion, but that may change as time progresses. The radio content on the membership area is similar to that previously on the App, with some team radio exclusive to that group.

Social media
Looking around the beta website, this is the main weakness. The one link, as I mentioned above, to Twitter was at the very bottom of the homepage. The news articles, on the beta at least, does not have any ‘Share to Facebook’ or ‘Share to Twitter’ buttons, which is very disappointing. It is all good tweeting about the news articles, but what needs to be recognised is that it is a ‘two way conversation’. There needs to be the ability to share news articles to social media, so the fact that this is missing is an odd omission.

As always, have your say in the poll and in the comments below, and if you were one of the lucky few, what did you think?

Update on March 10th – No new site, yet. The official site is still showing the old version. Interestingly though, the official YouTube channel for F1 along with its Google+ page are now in brand colours. I wonder if they’re hoping to launch their YouTube channel and the new website at the same time?

Update on March 12th – Screenshots updated, as has the description.

Update on March 12th at 19:30 – Hooray! It is live and in living colour.

Sky’s race day programme to split into four for 2015?

From one in 2012, to three at the back-end of 2013, to four for 2015. That’s right, it looks like Sky Sports F1’s race day programme will be split into four for the 2015 season. The schedule for the Australian Grand Prix shows this…

– 03:30 to 04:00 – Live Australian GP: Track Parade
– 04:00 to 04:30 – Live Australian GP: Pit Lane Live
– 04:30 to 07:30 – Live Australian GP: Race Show
– 07:30 to 08:15 – Live Australian GP: Paddock Live

As of writing, Malaysia still shows the ‘old style’ schedule, with no Pit Lane Live, but it may a case of that it just hasn’t been updated yet.

Either way, clearly Sky think that the three individual shows, at least from an EPG and ratings perspective, worked in 2014, and have decided to add a fourth show for 2015. Of course, the total run-time is identical, its just the number of shows that looks likely to be increasing.

BBC confirm 2015 plans as Sky drops online Race Control

It has been a busy two days in F1 broadcasting land, with both BBC and Sky holding their annual media days.

The BBC have officially confirmed their 2015 team which, as expected, is identical to their 2014 team. The main bit of news is that Suzi Perry will be presenting an F1 Rewind programme on BBC iPlayer and the Red Button, which is essentially a repackaged classic race. It also will be turning up on BBC Two, presumably on Saturday’s when the European season starts, as has been the case recently with their FA Cup Rewind programming. On 5 Live, Jack Nicholls will be commentating on five rounds (China, Austria, Hungary, Japan and Russia) with James Allen the lead commentator on the other 14 rounds.

BBC Head of F1, Ben Gallop, says: “With the current World Champion writing exclusively for the BBC, our access and insight into Formula 1 cannot be beaten. Across TV, radio and online, our top-class team will get audiences as close as possible to the starting grid, paddock, pit-lane and track – bringing expert analysis and insight throughout the race weekend. We are all hugely looking forward to the 2015 season and delivering every moment of Lewis Hamilton’s defending season to millions of F1 fans.”

This season, it looks like the BBC’s web offering for their live races will now be more expansive than Sky’s. The latter have decided to tailor their Race Control offering to just iPad and Red Button, dropping the web version entirely, which seems like a silly decision to me. When asked by this blog whether they would be dropping the online version of Race Control, Sky said “Yes that is right, we are going with iPad and red button.” I can’t speak for others, but I used Race Control online whenever Sky Go was playing up, so I’m disappointed to see it disappear. Whether it is related to costs, I don’t know. I do wonder if this will also be the case for Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia as well…

On the brighter side, Sky say that, they will “offer eight individual on board feeds from different cars on the Race Control iPad app”, a total of 14 live streams.

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.