The 2017 motor racing season moves up a gear this weekend, with both the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) and the British Superbikes starting their journey.

The BTCC series continues on ITV4, with Steve Rider and Louise Goodman again fronting the eight-hour race day programme. As in previous years, David Addison will continue to lead the commentary line-up, with Tim Harvey, Richard John Neil, Paul O’Neil and Phil Glew supplementing ITV4’s touring car offering.

Sticking with free-to-air, Formula E returns this weekend for round four of its season that started last October. For the first time ever, Channel 4’s Formula 1 expert and former Formula 1 driver David Coulthard will be part of Channel 5’s Formula E offering this weekend. Coulthard will be alongside presenter Andy Jaye in Channel 5’s studio for qualifying and the race.

It is a huge coup for both Channel 5 and Formula E to bring Coulthard on-board for their coverage, given his wealth of motor racing and broadcasting experience. I suspect that this is currently a one-off commitment for Coulthard, with a view to a longer-term relationship going forward.

The World Rallycross Championship returns this weekend, and with it a change of broadcasting rights. Quest TV will no longer be broadcasting live coverage, nor will ITV4 be airing highlights. Instead, Motorsport.tv (aka Motors TV) will air live coverage on their TV network and over-the-top, with highlights airing on Sky Sports Mix. A separate press release from Motorsport Networks notes that Andrew Coley, Liam Doran and Andrew Jordan will provide commentary throughout the year.

Blancpain Sprint Series
01/04 – 19:15 to 21:00 – Qualifying Race (BT Sport X3)
02/04 – 10:45 to 12:45 – Championship Race (BT Sport//ESPN)

British Superbikes – Donington Park
01/04 – 15:45 to 18:00 – Qualifying (British Eurosport 2)
02/04 – 13:00 to 18:00 – Races (British Eurosport 2)
05/04 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights (ITV4)

British Touring Car Championship – Brands Hatch (ITV4)
02/04 – 10:15 to 18:15 – Races

Formula E – Mexico City (online via Channel 5’s social media channels and YouTube)
01/04 – 14:55 to 15:55 – Practice 1
01/04 – 17:25 to 18:10 – Practice 2

Formula E – Mexico City
01/04 – 18:30 to 20:30 – Qualifying (Spike)
01/04 – 22:30 to 00:15 – Race (Channel 5)

TCR International Series – Georgia (Motorsport.tv)
02/04 – 15:50 to 17:20 – Race

World Rallycross Championship – Barcelona (Motorsport.tv)
02/04 – 13:00 to 15:05 – Race

World Superbikes – Aragon
01/04 – 09:15 to 14:00 – Qualifying and Race 1 (British Eurosport 2)
02/04 – 10:00 to 13:00 – Race 2 and Support Races (British Eurosport 2)
04/04 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights (ITV4)

As always, if anything changes I will update the above schedule.

Update on April 1st – Looks like Karun Chandhok is now alongside Jaye this evening, so Coulthard is no longer part of Channel 5’s Formula E coverage. Also of note is that Bob Varsha will be joining Jack Nicholls and Dario Franchitti in the commentary box.