Scheduling: The 2018 Spanish Grand Prix

Off the back of a thrilling start to the season, Formula 1 heads back to Europe for the Spanish Grand Prix!

The race weekend is the first time F1’s full revised offering is on offer this season. F1’s on-track sessions start an hour later than in 2017, with the race starting a further ten minutes later at 14:10 instead of 13:00. The changes do not stop there: GP3 qualifying moves to Friday evening, allowing the feeder series’ first race to take place on Saturday morning.

Formula Two retains its existing post-F1 slot on Friday and Saturday, but like F1 takes place an hour later than last year. Sky are taking advantage of the changes FOM and Liberty Media have made, staying live on-air from 13:00 to 17:25 on Saturday, in a block consisting of F1 qualifying, Formula Two’s first race and The F1 Show. I am hopeful the block of programming will flow from one to another without an unnatural break in proceedings to better retain viewers throughout the afternoon.

In addition, Sky’s build-up for both practice one and three will be 30 minutes long, for Spain at least. Channel 4’s highlights programming airs slightly earlier than year. Of course, Spain also sees the long-awaited launch of Formula 1’s new over-the-top service. UK viewers may get access to the basic, non-live tier but no further than that due to the existing and future television rights agreements.

Elsewhere, Quest have picked up live coverage of the Historic Monaco Grand Prix weekend from Motorsport.tv, who previously aired the event under their previous Motors TV guise in 2016. On two wheels, Eurosport are giving World Superbikes additional treatment in 2018, with live coverage of practice on Fridays, which I am adding to the scheduling pieces from this race onwards.

Not specifically related to this weekend, but it looks like no one has grabbed highlights of the World Endurance Championship super-season, perhaps surprisingly considering highlights aired on Channel 4 in 2016, and ITV4 last year.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
12/05 – 17:00 to 18:30 – Qualifying Highlights
13/05 – 18:00 to 20:00 – Race Highlights

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
11/05 – 09:30 to 11:55 – Practice 1 (also Sky Sports Main Event)
11/05 – 13:45 to 15:50 – Practice 2
12/05 – 10:30 to 12:15 – Practice 3 (also Sky Sports Main Event)
12/05 – 13:00 to 15:40 – Qualifying
=> 13:00 – Pre-Show
=> 13:55 – Qualifying
13/05 – 12:30 to 17:10 – Race
=> 12:30 – Pit Lane Live
=> 13:30 – On the Grid
=> 14:05 – Race
=> 16:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
09/05 – 20:30 to 21:00 – The F1 Report: Preview
10/05 – 14:00 to 14:30 – Driver Press Conference
10/05 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
12/05 – 16:50 to 17:25 – The F1 Show
16/05 – 20:30 to 21:00 – The F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
11/05 – 09:55 to 11:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
11/05 – 13:55 to 15:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
12/05 – 10:55 to 12:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
12/05 – 14:00 to 15:00 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live)
13/05 – 14:00 to 16:30 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)

Formula Two – Spain (Sky Sports F1)
11/05 – 11:55 to 12:50 – Practice
11/05 – 15:50 to 16:30 – Qualifying
12/05 – 15:40 to 16:50 – Race 1
13/05 – 10:25 to 11:25 – Race 2

GP3 Series – Spain (Sky Sports F1)
11/05 – 16:45 to 17:25 – Qualifying
12/05 – 09:10 to 10:05 – Race 1
13/05 – 09:20 to 10:05 – Race 2

Historic Grand Prix of Monaco (Quest)
12/05 – 13:00 to 17:00 – Day 1
13/05 – 12:30 to 16:30 – Day 2

IndyCar Series – Grand Prix of Indianapolis (BT Sport/ESPN)
12/05 – 20:30 to 23:00 – Race

Porsche Supercup – Spain (Sky Sports F1)
13/05 – 11:40 to 12:25 – Race

Speedway Grand Prix – Poland (BT Sport 3)
12/05 – 17:45 to 21:15 – Races

World Superbikes – Imola
11/05 – 08:40 onwards (Eurosport 2)
=> 08:40 to 09:30 – SBK: Practice 1
=> 11:25 to 12:20 – SBK: Practice 2
=> 13:55 to 14:55 – SSP: Practice 2
=> 14:55 to 15:55 – SBK: Practice 3
12/05 – 09:00 to 14:00 – Qualifying and Race 1 (Eurosport 2)
13/05 – 10:00 to 15:00 – Support and Race 2 (Eurosport 2)
15/05 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights (ITV4)

World Touring Car Cup – Nurburgring
11/05 – 16:30 to 17:30 – Qualifying (Eurosport 2)
12/05 – 10:00 to 11:00 – Race 2 (Eurosport)
12/05 – 14:00 to 15:00 – Race 3 (Eurosport)

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