A reduced television audience in the United Kingdom looks set to greet the French Grand Prix when it returns to the calendar next year, because of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The draw for the tournament, which takes place in Russia, has placed England in Group G. As a result, England will face Panama on Sunday 24th June 2018 at 13:00 UK time. Historically, games held on the same day have ‘swapped’ time slots to suit television audiences in various territories, so England’s game could move to later in the day, with Japan versus Senegal or Poland versus Columbia taking the earlier slot.

It is rare for an England game to directly clash with an F1 race, although there have been two near misses. In 2006, England’s World Cup knock out game with Ecuador clashed with build-up for the Canadian Grand Prix, whilst their knock out game with Germany in 2010 resulted in the European Grand Prix moving to BBC Two.

Although England’s World Cup games have been less of a draw in recent times than historically, the games are still a huge event nationally, and would put a significant dent into the French Grand Prix audience. In the era of free-to-air highlights though, I expect Sky to broadcast the race exclusively live to a reduced audience if the race stays in its current 13:00 time slot.

To avoid the situation, the French round might find itself moved to either 11:00 UK time (12:00 local) or 15:00 UK time (14:00 local). Elsewhere, the French Grand Prix qualifying session clashes with Belgium versus Tunisia, both teams in the same group as England.

Formula 1 have officially unveiled their new logo following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, that heralds a new era for the sport heading into 2018. Formula One Management worked in collaboration with Wieden+Kennedy London to design the logo and associated typeface. The logo is one of the three that we expected to see following the designs logged with the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office, except with a red influence.

Speaking to Creative Review, Richard Turley, who led on the project at W+K, appears to suggest that the work was an indirect result of the Global F1 Fan Survey conducted earlier this year. The piece is a fascinating look at how the logo as developed, from initial concepts through to the final version, also pointing out that W+K initially looked to refine the current logo that Carter Wong had designed, but moved away from that idea.

Formula 1’s commercial chief Sean Bratches elaborates on why the sport have moved away from the Carter Wong design. In an interview with Motorsport.com, Bratches says “You cannot stitch the old logo chevron to the right. A number of brands, particularly in this day and age, are trying to simplify their marks to enter the digital space. Look at Starbucks, or Coca Cola which has taken the condensation off their logo to enter digital. We felt we had to go a little bit further and really retool to position us on a going forward basis.” Bratches also says that the negative space of the Carter Wong design “does not work well in digital.”

The strategy all came out of that intensive fan-focused [activity]. That was the starting point, then we could write a brief in and around what the identity needed to do. Perhaps one of the problems that [F1] inherited is that they had a logo but they didn’t really have an identity. What [Formula 1] wanted was something that was simple. – Richard Turley, speaking to Creative Review

The final design, according to Ellie Norman, who is Formula 1’s Head of Marketing, “takes inspiration from the low profile shape of the car, two cars crossing a finish line.” The idea of the new logo is for it to be flexible, so although red is currently in the designs, it may be that the colour changes depending on location, or on the race victor. Supplementing the new logo is three different typefaces designed by Marc Rouault, with the F1 Regular typeface expected to make its way onto the World Feed for 2018 based on the snippets in the Creative Review article.

Analysis
In my opinion, the typefaces produced by Rouault are the highlight as it currently stands. The pit in and out addition to the timing wall looks promising, although it remains to be seen how his typefaces will look on television (see the foot of this article for a preview). In any form of art, you should be looking to better the incumbent, and I am unconvinced that the new logo does that. For a world-class brand, the logo does not feel like one that represents a world-class sport.

Reading the quotes from Bratches, the comparisons with Starbucks and Coca Cola feel odd. Both brands refined their logo, by evolving their previous concepts. Neither brand decided to overhaul their logo completely, which is what Formula 1 have chosen to do. For me, it feels like a detachment from the past, a deliberate one to move away from the Bernie Ecclestone era.

In terms of the three designs we saw, it could have been worse. But I also feel that it could have been so much better. The logo does not shout ‘F1’ to me. Maybe it will in three months’ time…

Formula 1 has confirmed that it is launching two over-the-top products in 2018.

Speaking during the live F1 ESports Final broadcast, streamed live across social media, F1’s commercial chief Sean Bratches said “We’re going to be relaunching our digital platforms next year, with brand new responsive web, social capability.”

“We’re going to launch a live and a non-live OTT product. We’re going to continue to foster a greater environment around ESports. We’re going to launch four fan festivals in cities around the world.”

The idea that F1 would be launching two products in 2018 has been mooted for some time with Bratches speaking at industry events, but this is the first time that the news has been confirmed during a Formula 1 broadcast. Of course, this is fantastic news and many, many years overdue.

Formula One Management (FOM) have yet to release an official press notice to media and fans, meaning that there are many, many questions to be answered…

1 – Will the live over-the-top service be geo-blocked? I would expect the live service to be geo-blocked in many countries where Formula 1 airs live on pay television, such as the UK. Would a non-live service also be geo-blocked? It depends on what such a service would contain. For example, a non-live service which opens up FOM’s archives might infringe on Sky’s current offering.

2 – Which personalities will be part of F1’s live offering? Anyone who has worked with FOM on their digital media platform within the past few years has put themselves in the best position to be part of their future offering. For that reason, expect the likes of Rosanna Tennant to lead the line-up.

Assuming FOM does not use Sky’s commentary for their over-the-top product, Alex Jacques may find himself in pole position as Formula 1 lead commentator thanks to his work covering Formula Two and GP3 with Davide Valsecchi. The likes of Will Buxton and Jason Swales should also be mentioned, maybe fans in America will still hear their voices on ESPN after all…

3 – Will Formula Two and GP3 be offered as part of the live service? If Liberty Media wants to promote the two championships under the “Road to Formula 1” banner, the answer here must be a yes. If a live service is to be popular, it needs to be an all weekend offering, encompassing all on-track action. Back in 2002, F1 Digital+ only covered Formula 1 action despite fans paying £14.99 to watch the weekend.

4 – The pricing options. With two different products, I suspect you will see three different tiers of pricing. Entry level for the non-live product, a medium level for the live product with a high-end level covering both products. There’s little point talking about the UK here, but prices need to be reasonable to entice fans in. A steep entry price will turn fans away from buying.

The pricing also needs to be simple. There might be a temptation to have different pricing ‘levels’ within the live offering. For example, a live offering for just the World Feed, and then a live offering with all the added extras as was rumoured for this year. But at which point does the pricing become complicated. FOM need to follow the KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) with all aspects of the product, including pricing.

I think the live product will launch before testing, especially when you consider comments made during Sky’s coverage of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which indicated that testing will air live. There is not long to go before the New Year, meaning that an announcement regarding the content of both over-the-top platforms should be with us sooner rather than later.