Live Blog: The 2016 British MotoGP weekend

As mentioned on the Twitter, this site will be reporting live from Silverstone over the 2016 British MotoGP weekend.

This post will be for live updates and thoughts as the weekend progresses.

Thursday, 11:30 – After an hour drive, multiple check points and a media pass to pick up, I’m finally in the MotoGP media centre. The first thing to mention in that the MotoGP paddock does not use the Silverstone Wing as its base, instead it uses the ‘old’ paddock located between Luffield and Copse. The media centre is based in a large marquee, enough to seat around 120 people.

Thursday, 16:45 – A wander around the paddock and pit lane and then it was back to the media centre for a chat with David Emmett. The atmosphere in the paddock was electric with fans mulling around, trying to see the stars. By this point (just after lunch time now), the media centre was also starting to fill up with journalists filling their way in. A 25-minute chat and a transcript of 2,500 words (or an hour and a half of typing) resulted in this piece. A few other contacts are starting to form, and hopefully voices to speak to over the remainder of the remainder of the weekend.

Thursday, 18:00 – The pre-race press conference was pretty good. It featured Eugene Laverty, Hector Barbera, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow. The main take away: having a kid makes you go faster! On a serious note, great to hear six of the top MotoGP faces in conversation.

Thursday, 18:55 – The second interview of the weekend is complete, this time with the Marketing and Communications Manager for Marc VDS, Ian Wheeler. Expect that to be posted sometime tomorrow morning hopefully. For the moment though, day one at Silverstone is complete, and what a day it was. Tomorrow: it is time for the racing.

Friday, 10:30 – Welcome to Friday from Silverstone. The clouds have rolled in and the weather feels a few degrees cooler than yesterday. First stop: a quick five-minute look at the MotoGP bikes roaring down the Wellington Straight with @ILM_Bikes. I cannot begin to explain how utterly insane and loud the bikes sound. The noise is immense. The only comparison I can give is with the World Endurance Championship. Both are loud in their own respects. MotoGP edges it in volume, WEC edges it in variance.

Friday, 14:45 – A busy day so far, consisting of transcripting my conversation with Ian Wheeler from yesterday evening. The first half of that interview has just dropped online. Part two will be up within the next day hopefully. Alongside that, a tour of the technical area of the paddock (so to speak) and a walk towards Copse and Becketts with @ILM_Bikes to listen to the Moto3 bikes. The sound is quieter relatively speaking compared to the MotoGP bikes but still incredibly loud.

Friday, 18:00 – I dropped into the Monster Yamaha Tech3 media session with Alex Lowes and Pol Espargaro, which was an interesting listen given it is Lowes’ first race with the MotoGP outfit. After the print media debrief, Lowes went to speak to BT Sport’s Gavin Emmett for a piece to camera. The Barry Sheene parade has also taken place, great to hear the two-strokes in action! Really different to the current day sound. Elsewhere, the second half of my Ian Wheeler interview has been posted, half an hour of conversation transcribed into around 4,500 words of content. It has been another fascinating day of action and intrigue at Silverstone. Tomorrow, the action ramps up again, with qualifying.

Saturday, 09:30 – Good morning from Silverstone. Early morning sunshine is still present here, but is expected to be replaced by rain, which will further intensify as the afternoon progresses. From my perspective, the next two days will probably be less busier given that the journalists reporting on the on-track action will be busier with their own reporting. It is a brief moment to pause and reflect on the weekend so far and to gather my own thoughts ready for some blog pieces in the weeks ahead.

Saturday, 12:50 – As expected, the rain has closed into Silverstone, which means that Moto3 qualifying is a free-for-all. I watched MotoGP practice from track side this morning with multiple vantage points: Luffield, Woodcote and then the pit straight.

Saturday, 15:00 – Wow! Cal Crutchlow on pole position. An amazing MotoGP qualifying session full of grit and determination. The media centre reactions told the full story with both Marc Marquez and Eugene Laverty’s crashes, hoping both men are okay.

Saturday, 16:30 – Whilst Jenson Button’s retirement/sabbatical dominates the Formula 1 world, Sam Lowes made it a British double on Saturday afternoon, Lowes sercuring pole in the Moto2 class. Just before the MotoGP qualifying session, I had the opportunity to chat to Steve Day, who is one of Dorna’s World Feed commentators. That interview will be on the site shortly.

Saturday, 17:50 – The rain has persisted further into the evening here at Silverstone as the post-qualifying press conference comes to a close. I don’t know whether this is a MotoGP thing, but the conferences feel much more human in person compared to the monotone F1 press conferences we see at home. For the moment, it is time for me to brave the elements. This evening’s reading is the interview referenced above with Steve Day, located here.

Sunday, 09:15 – Good morning from Silverstone. It was busier heading towards the circuit this morning, I’m hopeful we have somewhere in the region of 100,000 here today but time will tell. For the moment, I’m standing at Copse watching the Moto3 warm-up. It’s cloudy and windy but no rain is expected today.

Sunday, 11:40 – After a few spells of drizzle during warm-up, the rain has disappeared again. Sunday morning for me is reviewing the Saturday viewing figures, which will be posted on the site tomorrow and Tuesday. Although the actual text posted is quite short, the analysis that goes into the numbers is quite extensive: race-by-race trends, seasonal trends, year-on-year trends and larger historical trends. It’s not as simple as “this rating is poor” from the outset, there are a lot more points you need to consider before coming to that conclusion. In terms of interviews, I don’t envisage any for today. David Emmett said from the outset on Tuesday that I would be lucky to get three conversations in, and that’s what I’ve done, so it has been a very productive and exciting weekend. Just over 45 minutes now until the Moto3 race gets going!

Sunday, 14:00 – Outside of the MotoGP world, it looks like Formula E is heading to Channel 5, according to Current E and a press release is expected tomorrow. If confirmed, the move keeps Formula E on free-to-air television following their split from ITV.

Sunday, 15:45 – The MotoGP race has been red flagged after an accident between Loris Baz and Pol Esparagaro on lap one. Thankfully, both riders are okay and conscious.

Sunday, 16:50 – That was exceptional! A fantastic MotoGP race won by Maverick Viñales, featuring a scrap between Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow. Probably the race of the year so far for MotoGP. What a race!

Sunday, 18:00 – Now that the press conference has concluded, it is probably about time I wrap this post up. This weekend has been amazing in many different ways. Just being a part of the MotoGP paddock in itself has been brilliant. Seeing the stars in action from the first press conference on Thursday through to this evening, I feel that it’s been a privilege to witness it and to be part of it. There will be a few pieces of analysis coming up in the next few weeks on the back of this weekend. I want to finish this post by thanking those that have played a small part in the weekend: David Emmett for his advice prior to the weekend and his interview with me, to Ian Wheeler and Steve Day for spending the time with me on Thursday and Saturday respectively and to Dorna for their little tidbits and snippets of information and insight as the weekend progressed. It has really been a blast, and a weekend I won’t forget in a hurry! Shall we do it again soon? I hope so. Until next time Silverstone…

Scheduling: The 2016 Italian Grand Prix / British MotoGP

An unusual weekend starts September as both the Formula 1 and MotoGP championships take centre stage on European turf. The Italian Grand Prix plays host to round 13 of the Formula 1 season, whilst Silverstone is home to round 12 of the MotoGP season.

Not much is known about the Channel 4 team as of writing. Lee McKenzie is heading back to Rio over the weekend, so presumably will not be in Monza. Alain Prost was meant to be with Channel 4’s team in Spa, but was not shown on-screen. It was mentioned pre-season that Channel 4 would adapt the presenting line-up as the season progressed, so I assume they pushed Prost’s planned Spa appearance to later in the year.

There are two special programmes on Channel 4 over the weekend: one is an extended interview with Jenson Button (filmed before the start of the season but only been uploaded online and not aired on TV) and the other is a feature-length film looking at Jackie Stewart’s participation in the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix. Sky will be airing a charity football game live from the starting grid on Thursday evening, pitting F1 stars against several football legends.

Over on BBC Radio 5 Live, Jennie Gow will not be on site with them for the remainder of the season as she will be giving birth at the beginning of October (congratulations, Jennie). BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage looks a little different on Sunday. The clash of dates with the Italian Grand Prix means that the MotoGP schedule is staggered around the F1, with the main MotoGP race not starting until 15:30. On the personnel side, Suzi Perry is back with BT as lead presenter to take viewers through the weekend.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
02/09 – 08:55 to 10:35 – Practice 1
02/09 – 12:55 to 14:40 – Practice 2
03/09 – 09:55 to 11:25 – Practice 3
03/09 – 11:55 to 14:30 – Qualifying
04/09 – 12:00 to 15:30 – Race

Supplementary Programming
03/09 – 11:25 to 11:55 – Murray Walker meets Jenson Button
04/09 – 06:20 to 08:00 – Weekend of a Champion

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
02/09 – 08:45 to 11:00 – Practice 1
02/09 – 12:45 to 14:50 – Practice 2
03/09 – 09:45 to 11:15 – Practice 3
03/09 – 12:00 to 14:35 – Qualifying (also Sky Sports Mix)
04/09 – 11:30 to 16:15 – Race
=> 11:30 – Track Parade (also Sky Sports Mix)
=> 12:00 – Pit Lane Live (also Sky Sports Mix)
=> 12:30 – Race
=> 15:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
01/09 – 14:00 to 14:30 – Driver Press Conference
01/09 – 17:00 to 18:00 – Charity Football: F1 All Stars vs Heineken Football Legends (also Sky Sports Mix)
01/09 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
02/09 – 15:30 to 16:00 – Team Press Conference
02/09 – 16:00 to 16:30 – The F1 Show
06/09 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
01/09 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
02/09 – 08:55 to 10:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
03/09 – 09:55 to 11:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
03/09 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
04/09 – 13:00 to 15:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

MotoGP – Britain (BT Sport 2)
02/09 – 09:00 to 16:00
=> 09:00 – Practice 1
=> 11:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 13:00 – Practice 2
03/09 – 09:00 to 16:15
=> 09:00 – Practice 3
=> 12:00 – Qualifying
04/09 – 08:45 to 17:30
=> 08:45 – Warm Up
=> 10:30 – Build-Up
=> 11:30 – Moto3 race
=> 13:45 – Moto2 race
=> 15:15 – MotoGP race
=> 16:30 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Britain (ITV4)
05/09 – 22:00 to 23:00 – Highlights

24H Series – Barcelona (Motors TV)
03/09 – 10:30 to 19:15 – Race (first half)
04/09 (Sunday morning) – 01:45 to 11:30 – Race (second half)

GP2 Series – Italy (Sky Sports F1)
02/09 – 11:00 to 11:50 – Practice
02/09 – 14:50 to 15:30 – Qualifying
03/09 – 14:35 to 16:05 – Race 1
04/09 – 09:20 to 10:35 – Race 2

GP3 Series – Italy (Sky Sports F1)
03/09 – 08:45 to 09:20 – Qualifying
03/09 – 16:10 to 17:10 – Race 1
04/09 – 08:10 to 09:10 – Race 2

IndyCar Series – Grand Prix at The Glen (BT Sport//ESPN)
04/09 – 19:00 to 22:00 – Race

World Endurance Championship – Mexico
03/09 – 19:15 to 01:45 – Race (Motors TV)
03/09 – 19:30 to 01:30 – Race (BT Sport 3)

World Touring Car Championship – Japan (Eurosport 2)
03/09 – 07:00 to 08:30 – Qualifying
04/09 – 06:30 to 08:30
=> 06:30 – Race 1
=> 07:30 – Race 2

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

Update on September 3rd – Holly Samos and Eddie Jordan are with Channel 4’s team this weekend.

talkSPORT secures MotoGP radio rights

talkSPORT, one of the biggest commercial radio stations in the UK, has secured the radio rights to the MotoGP championship with immediate effect until the end of the 2017 season.

Every MotoGP race will be covered live on their sister station talkSPORT 2, with a number of Moto2 and Moto3 races also broadcast live. There will also be previews and reviews of every race on talkSPORT. talkSPORT’s press release says that it is “the first time any major motorsport has been broadcast on national commercial radio in the UK.”

BBC radio have previously covered the British round of the championship, but I do not believe they covered it regularly in the modern era. According to RAJAR, talkSPORT 2 reached 285,000 people in the second quarter of 2016, but it should be noted that talkSPORT 2 was only launched in January. Whilst the reach may be small in comparison to other stations (such as the main talkSPORT station), any increase to MotoGP’s existing reach should be seen as a positive.

talkSPORT will be using Dorna’s World Feed team, with commentary coming from Nick Harris and Matt Birt.

Scheduling: The 2016 Berlin ePrix / Italian MotoGP

The penultimate stop on the 2015-16 Formula E calendar takes the championship to Berlin this weekend. It marks round eight of ten before the season concludes with a double header in London in early July.

On the Formula E broadcasting side, Allan McNish is co-commentator alongside Jack Nicholls due to Dario Franchitti’s Indianapolis 500 commitments. It is a replica of BBC’s 5 Live team with Jennie Gow presenting for ITV, the only difference is that Tom Clarkson has yet to get involved with Formula E! Due to Peston on Sunday, Formula E’s highlights programme on ITV airs slightly later than usual on Sunday morning at 11:00.

Speaking of the famous American oval race, BT Sport//ESPN will be covering both Indy 500 qualifying days live for the first time ever. The move is an attempt by the channel to boost their IndyCar coverage in response to feedback from fans. Elsewhere on free-to-air television, British Superbikes is airing live on Quest TV due to coverage of the French Open Tennis and the Giro d’Italia cycling tour on Eurosport.

On two wheels, Suzi Perry will not be presenting BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage due to illness. Below are all the scheduling details you need…

MotoGP – Italy (BT Sport 2)
20/05 – 08:00 to 15:00
=> 08:00 – Practice 1
=> 10:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 12:00 – Practice 2
21/05 – 08:00 to 15:15
=> 08:00 – Practice 3
=> 11:00 – Qualifying
22/05 – 07:30 to 09:15 – Warm Up
22/05 – 09:30 to 15:00
=> 09:30 – Moto3 race
=> 11:15 – Moto2 race
=> 12:45 – MotoGP race
=> 14:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Italy (ITV4)
23/05 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Highlights

Formula E – Berlin (online via YouTube)
21/05 – 07:10 to 08:10 – Practice 1
21/05 – 09:25 to 10:10 – Practice 2
21/05 – 10:45 to 12:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – Berlin
21/05 – 14:00 to 16:30 – Race (ITV4)
22/05 – 11:00 to 12:00 – Highlights (ITV)

British Superbikes – Brands Hatch Indy
21/05 – 14:00 to 16:00 – Qualifying (British Eurosport 2 and Quest TV)
22/05 – 12:30 to 18:00 – Races (Quest TV)
25/05 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Highlights (ITV4)

DTM – Austria
21/05 – 16:30 to 17:45 – Race 1 (BT Sport//ESPN)

Euroformula – Belgium
21/05 – Race 1
=> 13:25 to 14:20 (Motors TV)
=> 13:30 to 14:30 (BT Sport//ESPN)
22/05 – Race 2
=> 12:15 to 13:10 (Motors TV)
=> 12:15 to 13:15 (BT Sport//ESPN)

Formula 3 Europe – Austria
21/05 – Race 1
=> 09:30 to 10:30 (BT Sport 1)
=> 09:35 to 10:40 (Motors TV)
22/05 – 10:10 to 11:15 – Race 2 (Motors TV)

Formula V8 3.5 – Belgium (BT Sport//ESPN)
21/05 – 12:00 to 13:30 – Race 1
22/05 – 14:45 to 16:00 – Race 2

IndyCar Series – Indianapolis 500 Qualifying (BT Sport//ESPN)
21/05 – 21:00 to 23:00 – Day 1
22/05 – 21:00 to 23:00 – Day 2

International GT Open – Belgium
21/05 – 14:30 to 16:00 – Race 1
=> 14:20 to 16:00 (Motors TV)
=> 14:30 to 16:00 (BT Sport//ESPN)
22/05 – 13:15 to 14:45 – Race 2
=> 13:10 to 14:45 (Motors TV)
=> 13:15 to 14:45 (BT Sport//ESPN)

Virgin Australia Supercars – Winton Supersprint (BT Sport 1)
21/05 – 06:30 to 08:15 – Race 10
22/05 – 04:15 to 06:30 – Race 11

World Rally Championship – Portugal
20/05 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Stage 2 (BT Sport 2)
22/05 – 09:00 to 10:00 – Stage 3 (BT Sport 1)

Last updated on May 19th at 18:00 to reflect Suzi Perry’s illness.

Update on May 21st at 15:15 – Allan McNish commentated on Formula E practice and qualifying but had to pull out of the race commentary itself at the last minute, according to lead commentator Jack Nicholls.

Formula E learns how to go viral with #LeapOfFaith

There were two major social media highlights of the past few months for me, one of which showed how to go viral, whilst the other really showed the personality of two popular drivers away from the racing circuit.

#LeapOfFaith takes off…
To reach a new, diverse audience, you have to take creative risks. You have to be prepared to try out new things. If the audience is not receptive to said ‘new things’, you simply move in a different direction and add it to your ‘lessons learnt’ list. It gives you an idea of what works and what doesn’t. Formula E’s latest stunt was designed to go viral, and it did exactly that.

The stunt, filmed around the time of the Mexican ePrix in early March, saw Damien Walters backflip over a Formula E car travelling at speed. As of writing, the main video on Formula E’s YouTube channel has had over 5 million hits. When you combine that with Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms, the combined reach of the video will be in excess of 10 million hits, an excellent achievement for Formula E’s digital media team. It shows that thinking outside of the box does work, and can bring attention to their channels, which I feel is a lesson that all in the world of motor sport can learn, including Formula 1.

However, here is the crux for why I don’t think you will see F1’s digital media team do videos like that, and it is not because they are not creative or anything of that sort. How many people will have watched the #LeapOfFaith and thought “I must check out some of Formula E’s other videos” or “I might watch Formula E next weekend”? I’d hazard a guess and say that it was less than 1 percent. Instead, for the vast majority of those that stumbled across the video, they probably thought it was “cool” and moved on.

I’m not trying to undermine the idea behind the video by saying that, because I thought it was awesome, but I do not see it significantly affecting Formula E’s growth. Mind you, every little helps and every opportunity to grab a new viewer is a good opportunity and I applaud Formula E for producing #LeapOfFath.

…Formula 1 drivers show off personality with fun and Q&A sessions…
There have been a few examples recently where personality has been on show in the world of Formula 1. Aside from Fernando Alonso’s live on-screen jibe at Johnny Herbert during Sky Sports F1’s Bahrain Grand Prix practice coverage, the Chinese Grand Prix saw a heated back and forth debate between Sebastian Vettel and Daniil Kvyat over the driving standard of the latter at the start of the race. The debates have been intertwined with fun and Q&A sessions along the way.

Probably the best show of personality this season away from the race track comes from Felipe Massa and Daniel Ricciardo. Back at Massa’s home in Monte Carlo, his son and Ricciardo engaged in a go-karting race. In what was a close run contest from start to finish, with plenty of nail-biting moments, it was the youngster who won by the smallest of margins. The fun and games between Massa and Ricciardo was live streamed on Facebook. Like #LeapOfFaith above, this too went viral amassing nearly 5 million views. Of course, one was designed to go viral whereas the other was some fun between two mates. But we need videos like that, they are memorable and for good reason too.

On the more scripted side, Sky Sports F1 have been engaging in some fan question and answer sessions, so far with Lewis Hamilton and Rio Haryanto (the former also doing a Twitter Q&A in recent weeks). Including all play backs, these two have had 270,000 and 60,000 views respectively. This is a wider Sky Sports strategy to conduct question and answer sessions on social media as opposed, which is how these two have come about. You only need to look at the swathe of videos that Sky Sports upload to Facebook to realise that. I would be surprised if Formula One Management (FOM) have got involved in either of these Q&A sessions. Scripted or not, from a fan perspective, it has been great to see personalities on-show so far during 2016, something I hope continues throughout the year.

…but what hasn’t gone viral?
There have been many fantastic and dramatic moments so far in the 2016 Formula One season. Alongside the aforementioned Vettel vs Kvyat squabble in China, we had Fernando Alonso’s horrifying crash in Australia and the major turn one accident in Russia. There’s been a lot of pin-points so far this year that could have gone ‘viral’. You can produce the greatest videos in the world, but there is no substitute for current action as that inevitably drives traffic. Formula 1 has probably lost out in excess of 15 to 20 million views across Facebook, Twitter and YouTube so far in 2016, I daresay more than that.

Take a look at MotoGP’s social media video portfolio on Facebook and YouTube. We’re talking short-form bite-size content: around 20 seconds long on Facebook and one to two minutes on YouTube. The reason for the lack of 2016 Formula 1 video content on FOM’s social media channels is the current television broadcasting contracts as we all know, but it just illustrates the potential reach that Formula 1 is losing hand over fist on a now bi-weekly basis.

Elsewhere, the lack of an on-screen hashtag still confuses and bemuses me, both in equal measure. I’m surprised Formula E still hasn’t successfully embedded it into their graphics set. So simple, but proving to be a challenge at the same time. Formula E have also launched a new website, which is designed for best use on phone or tablet device. It feels slim line, and is extremely different to say the Formula 1 and MotoGP websites. As a desktop user, I personally prefer the F1 and MotoGP sites, both of which look more professional than the Formula E site. Round the edges, the Formula E website does not look as smooth either, but this should improve over time as bugs are ironed out.