“The Lost Generation” to air on Sky Sports F1 next week

A three part documentary will be airing on Sky Sports F1 next week, I can confirm. The 3 x 30 minute documentary produced by Sky will air in the run up to next weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix. Initially aired as a 3 x 5 minute ‘mini-series’ during The F1 Show earlier this year, the full length documentaries will look back on Roger Williamson, Tom Brise and Tom Pryce respectively.

Air times are as follows:

– Monday 19th August, 19:30 (1/3)
– Tuesday 20th August, 19:30 (2/3)
– Wednesday 21st August, 19:30 (3/3)

I’m very pleased to see this as I thoroughly enjoyed the mini-series that was aired during The F1 Show. My hope now is that it is promoted fully on the website, otherwise again no one will know about it. A three part series such as this deserves full exposure, even with thirty second trailers on-air during other shows on Sky.

I’ll either put more scheduling details in here, or in my Belgian Grand Prix schedule piece, which will be up online at the weekend.

Episode of Sporting Chapters to air on Sky F1

An episode of Sporting Chapters featuring Martin Brundle will air on Sky Sports F1 on Saturday 3rd August at 15:00. It is part of a wider series that has been ongoing for a while across the Sky channels looking at sporting stars.

And no, don’t ask me about the scheduling. I’ve just described it on the Twitter as “throwing a dart at the board and see where it would land”. Scheduling does not get much worse than that. Unpromoted during the Hungarian weekend, too. Yes, it is great to see new programming on the schedule, but when the scheduling is beyond stupid, why bother?

Update at 16:55 – I don’t have access to the EPG this week but it turns out the first airing is in fact tomorrow (2nd August) at 19:15…

Details for first IndyCar race on BT Sport revealed

Scheduling details for the first IndyCar race on BT Sport have this evening been revealed. The fourteenth round of the season from Mid Ohio will air live on BT Sport 2 on Sunday 4th August from 20:00 to 23:00. BT Sport formally take over from ESPN UK as part of their acquisition of the group, as announced back in May.

In another announcement this evening, it looks like that Georgie Thompson will be part of the new BT Sport channel after all. Thompson, who left Sky Sports in February and announced a move to America last week, is currently listed on DigiGuide as one of the hosts of the BT Sports Panel on Saturday mornings alongside Tim Lovejoy. A mistake? We shall see….

Update on July 29th – The Georgie Thompson listing is still there on DigiGuide. At this stage, it has to be an error, I cannot see it being anything else. I do find that interesting though, because it shows that BT Sport were definitely in advanced stages of bringing her on board, but for whatever reason, original plans fell through. Rather amateurish though of BT Sport not to notify DigiGuide and rectify it.

As for the IndyCar Series, a repeat airing is scheduled for ESPN UK on Monday 4th August from 17:30 to 20:00, whilst Indy Lights Series highlights are scheduled for the Tuesday at 21:30, so it seems nothing is changing on that particular front. I’m not going to list each individual airing, but both are repeated several times throughout next week.

Scheduling: The 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix

The first of two Summer breaks is over for the majority of the Formula 1 drivers as the field head to Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix. This year’s calendar is a bit odd in that there is a three week gap between Germany and Hungary, then a four week gap between Hungary and Belgian, this mainly down to the fact that round 20 failed to materialise. Hopefully next year’s calendar is better planned instead of being a stop/start mess…

Onto the schedule itself, and it is a BBC highlights weekend, so highlights are at the beginning of primetime for both Qualifying and the Race. Sky’s schedule is as expected, with the usual GP2 and GP3 action alongside the Formula 1. The Classic F1 races this week are 1986, 1993, 1997, 2003 and 2011. ~~On BBC Radio, Practice 3 will be online only due to athletics from London and Lyon.~~ Allan McNish will not be with the team this weekend, but will be back for his final two races in Belgian and Italy.

Saturday 20th July
20:00 to 20:45 – F1: 1986 Hungarian Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and James Hunt
– repeated on Friday 26th July at 18:00

Sunday 21st July
20:00 to 20:50 – F1: 1993 Hungarian Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Jonathan Palmer
– repeated on Friday 26th July at 18:45

Monday 22nd July
20:00 to 22:15 – F1: 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 28th July at 16:45

Tuesday 23rd July
20:00 to 22:15 – F1: 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 28th July at 06:05

Wednesday 24th July
20:00 to 22:15 – F1: 2011 Hungarian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Martin Brundle and David Coulthard
– repeated on Saturday 27th July at 17:05

Thursday 25th July
14:00 to 14:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
21:00 to 22:00 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
22:30 to 22:45 – F1: Gear Up for Hungary (Sky Sports F1)

Friday 26th July
08:45 to 11:00 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
08:55 to 10:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
11:00 to 11:35 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
12:45 to 14:50 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
12:55 to 14:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
14:50 to 15:35 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:00 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 27th July
08:45 to 09:30 – GP3: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:45 to 11:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
10:15 to 11:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
12:00 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
12:55 to 14:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
14:35 to 16:00 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:05 – GP3: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
17:15 to 18:40 – F1: Qualifying Highlights (BBC One)

Sunday 28th July
08:20 to 09:10 – GP3: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
09:30 to 10:35 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
11:30 to 16:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
13:00 to 14:30 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
16:15 to 16:45 – GP Uncovered: Tribute to Fangio (Sky Sports F1)
17:05 to 18:35 – F1: Race Highlights (BBC One)

As always, the timings are subject to slight alterations, so I shall update this blog if and when that happens.

Scheduling: The 2013 German Grand Prix

If Formula 1 fans couldn’t get enough of the action, the teams, drivers and machinery very quickly head from Silverstone to the Nurburgring for the German Grand Prix. I suspect only one word will be on many people’s lips though…

Sky’s Classic F1 races this week are 1993, 2000, 2005, 2009 and 2011. Personally, I’m very happy to see 2000 being shown, so I look forward to seeing that race in full again! It is a BBC highlights weekend, meaning that coverage is on BBC One in the evening. There is a potential disclaimer if ~~Andy Murray gets to the Wimbledon final that the highlights could be moved over to BBC Two in the event it goes the full five sets but we will cross that bridge if it comes.~~ – see the bottom of this post.

Also because of Wimbledon, all of BBC’s radio coverage of the sessions is on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. Here are all the scheduling details you need:

Tuesday 2nd July
20:00 to 21:00 – F1: 1993 German Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Jonathan Palmer
– repeated on Friday 5th July at 18:00
21:00 to 23:15 – F1: 2000 German Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 6th July at 06:30
22:00 to 22:30 – F1: Sir Frank Williams and Nigel Mansell (BBC Radio 5 Live)
– was originally meant to be shown last Wednesday

Wednesday 3rd July
20:00 to 22:00 – F1: 2005 German Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 6th July at 17:15
22:00 to 00:15 – F1: 2009 German Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 7th July at 06:05

Thursday 4th July
14:00 to 14:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
19:30 to 20:30 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
19:45 to 20:00 – F1: Gear Up for Germany (Sky Sports F1)
20:00 to 22:00 – F1: 2011 German Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Martin Brundle and David Coulthard
– repeated on Sunday 7th July at 19:00

Friday 5th July
08:45 to 11:00 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
08:55 to 10:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
11:00 to 11:35 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
12:45 to 14:45 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
12:55 to 14:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
14:45 to 15:30 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:00 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 18:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 6th July
08:45 to 09:25 – GP3: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:45 to 11:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
09:55 to 11:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
12:00 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
12:55 to 14:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
14:35 to 16:00 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
16:15 to 17:05 – GP3: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
17:55 to 19:10 – F1: Qualifying Highlights (BBC One)

Sunday 7th July
08:20 to 09:10 – GP3: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
09:30 to 10:35 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
11:30 to 16:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
12:30 to 15:30 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
16:15 to 17:15 – Architects of F1: Gordon Murray (Sky Sports F1)
18:00 to 19:30 – F1: Race Highlights (BBC One)

Wednesday 10th July
19:00 to 19:30 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)

Update at 21:45 on Friday 5th July – Andy Murray is through to the Wimbledon Men’s final and will be facing Novak Djokovic. If the match goes four or five sets, there is a chance that it could beyond 18:00. If that happens then either a) the F1 highlights will be moved to BBC Two or b) the F1 highlights will follow the Tennis at whatever time that will be. If you are heading out, I’d advise recording both BBC One and BBC Two manually from 18:00 onwards, as sometimes recordings fail if the time or channel changes. The Women’s final should be finished long before 17:55 tomorrow so I doubt tomorrow will be an issue.