Scheduling: The 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix

Round 1 in Australia may have finished, but the Formula 1 season quickly heads to Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysian Grand Prix, held at the Sepang International Circuit. As with last weekend, the action is live on Sky Sports F1 and BBC Radio 5 Live. BBC television will again be providing afternoon highlights.

Malaysia also marks the beginning of the 2013 GP2 season, the championship will again be live on Sky Sports F1, starting with their practice session in the early hours of Friday morning. Commentary, as in 2012, will be from Will Buxton. Unfortunately, I can’t spot any daytime repeats at the moment in the Sky schedules for GP2, the first repeat at a sensible time is on Tuesday 26th March at 20:00.

Tuesday 19th March
19:30 to 21:45 – F1: 1999 Malaysian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Friday 22nd March at 11:00
21:45 to 00:00 – F1: 2002 Malaysian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Friday 22nd March at 17:45

Wednesday 20th March
19:30 to 21:45 – F1: 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 23rd March at 09:45
21:45 to 00:00 – F1: 2007 Malaysian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 23rd March at 16:45

Thursday 21st March
07:00 to 07:40 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
18:00 to 18:15 – F1: Gear Up for Malaysia (Sky Sports F1)
20:00 to 22:15 – F1: 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 24th March at 22:30
20:30 to 21:30 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Friday 22nd March
01:45 to 03:50 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
03:55 to 04:35 – GP2: Practice (Sky Sports F1)
05:45 to 07:50 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
05:55 to 07:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
07:50 to 08:35 – GP2: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
09:00 to 09:40 – F1: Team Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
10:00 to 11:00 – The F1 Show (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Saturday 23rd March
03:10 to 04:35 – GP2: Race 1 (Sky Sports F1)
– repeated on Saturday 23rd March at 22:45
04:45 to 06:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
05:00 to 06:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
07:00 to 09:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
07:55 to 09:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
13:00 to 14:15 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)

Sunday 24th March
04:10 to 05:10 – GP2: Race 2 (Sky Sports F1)
– repeated on Sunday 24th March at 17:30
06:30 to 11:00 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
11:00 to 11:30 – GP Uncovered (Sky Sports F1)
07:45 to 09:45 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
14:30 to 16:30 – F1: Race (BBC One)

As always, if anything changes I shall update this blog if necessary.

Update on March 21st – A few minor adjustments to the schedule, with two GP2 repeats being added in.

Updated Schedule: The 2013 Australian Grand Prix

With the changes to the BBC and Sky schedules thanks to today’s Qualifying postponement, I have ditched the original post. For the remainder of the weekend, refer to the amended times below:

Saturday 16th March
13:00 to 13:55 – F1: Qualifying 1 (BBC One)
17:45 to 18:00 – Ted’s Qualifying Notebook (Sky Sports F1)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
23:45 to 01:30 – F1: Qualifying 2 and 3 (Sky Sports F1)
00:00 to 01:00 – F1: Qualifying 2 and 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live)

Sunday 17th March
04:30 to 09:30 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
05:15 to 06:00 – F1: Qualifying 2 and 3 (BBC One)
05:30 to 08:00 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
12:30 to 12:45 – Ted’s Race Notebook (Sky Sports F1)
14:20 to 16:20 – F1: Race (BBC One)
– note: For Scotland viewers, the race is on BBC Two

As you can see, BBC’s Qualifying 2 and 3 coverage directly clashes with Sky’s build-up. I don’t know if that is deliberate on their behalf, or just a case of not room for maneuver regarding their main highlights show in the afternoon.

‘GP Uncovered’ added to Sky schedule

A new strand of shows has been added to the Sky Sports F1 schedules starting this Sunday at 09:00. GP Uncovered will look back at Formula 1’s early days.

The first edition, entitled ‘1967 – Nine Days In Summer’ will air following the Australian Grand Prix, lasting an hour. The description is as follows: “The story of the Lotus 49, the revolutionary car designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe and driven with startling success by both Jim Clark and Graham Hill.”

Furthermore, the Sky website says that the programme will air following race weekends, so presumably as soon as the main race programme has finished. The films come from the Beaulieu archive.

Rolex become Sky F1 title sponsor

Watching practice two this morning, and I note that the Rolex sponsorship is present during break bumpers on Sky Sports F1. Santander, their previous title sponsor, pulled out at the end of last season.

Given Rolex’s increased presence in Formula 1 this year, the move makes logical sense. I will hunt around for something official later.

Update at 06:09: Shell are also a sponsor for 2013 it appears, so they have multiple sponsors. That is reminiscent of the Eurosport days in the mid 90s where they had multiple sponsors.

A few Sky Sports F1 schedule updates

Ahead of this weekend’s season opening Australian Grand Prix, I have spotted a few updates to the previously published Sky schedule, with a few extra additions.

– On Thursday at 20:00, there is a half hour programme entitled The Martin Whitmarsh Interview, which does what it says on the tin.
– On Friday at 08:30, there is an airing of The Petrol Age by Paul McGann. Whilst the programme is new to Sky Sports, the programme is not new to Sky, as it was aired on Sky Atlantic this time last year.

Both programmes are repeated on the channel throughout the weekend. Elsewhere, the 2009 German Grand Prix and 2008 Italian Grand Prix will be shown on Saturday 30th March and Sunday 1st April at 21:00 to conclude the “Debut Wins” strand.

Later in that week, the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix is on Friday 5th April at 21:00 to begin the Chinese five races. One thing to note is that The F1 Show for that week is listed on the Friday at 20:00, so I am unsure why the previous week is listed as Thursday at 20:00.

I will update the blog if anything changes.