The BBC are to air a one hour Murray Walker interview on the Red Button service throughout next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix weekend to mark his 90th birthday. The air times are as follows:
– Thursday 10th October (11:00, 12:00, 17:00, 18:00)
– Saturday 12th October (14:35, 21:50)
There will also be a one hour programme on BBC Radio 5 Live on Sunday 13th October at 16:00, which I assume is the same as the above. Happy birthday Murray!
Technically and mathematically the championship race is still on, but the law of diminishing returns means that Sebastian Vettel is likely to win the Drivers’ Championship next weekend or in India. The season heads to Suzuka, a circuit full of Formula 1 history and clashes every direction you look. Sky’s F1 team really could have picked any Japanese race and it would be served as a classic, they chose 1989, 1994, 1998, 2000 and 2007 which was held in Fuji. All worth watching, and as always the schedule times are below. If that was not enough, ITV are screening ‘Senna’ on the Sunday evening at 22:20.
BBC are live this weekend, as they are indeed for India as well, so a good dosage of live action coming up for the BBC F1 team, which is always good to see. Rather oddly though, and very frustrating, whoever did the pick order decided it would be fabulous idea to have live F1 and live MotoGP on the BBC clashing! Why not pick Korea live and have MotoGP whip up a bigger audience on the Sunday? The mind boggles. The two don’t actually clash in terms of race duration (F1 should finish at 08:30, MotoGP beginning at 09:00), but the programmes do and I feel it is a bit of a cock up. At least the schedulers get to breathe easy next year, I suppose…
Tuesday 8th October
20:00 to 21:30 – F1: 1989 Japanese Grand Prix Extended Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and James Hunt
– repeated on Friday 11th October at 18:30
Wednesday 9th October
20:00 to 21:00 – F1: 1994 Japanese Grand Prix Highlights (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Jonathan Palmer
– repeated on Saturday 12th October at 08:00
21:00 to 23:30 – F1: 1998 Japanese Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 12th October at 14:00
Thursday 10th October
07:00 to 07:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 17:15 – Gear Up for Japan (Sky Sports F1)
20:00 to 22:30 – F1: 2000 Japanese Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Murray Walker and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Saturday 12th October at 19:30
21:00 to 21:30 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
22:30 to 01:15 – F1: 2007 Japanese Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from James Allen and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Sunday 13th October at 19:15
Friday 11th October
01:45 to 03:50 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
01:50 to 03:40 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Two)
05:45 to 08:00 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
05:55 to 07:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Two)
08:00 to 08:45 – 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 12th October
02:45 to 04:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
02:55 to 04:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Two)
05:00 to 07:30 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
05:00 to 07:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
13:20 to 14:35 – F1: Qualifying Replay (BBC One)
14:35 to 15:35 – MotoGP: Qualifying Replay (BBC One)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
Sunday 13th October
05:30 to 10:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
06:00 to 09:15 – F1: Race (BBC One)
09:15 to 10:15 – F1: Forum (BBC Red Button)
08:30 to 10:00 – MotoGP: Sepang (BBC Two)
10:15 to 10:55 – GP Uncovered: 1962 Season (Sky Sports F1)
12:30 to 14:00 – MotoGP: Race Replay (BBC Two)
14:00 to 16:00 – F1: Race Replay (BBC One)
22:20 to 00:20 – FILM: Senna (ITV)
Wednesday 16th October
19:00 to 19:30 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)
The Singapore Grand Prix weekend is the focus this week as Sky Sports F1’s extended race coverage from 11:30 to 16:50 averaged 619,000 viewers excluding adverts as always. What this means is that the overnight rating of 630,000 viewers reported here is indeed for the original 11:30 to 16:15 slot. I believe those numbers are the lowest yet for a Sky exclusive race in the European time zone.
Elsewhere on Sky Sports F1:
– 406,000 – Live Qualifying (Saturday, 13:00)
– 122,000 – Live Practice 3 (Saturday, 10:45)
– 65,000 – Live Practice 2 (Friday, 14:15)
– 51,000 – Live GP2 Race 2 (Saturday, 09:05)
– 47,000 – Live Practice 1 (Friday, 10:45)
The F1 Show again fails to make the top ten for a race weekend based edition whilst, sadly, the F1 Legends edition with Eddie Irvine also did not enter. I do think scheduling is an issue here. By 16:45 on Sunday you would have what, maybe 50,000 viewers still watching the post-race? That is not a large base, and you would be better off putting the Legends show in between GP2 and the F1 instead of what feels like filler. I don’t think the GP2 sprint race has ever gone beyond 10:30 on a Sunday morning, so there would be enough time to put the Legends programme on.
BBC One’s highlights show failed to make BARB’s top 30, and therefore was under 3.61 million viewers unsurprisingly. Over on ITV4, cycling’s Tour of Britain dominated proceedings, taking seven of the top ten slots, with a high of 413,000 viewers on Wednesday evening.
The award winning documentary Senna is to make its terrestrial première on ITV this month, it has been confirmed today. The film, directed by Asif Kapadia, will air on ITV on Sunday 13th October at 22:20.
The slot is fairly good, but it does mean that it will run past mid night and be littered with adverts. Unfortunately, I couldn’t imagine a Formula 1 film being given a 21:00 slot, so I think this was the best slot possible.
The fly away races continue, with the first of three double headers to close the season. The Korean Grand Prix also means an early morning get up for the die-hard fans, so sleep deprivation is expected! My plan as usual is practice two, Qualifying and the Race live. As long as I don’t do what I did last year. Unfortunately, if I did miss my alarm call, iPlayer cannot be my saviour this year, as the weekend is exclusively live on Sky Sports F1.
BBC One will be screening highlights in the afternoon, while 5 Live will be covering the action live. Sky will also be screening the 2010 and 2011 Korean Grand Prix’s in full in the run up to the race. I do actually like the race track, it is just a pity the surroundings leave a lot to be desired. Dumped in the middle of nowhere, for no particular reason. Not exactly the most inspiring race to wake up for, that’s for sure. The Sky GP Uncovered programme after the race looks at the career of François Cevert, whilst Karun Chandhok is back on the Sky Pad this weekend, which is great to see. I imagine Anthony Davidson will not be at the next few races following the arrival of his baby girl!
Tuesday 1st October
20:00 to 23:45 – F1: 2010 Korean Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Jonathan Legard and Martin Brundle
– repeated on Friday 4th October at 18:00
Wednesday 2nd October
20:00 to 22:30 – F1: 2011 Korean Grand Prix (Sky Sports F1)
– commentary from Martin Brundle and David Coulthard
– repeated on Saturday 5th October at 07:45
Thursday 3rd October
07:00 to 07:45 – F1: Driver Press Conference (Sky Sports F1)
17:00 to 17:15 – Gear Up for Korea (Sky Sports F1)
21:00 to 22:00 – F1: Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
Friday 4th October
01:45 to 03:50 – F1: Practice 1 (Sky Sports F1)
01:55 to 03:35 – F1: Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
05:45 to 08:00 – F1: Practice 2 (Sky Sports F1)
05:55 to 07:35 – F1: Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
08:00 to 08:45 – 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 5th October
02:45 to 04:10 – F1: Practice 3 (Sky Sports F1)
02:55 to 04:05 – F1: Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
05:00 to 07:45 – F1: Qualifying (Sky Sports F1)
05:55 to 07:05 – F1: Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
13:15 to 14:30 – F1: Qualifying (BBC One)
18:45 to 19:00 – Inside F1 (BBC News Channel)
20:00 to 23:00 – IndyCar: Houston Race 1 (BT Sport 2)
Sunday 6th October
05:30 to 10:15 – F1: Race (Sky Sports F1)
06:55 to 09:00 – F1: Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)
10:15 to 10:45 – Cevert: The Most Exciting Man (Sky Sports F1)
14:00 to 16:00 – F1: Race (BBC One)
18:00 to 21:00 – IndyCar: Houston Race 2 (ESPN)
Wednesday 9th October
19:00 to 19:30 – Midweek Report (Sky Sports F1)
Motorsport Broadcasting 