Tag: MotoGP

All posts relating to MotoGP coverage.

News round-up: Whisper Films win award; Channel 4 to air motor racing documentaries

It has been a little quiet lately, but there have been a few snippets worth reporting on, as Whisper Films have picked up awards for their Formula 1 coverage and FOM have made small innovations to their TV product.

Whisper Films win award
Whisper Films’ Formula 1 production has earned the respect of plaudits, coming away from the AIB (Association for International Broadcasting) Awards as victor in the Sport category. Specifically, their production of Channel 4’s Spanish Grand Prix was commended. The judging panel said that their coverage, specifically surrounding the Spanish Grand Prix, had “translated to a great experience for the viewer.”

Outside of their Channel 4 coverage, Whisper have continued to produce Formula 1 documentaries this year, notably a 30-minute documentary covering Mercedes following the Spanish Grand Prix entitled ‘Two Weeks to Win’ and a 60-minute documentary for Red Bull’s TV station looking at the history of the pit stop in motor racing. Sky Sports aired the Mercedes documentary a few weeks ago, but it demonstrates how much content Whisper is producing now.

Winning the Channel 4 production contract showed that Whisper meant business, and they have since recruited people from Sky and BBC to bolster their team. Like I’ve said before, I hope Whisper produces Sky’s Formula 1 coverage from 2019 onwards, simply because their team is bringing together the best from multiple different sides.

Channel 4 to air three motor racing documentaries in Abu Dhabi build-up
Whilst Whisper Films produce Channel 4’s main Formula 1 programming, two other production companies have produced two new documentaries that will air on Channel 4 in the lead up to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. ‘0 to 60mph: Britain’s Fastest Kids’, produced by Finestripe Productions, tracks three families as their youngsters chase their Formula 1 dream.

Meanwhile, Philip Glenister and Ant Anstead try to restore the Lotus Elite, which was designed by Colin Chapman. The documentary builds up to the Tourist Trophy classic car event at Silverstone, where Glenister and Anstead hope to race the restored Lotus Elite. The show, entitled ‘The Lost Lotus: Restoring a Race Car’, is produced by Love Productions.

The two 60-minute documentaries will air back to back from 19:00 on Sunday 20th November on Channel 4. A third programme, an in-depth interview with Mark Webber, will air on Saturday 26th November at 11:25 between the Abu Dhabi practice and qualifying sessions.

FOM evolutions on offer in Mexico
There were a few new graphics on offer during the Mexican Grand Prix weekend. Notably, new graphics were shown during the formation lap tracking the gap between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg as the 2016 season has progressed. During the race, graphics were used in replay segments to identify cars easier for the various turn one incidents.

Alongside this, FOM have experimented with having guests speaking to drivers’ during the formation lap and warm down lap. Following the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying session, Johnny Herbert spoke to Nico Rosberg over the radio whilst Juan Montoya chatted to Esteban Guttierez prior to the Mexican Grand Prix.

It is nice to see Formula One Management (FOM) making changes and refining their offering. As always though with FOM it feels that they experiment with something only to ditch it a few weeks later. Innovations such as line comparison and thermal cameras for whatever reason were dropped a long time ago, yet virtual advertising is kept.

I mention line comparison in light of the recent addition to Dorna’s MotoGP coverage. The Malaysian MotoGP saw a brilliant comparison aired between four of MotoGP’s leading riders at the turn 15 hairpin, showing the different apex’s that are taken. Unlike FOM, Dorna (most of the time) keep and run with their innovations whereas FOM haphazardly drop them for no apparent reason.

As I’ve mentioned previously, FOM’s entire product and direction needs a strategic re-think in order to bring some of the ‘rawness’ back to Formula 1, it feels like their television coverage has stagnated in recent years, a trend which needs to be reversed. Team radio helps, as Sebastian Vettel demonstrated in Mexico but that is only one piece of the wider puzzle.

Meanwhile over at Sky
We should see Sky Sports’ Christmas schedule filter through soon. With a lot of attention on Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill with their recent book releases, it was interesting to note that a 60-minute documentary was actually planned on Herbert in 2014 but shelved. This filtered through to Sky’s Christmas schedules that year but never materialised. Whilst incredibly disappointing, this leads me onto the next point about Hill.

Twitter users would have seen a lot of coverage on Hill returning to the Williams FW18 at Silverstone. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but I really hope that this forms part of a wider 1996 one-hour long programme instead of a five-minute snippet. I think it will be the latter, but Sky need to commit to Formula 1 more given that they are taking the sport on exclusively from 2019, and with that in mind I hope Sky to deliver on a longer edit for the Hill segment.

Scheduling: The 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix / Valencian MotoGP

One season just starting, one season coming to an end, and the other could see its world champion crowned this weekend. The Formula One season moves onto Interlagos for the Brazilian Grand Prix, where Lewis Hamilton will be hoping to continue his good form and take his championship battle with Nico Rosberg down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.

Sky Sports are live as usual, with no simulcasting this weekend on either Sky Sports 1 or Sky Sports Mix the race being simulcast on Sky Sports 1. So, the only way you can watch this one live (and legally) in the UK is with a Sky subscription or via Now TV. Channel 4’s highlights are at a more sociable time than USA, but they will be hoping for the championship to go to the season finale otherwise it will be the second season in a row where the championship decider has not aired live on free-to-air television.

Elsewhere, if you haven’t noticed there has been a lot of publicity related to Ross Brawn lately (he has a new book out, but I’m sure that’s not the reason…). Nevertheless, there is a half an hour F1 Report special with him discussing all things F1 with Natalie Pinkham in the lead up to Brazil (this follows a 5 Live F1 special that aired last week). BT Sport’s MotoGP coverage for 2016 comes to a conclusion in Valencia with Suzi Perry back in the presenting hot seat.

Lastly, Formula E’s season heads to Marrakesh with qualifying being broadcast live on Spike. Rather ridiculously, the race clashes with the Formula 1 qualifying session. However, there is good reason for the Marrakesh date: the United Nations Climate Change Conference is taking place in Marrakesh next week. So, even though the date on the surface looks illogical, underneath there is very good reason for Formula E’s choice of date. Saying that, there was nothing preventing them from bringing the time of the race forward to avoid the direct clash.

Below are the full scheduling details for the weekend.

Channel 4 F1
12/11 – 20:00 to 21:30 – Qualifying Highlights
13/11 – 22:00 to 00:05 – Race Highlights

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
11/11 – 11:45 to 13:50 – Practice 1
11/11 – 15:45 to 18:00 – Practice 2
12/11 – 12:45 to 14:15 – Practice 3
12/11 – 15:00 to 17:45 – Qualifying
13/11 – 14:30 to 19:15 – Race
=> 14:30 – Track Parade (also on Sky Sports 1)
=> 15:00 – Pit Lane Live (also on Sky Sports 1)
=> 15:30 – Race (also on Sky Sports 1)
=> 18:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
09/11 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Preview
09/11 – 21:00 to 21:30 – F1 Report: Ross Brawn Special
10/11 – 13:00 to 13:30 – Driver Press Conference
10/11 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
11/11 – 18:00 to 18:30 – Team Press Conference
11/11 – 18:30 to 19:00 – The F1 Show
16/11 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
10/11 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
11/11 – 12:00 to 13:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
11/11 – 15:55 to 17:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
12/11 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
12/11 – 16:30 to 17:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
13/11 – 16:00 to 18:06 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

MotoGP – Valencia (BT Sport 2)
11/11 – 08:00 to 15:00
=> 08:00 – Practice 1
=> 10:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 12:00 – Practice 2
12/11 – 08:00 to 15:15
=> 08:00 – Practice 3
=> 11:00 – Qualifying
13/11 – 08:00 to 09:15 – Warm Up
13/11 – 09:30 to 15:00
=> 09:30 – Moto3 race
=> 11:15 – Moto2 race
=> 12:45 – MotoGP race
=> 14:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Valencia (ITV4)
14/11 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights

Formula E – Marrakesh (online via Channel 5’s social media channels and YouTube)
12/11 – 07:55 to 08:55 – Practice 1
12/11 – 10:25 to 11:10 – Practice 2

Formula E – Marrakesh
12/11 – 11:45 to 13:10 – Qualifying (Spike)
12/11 – 15:30 to 17:30 – Race (Channel 5)
13/11 – 09:10 to 10:15 – Highlights (Spike)

If anything is added, I will update the schedule.

Update on November 11th – Minor changes to 5 Live’s schedule and Sky’s coverage is being simulcast after all, thanks both in the comments for that.

Scheduling: The 2016 Mexican Grand Prix

This weekend sees Formula 1 return to Mexico in its second year back on the calendar after a successful debut weekend in 2015. The weekend could also see Nico Rosberg claim his first Formula 1 championship.

Channel 4 are running extended programming on Saturday, with their practice three show 95 minutes long and their qualifying programme a whopping three hours long. This partially makes up for the fact that their race programme is shorter than usual, due to the new series of Humans following straight after the race has finished. We could see Channel 4 “running off the air” as soon as a new world champion is crowned, which I hope doesn’t happen. Hopefully More4 is used in the event of that happening. The channel have Eddie Jordan and Mark Webber back with them this weekend.

Elsewhere, live coverage of the World Rally Championship returns to free-to-air television for the first time in over a decade with the Power Stage from the Wales Rally GB being aired live on Channel 5, as part of the agreement announced back in January. Channel 5’s live programme will be presented by Nicky Grist and Matthew Lorenzo; the latter name long-time readers will recognise well from Sky’s F1 Digital+ coverage back in 2002.

NOTE: Clocks go back one hour on Sunday 30th October, with the change from British Summer Time to Greenwich Mean Time. The times listed are for BST on Saturday and before; GMT for Sunday and afterwards…

Channel 4 F1
28/10 – 15:55 to 17:40 – Practice 1 (More4)
28/10 – 19:55 to 21:35 – Practice 2 (More4)
29/10 – 15:55 to 17:30 – Practice 3 (Channel 4)
29/10 – 18:00 to 21:00 – Qualifying (Channel 4)
30/10 – 18:00 to 21:00 – Race (Channel 4)

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
28/10 – 15:45 to 17:50 – Practice 1
28/10 – 19:45 to 22:00 – Practice 2
29/10 – 15:45 to 17:15 – Practice 3
29/10 – 18:00 to 20:45 – Qualifying (also Sky Sports Mix)
30/10 – 17:30 to 22:15 – Race
=> 17:30 – Track Parade
=> 18:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 18:30 – Race (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 21:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
27/10 – 17:00 to 17:30 – Driver Press Conference
27/10 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
28/10 – 22:00 to 22:30 – Team Press Conference
28/10 – 22:30 to 23:00 – The F1 Show
02/11 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
27/10 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
28/10 – 15:55 to 17:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
29/10 – 18:55 to 20:35 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
30/10 – 19:00 to 21:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

MotoGP – Malaysia (BT Sport 2)
28/10 – 02:00 to 09:00
=> 02:00 – Practice 1
=> 04:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 06:00 – Practice 2
29/10 – 02:00 to 09:15
=> 02:00 – Practice 3
=> 05:00 – Qualifying
30/10 – 01:30 to 03:15 – Warm Up
30/10 – 03:30 to 08:15
=> 03:30 – Moto3 race
=> 05:15 – Moto2 race
=> 06:45 – MotoGP race

MotoGP – Malaysia (ITV4)
31/10 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights

Euroformula – Jerez
29/10 – Race 1
=> 14:00 to 15:00 (BT Sport X3)
=> 14:05 to 15:15 (Motors TV)
30/10 – Race 2
=> 11:15 to 12:15 (BT Sport X1)
=> 12:05 to 13:10 (Motors TV)

Formula V8 3.5 – Jerez
29/10 – 12:45 to 14:15 – Race 1 (BT Sport 2)
30/10 – 12:15 to 13:45 – Race 2 (BT Sport X1)

World Rally Championship – Wales Rally GB
28/10 – Day 1 Highlights
=> 22:00 to 22:30 (BT Sport 2)
=> 22:35 to 23:05 (Motors TV)
29/10 – Day 2 Highlights
=> 21:45 to 22:15 (BT Sport 2)
=> 22:35 to 23:05 (Motors TV)
30/10 – Live: Stage 1 (BT Sport 1 / 4K)
30/10 – Live: Power Stage
=> 11:50 to 13:10 (Channel 5)
=> 12:00 to 13:00 (BT Sport 1 / 4K)
30/10 – Day 3 Highlights
=> 22:15 to 22:45 (BT Sport 1)
=> 22:35 to 23:05 (Motors TV)
31/10 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Highlights (Channel 5)

World Superbikes – Qatar (British Eurosport 2)
29/10 – 15:15 to 19:00 – Qualifying and Race 1
30/10 – 16:00 to 19:00 – Support and Race 2

Scheduling: The 2016 United States Grand Prix

17 down, four to go. For Nico Rosberg, there’s a very good chance that he could become Formula One Drivers’ Champion before Abu Dhabi if he secures a win in Austin this weekend. Elsewhere, the MotoGP championship was clinched by Marc Marquez in Motegi last weekend, meaning that the paddock will be slightly more relaxed than last year in Australia!

Sky Sports are airing F1 every session exclusively live, with the race being simulcast on Sky Sports 1. There is a special documentary on the F1 channel following the race entitled ‘Two Weeks to Win’ looking at Mercedes F1’s turnaround from the Spanish Grand Prix to the Monaco Grand Prix this season. The documentary was released by UBS in August and produced by Whisper Films, who of course also produce Channel 4’s Formula 1 coverage (although a good handful of Whisper’s staff used to work for Sky F1). Either way, it is not a Sky produced exclusive.

For those of you without Sky, the bad news is that Channel 4’s highlights programme is not on until 23:00 which is frankly ridiculous. It is the latest a highlights programme has started since the shared deal started in 2012.In 2014, when the race started at 20:00, BBC One’s highlights programme aired from 22:30 to 00:00. So it isn’t that Channel 4 can’t do it, they’ve just chosen not to, instead scheduling a film premiere before the F1 from 21:00 to 23:00.

On the MotoGP front, Suzi Perry is presenting BT’s MotoGP coverage from Australia which is a nice bit of commitment from themselves, even if the timing is somewhat unlucky with the main title already wrapped up. I don’t believe this extends to their speedway coverage which is also in Australia, albeit a two hour drive away.

Channel 4 F1
22/10 – 22:00 to 23:30 – Qualifying Highlights
23/10 – 23:00 to 01:00 – Race Highlights

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
21/10 – 15:45 to 17:50 – Practice 1 (also Sky Sports Mix)
21/10 – 19:45 to 22:00 – Practice 2
22/10 – 15:45 to 17:15 – Practice 3
22/10 – 18:00 to 20:45 – Qualifying
23/10 – 18:30 to 23:15 – Race (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 18:30 – Track Parade
=> 19:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 19:30 – Race
=> 22:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
19/10 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Preview
20/10 – 17:00 to 17:30 – Driver Press Conference
20/10 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
21/10 – 22:00 to 22:30 – Team Press Conference
21/10 – 22:30 to 23:00 – The F1 Show
23/10 – 23:15 to 23:45 – Two Weeks to Win: Mercedes F1
26/10 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
20/10 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
21/10 – 15:55 to 17:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
23/10 – 19:30 to 22:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

MotoGP – Australia (BT Sport 2)
21/10 – 00:00 to 07:00
=> 00:00 – Practice 1
=> 02:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 04:00 – Practice 2
22/10 – 23:00 (Friday) to 07:15
=> 23:00 – Practice 3
==> extended following heavy rain on Friday
=> 03:00 – Qualifying
23/10 – 00:30 to 02:15 – Warm Up
23/10 – 02:30 to 07:15
=> 02:30 – Moto3 race
=> 04:15 – Moto2 race
=> 05:45 – MotoGP race

MotoGP – Australia (ITV4)
24/10 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 – Estoril (BT Sport 2)
22/10 – 13:15 to 14:00 – Race 1
23/10 – 10:00 to 10:45 – Race 2

European Le Mans Series – 4 Hours of Estoril (Motors TV)
23/10 – 13:10 to 18:05 – Race

Speedway Grand Prix – Australia (BT Sport 2)
22/10 – 09:45 to 13:15 – Races

V8 Supercars – Gold Coast 600
22/10 – 04:30 to 07:30 – Race 22 (BT Sport 1)
23/10 – 05:00 to 08:00 – Race 23 (BT Sport//ESPN)

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

 

Looking at MotoGP’s Video Pass

Normally, when I mention the need for a Formula 1 over-the-top service, the first comparison is with the WWE Network, which launched in 2014. But, there is a comparison that can be made with a service much closer to home. Enter the MotoGP Video Pass.

Pricing
For the 2016 season, fans in the UK have only had access to the premium option due to the television contract in place with BT Sport. The option costs €199.00 across the whole season, dropping pro rota as the season progresses. The remaining four races (Japan, Australia, Malaysia and Valencia) costs the customer €44.95, or £40.41. The standard pass costs €99.95, but is not available to UK readers.

With 18 races a season, this currently works out as:

  • Premium: €11.06 / £9.95
  • Standard: €5.55 / £4.99

Across the year, this works out as the following per month:

  • Premium: €16.58 / £14.91
  • Standard: €8.33 / £7.49

In comparison, the WWE Network costs £9.99 a month. Netflix ranges from £5.99 to £8.99 a month for their premium option. Amazon Prime at most costs £7.49. If anything, the MotoGP Video Pass is slightly on the expensive side considering the range of content that you receive with the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime. If anything, a third tier is perhaps needed for the MotoGP Video Pass: retain the high-end Premium pass, but drop the standard pass slightly and introduce an in-the-middle pass.

motogp-video-pass-four-way-screen
One feed, two screens, a three-way or four feeds open all at once: the MotoGP Video Pass leaves the customisation choice down to you.

However, there is a major problem with the MotoGP Video Pass. It is a one-off payment for the full season, not a monthly subscription. Not everyone wishes to pay ~£160 out in one go, and instead would prefer to pay it monthly with an option to cancel. The fact that there isn’t an option to do that is surprising. I imagine Amazon and Netflix’s subscription numbers would be lower if consumers were forced to pay the full amount out at the start of their contract instead of a rolling monthly payment.

It is also worth noting that the customisation is not available for the standard Video Pass, only the premium pass, which should not be a surprise when you see the respective prices. In any case, I’ve parted with £40.41 now for a premium subscription which will run out on November 14th. The main reason for this is so I can watch Motegi and Philip Island without the fear of walking into spoilers a few hours after the race has finished. Half way through the registration I’m reminded what is included: live and on demand coverage, six live feeds, audio mixer, classics and the extensive video library, amongst many more things. Sounds pretty good, time to dive in!

Layout and usability
It is astonishing how easy it is to get the UI of a website wrong by failing to follow basic standards. There are some basic principles to follow when designing a website from page layout to the colour scheme used. The interface needs to be reactive for all devices. The best phrase I’ve come across in this fora is KISS: Keep it simple, stupid. When someone has paid to access the Video Pass, in return they should get an interface that is neat, and does what they expect. Anything that falls short of the minimum standard, and the customer will be expecting a refund.

motogp-video-pass-navigation-strip

The MotoGP Video Pass is aesthetically pleasing from the get-go. There are seven drill down pages which can be accessed from the navigation bar:

  • Best of: This is the landing page, consisting of video content generated for this weekend’s race, but also historical content that has relevance on this day. For example, the landing page contains content related to Toni Elias’ win in the 2006 Portuguese MotoGP and the 1992 Japanese Grand Prix which was Dorna’s first MotoGP race.
  • Live: The live World Feed. At the time I’m writing this, the feed is not active, the next session due to start is in eight hours’ time for the Moto3 warm-up. Heading to this page also gives you a detailed history of the most recent sessions that have. happened, which may be useful if you had to dip out of something half way through.
  • 2016 Season: Video links to every single session from the 2016 season so far. This page contains a relatively spoiler-free screenshot of each section. But Dorna have appreciated that fans may want to just see a chronological listing of every session without any context, which is where the next tab comes in…
  • No Spoiler: A simple idea well executed. A no-frills, spoiler free page which lists every session going back to 2002. Want to watch the 2004 season without any context whatsoever? Not a problem. Each video page has a different layout depending on whether you wish to watch with or without spoilers.
  • Show: An in-depth look inside the world of MotoGP, from technology insights to off-track gossip.
  • Past Seasons: A mirror of the ‘2016 Season’ page, but instead for every season from 1992 to 2008.
  • All videos: Everything that has been uploaded to the MotoGP video vault.

It is a straightforward process, and everything is accessible within three or four clicks, as it should be. For example, to access the 2004 South African Grand Prix, it is a case of pressing ‘Past Seasons’ on the navigation bar, clicking ‘2004’, scrolling down to the foot of the page (it was race one) and pressing ‘MotoGP Race – Full session – betandwin.com Africas´s Grand Prix’. It is that simple, as it should be.

One element I’m struggling to see is a way to quickly watch and organise, for example, Marc Marquez’s classic races. Can I bookmark six races to watch later at a time convenient for me? The organisation is excellent and well thought through, but tailored ‘driver’ pages with all their best races in would be a nice addition. Anyway, the main reason I’m here is to watch the MotoGP qualifying session from Motegi. So let’s get to it.

The video interface
Remember that for every session from 2002 onwards, there are two entry points: a spoiler option and a no-spoiler option. With that, you’re presented with two different interfaces when you load up the video. The no-spoiler option takes you straight into the session.

MotoGP Video Pass - video window.png
The MotoGP Video Pass window ahead of the 2016 Japanese MotoGP qualifying session.

The spoiler option presents you with three different options:

  • Full Video: Identical as the no-spoiler option, except the spoiler interface contains bookmarks of all the key moments.
  • Condensed Video: Plays all of the pre-selected bookmark moments only.
  • Customize Session: Allows you to select which of the bookmarked moments to play in full.

The condensed versions are nice to have, but I couldn’t imagine using them if I was using the Video Pass in anger, simply because the condensed video clips are likely to have been uploaded to social media in a much quicker time frame. However, they may be useful if you’re watching a historical event and only want to watch the key battles for the lead.

The interface itself, and the customisation available is immense. Going from left to right:

  • Settings (toggle): Choose between low, 360p, 540p, 720p and Auto for video quality.
  • Updates: Session updates as you are watching. This was blank for me irrespective of which option I chose, so I think this is active only during the live World Feed.
  • Highlights: Switch to the key moments in the session. This is blank if you’ve chosen the no-spoiler option, but shows the bookmarks if you’ve chosen the spoiler options.
  • View: This is where the customisation really begins. Choose your choice of six possible multi-screen options. Once you’ve chosen your multi-screen option, drag in the cameras you wish to choose from the options available.
  • Cameras: Choose from the World Feed, four on-board options, live timing and live tracking.
  • Volume
  • Audio Configuration: If you want to watch MotoGP without commentary, this is the place for you. Mute the commentary, choosing the ambient sound only, or the on-board of your choice (assuming you’re watching the on-board feed in question)

In essence, if you wanted to watch the Japanese Grand Prix qualifying session from the perspectives of Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez, with the World Feed in the background without commentary, you can do that. The live stream might be different, but not once did the interface crash with the amount of tweaks I was performing to the layout on-screen.

My experience so far is excellent with the Video Pass. There are no glaring omissions as far as I can see, nor any usability mishaps. It highlights how far behind Formula 1 is with their online offering. The pass is everything a MotoGP fan would want, and perhaps a little bit more as well.