Scheduling: The 2016 Spanish Grand Prix

Round five of the 2016 Formula One season marks a return to more familiar territory with the Spanish Grand Prix from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. With it, the support races return during the weekend: GP2, GP3 and the Porsche Supercup.

Spain marks Channel 4’s second live Grand Prix and as part of their rotating punditry line-up, the weekend sees the debut of four-time world champion Alain Prost. Prost will be alongside Susie Wolff who makes her second appearance this season.

Elsewhere, I would expect Alex Jacques to return as GP2 and GP3 commentator for his second season. This has not yet been officially confirmed, but I have not seen any information to the contrary making the rounds. I will update this post if I hear anything (the same applies for co-commentator).

Outside of Formula 1, it is the Historic Grand Prix in Monaco, which is being covered live on Motors TV. The only two races that are not being covered are the post-1966 Formula 1 cars in action, because Motors TV is showing the Blancpain Endurance Series instead. In previous years, Sky Sports F1 has aired highlights from the historic weekend, but there is nothing currently in their schedules for the forthcoming weeks.

Also of interest is the World Superbikes from Sepang. The weekend is the first major event that is utilising the revised final corner, which will be used later this year in Formula 1. Below are all the scheduling details you need.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
13/05 – 08:55 to 10:35 – Practice 1
13/05 – 12:55 to 14:35 – Practice 2
14/05 – 09:55 to 11:05 – Practice 3
14/05 – 12:00 to 14:30 – Qualifying
15/05 – 12:00 to 15:35 – Race
15/05 – 23:00 to 00:10 – Highlights

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
13/05 – 08:45 to 11:00 – Practice 1
13/05 – 12:45 to 14:50 – Practice 2
14/05 – 09:45 to 11:15 – Practice 3
14/05 – 12:00 to 14:35 – Qualifying
15/05 – 11:30 to 16:15 – Race
=> 11:30 – Track Parade
=> 12:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 12:30 – Race
=> 15:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
11/05 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Preview
12/05 – 14:00 to 14:30 – Driver Press Conference
12/05 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
13/05 – 15:30 to 16:00 – Team Press Conference
13/05 – 16:00 to 16:30 – The F1 Show
18/05 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

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

Blancpain Endurance Series – Silverstone (Motors TV)
15/05 – 14:30 to 18:30 – Race

Formula 3 Europe – Pau (BT Sport Europe)
14/05 – 10:00 to 11:00 – Race 1
14/05 – 14:30 to 15:45 – Race 2
15/05 – 14:00 to 15:15 – Race 3

GP2 Series – Spain (Sky Sports F1)
13/05 – 11:00 to 11:50 – Practice
13/05 – 14:50 to 15:30 – Qualifying
14/05 – 14:35 to 16:05 – Race 1
15/05 – 09:30 to 10:45 – Race 2

GP3 Series – Spain (Sky Sports F1)
14/05 – 08:45 to 09:20 – Qualifying
14/05 – 16:15 to 17:15 – Race 1
15/05 – 08:20 to 09:20 – Race 2

Historic Grand Prix of Monaco (Motors TV)
14/05 – 07:25 to 10:35 – Qualifying
=> 07:25 – 1966 to 1972 Formula 1
=> 08:05 – 1973 to 1976 Formula 1
=> 08:55 – 1958 to 1960 Formula Junior
=> 09:45 – Parade for Pre-War
14/05 – 13:25 to 17:20 – Qualifying
=> 13:25 – Pre-1961 Formula 1 and Formula 2
=> 14:05 – 1961 to 1965 Formula 1 (1500cc)
=> 14:55 – 1952 to 1955 Sports Racing
=> 15:45 – 1966 to 1972 Formula 1
=> 16:35 – 1973 to 1976 Formula 1
15/05 – 07:50 to 12:05 – Races
=> 07:50 – 1958 to 1960 Formula Junior
=> 08:50 – Pre-1961 Formula 1 and Formula 2
=> 09:55 – 1961 to 1965 Formula 1 (1500cc)
=> 11:05 – Parade for Pre-War
15/05 – 12:50 to 13:50 – Race – 1952 to 1955 Sports Racing

IndyCar Series – Indianapolis (BT Sport//ESPN)
14/05 – 20:30 to 23:00 – Race

Porsche Supercup – Spain (British Eurosport 2)
15/05 – 10:30 to 11:30 – Race

Speedway Grand Prix – Poland (BT Sport 1)
14/05 – 17:45 to 21:15 – Races

World Superbikes – Malaysia (British Eurosport 2)
14/05 – 06:15 to 10:15 – Qualifying and Race 1
15/05 – 07:00 to 10:30 – Support Races and Race 2

As always, if anything changes, I’ll update the schedule.

Updated on May 7th.

Scheduling: The 2016 Spanish MotoGP / Paris ePrix

The start of the European phase of the MotoGP season marks the return of Suzi Perry to the two-wheeled paddock. Perry returns to the MotoGP paddock as BT Sport’s new MotoGP presenter after a six-year absence, having been superseded by Jennie Gow as BBC’s MotoGP host in 2010.

Perry hosted BBC’s Formula 1 coverage from 2013 to 2015. The musical chairs following BBC’s F1 TV exit at the end of 2015 means that Perry is now back covering two-wheels, hosting BT’s MotoGP coverage from Jerez alongside Craig Doyle. It will be fantastic to see Perry back doing what she does best, and I’m glad to see that the movement has happened quickly on that front (although it does come at the expense of Iwan Thomas and Abi Griffiths).

Jack Nicholls is also a returnee this weekend, stepping back into his Formula E shoes ready for the inaugural Paris ePrix. The race will be shown live on ITV4 on Saturday afternoon with Jennie Gow presenting as usual. Given the fact that Paris is only a few hours in the Eurotunnel, it would have been nice for ITV to have some on-site coverage instead of studio coverage like London last season, but it looks like that is not the case, unsurprisingly I guess with low viewing figures for the series.

There is a mass of other single-seater action spread across BT Sport and Motors TV ranging from the IndyCar Series to the new Formula V8 3.5 Series. Elsewhere, there is rallying from Argentina to whet the appetite, with highlights airing on Channel 5. Below are all the scheduling details you need…

MotoGP – Spain (BT Sport 2)
22/04 – 08:00 to 15:00
=> 08:00 – Practice 1
=> 10:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 12:00 – Practice 2
23/04 – 08:00 to 15:15
=> 08:00 – Practice 3
=> 11:00 – Qualifying
24/04 – 07:30 to 09:15 – Warm Up
24/04 – 09:30 to 15:00
=> 09:30 – Moto3 race
=> 11:15 – Moto2 race
=> 12:45 – MotoGP race
=> 14:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Spain (ITV4)
25/04 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights

Formula E – Paris (online via YouTube)
23/04 – 07:10 to 08:10 – Practice 1
23/04 – 09:25 to 10:10 – Practice 2
23/04 – 10:45 to 12:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – Paris
23/04 – 14:00 to 16:30 – Race (ITV4)
24/04 – 09:25 to 10:20 – Highlights (ITV)

Blancpain Endurance Series – Monza (Motors TV)
24/04 – 13:30 to 17:30 – Race

Euroformula – Portugal
23/04 – 14:00 to 15:00 – Race 1 (BT Sport//ESPN)
=> note: also showing on Motors TV on a one-hour delay
24/04 – 12:00 to 13:00 – Race 2 (BT Sport X4)

Formula 3 Europe – Hungary
23/04 – Race 1
=> 10:05 to 11:10 (Motors TV)
=> 10:15 to 11:00 (BT Sport Europe)
23/04 – Race 2
=> 13:50 to 15:00 (Motors TV)
=> 14:00 to 15:00 (BT Sport Europe)
24/04 – Race 3
=> 10:05 to 11:10 (Motors TV)
=> 10:15 to 11:00 (BT Sport Europe)

Formula V8 3.5 – Hungary
23/04 – 12:30 to 14:00 – Race 1 (BT Sport Europe)
24/04 – 14:00 to 15:30 – Race 2 (BT Sport//ESPN)

IndyCar Series – Alabama (BT Sport//ESPN)
24/04 – 20:30 to 23:00 – Race

International GT Open – Portugal
23/04 – 15:00 to 16:45 – Race 1 (BT Sport//ESPN)
=> note: also showing on Motors TV on a one-hour delay
24/04 – Race 2
=> 13:00 to 14:30 (BT Sport X4)
=> 13:30 to 14:30 (BT Sport Europe)

TCR International Series – Portugal (Motors TV)
24/04 – 11:10 to 12:10 – Race

World Rally Championship – Argentina
22/04 – 16:00 to 17:00 – Stage 1 (BT Sport 2)
22/04 – 23:00 to 00:00 – Stage 2 (BT Sport 2)
24/04 – 13:00 to 14:00 – Stage 3 (BT Sport//ESPN)
24/04 – 16:00 to 17:00 – Power Stage (BT Sport//ESPN)
25/04 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Highlights (Channel 5)

World Touring Car Championship – Hungary
24/04 – 13:00 to 14:00 – Race 1 (British Eurosport 1)
24/04 – 16:00 to 17:00 – Race 2 (British Eurosport 2)

As always, the schedule will be amended if anything is adjusted.

Scheduling: The 2016 Chinese Grand Prix

As well as the Chinese Grand Prix, next weekend is another busy weekend of motor sport across British Eurosport, BT Sport, ITV4 and Motors TV.

The third round of the Formula One season airs live on Sky Sports F1 from China, with extended highlights on Channel 4. No word on who is conducting analysis for the latter, but I will not be surprised if it is a slimmer operation than Australia and Bahrain with the team of five featuring Steve Jones, David Coulthard, Ben Edwards, Lee McKenzie and Karun Chandhok.

If you look at the show lengths, there will not be a massive amount of analysis around the highlights package itself so it makes little sense to take an extra pundit to China if they will not be utilised too much. The usual operation and scheduling over on Sky Sports F1. Three races in, and there is no sign of any additional supplementary programming yet beyond their current race weekend shows.

Outside of Formula 1, the World Endurance Championship gets underway from Silverstone. There was some confusion a few weeks back about who is screening the series live, but the answer remains Motors TV for 2016 (apart from Le Mans where Eurosport steps into the fray). As of writing, no highlights package is currently scheduled to air on Quest TV for either itself or the World Touring Car Championship. It looks like the experiment which started at the end of 2015 is not going to continue.

The first round of the brand new Formula V8 3.5 Series will air live on BT Sport 2. This is likely a similar arrangement to previous years under the previous Formula Renault 3.5 banner where themselves or Eurosport air the event live depending on what else both channels are covering during the weekends. I’ve included a lot more events than usual below, not something I usually do, but hopefully it gives an idea just how many events receive coverage of some nature on UK television.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
16/04 – 12:30 to 14:00 – Qualifying Highlights
17/04 – 13:30 to 15:30 – Race Highlights

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
15/04 – 02:45 to 04:50 – Practice 1
15/04 – 06:45 to 09:00 – Practice 2
16/04 – 04:45 to 06:15 – Practice 3
16/04 – 07:00 to 09:45 – Qualifying
17/04 – 05:30 to 10:15 – Race
=> 05:30 – Track Parade
=> 06:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 06:30 – Race
=> 09:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
13/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Preview
14/04 – 08:00 to 08:30 – Driver Press Conference
14/04 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
15/04 – 09:00 to 09:30 – Team Press Conference
15/04 – 09:30 to 10:00 – The F1 Show
20/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
15/04 – 02:55 to 04:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
15/04 – 06:55 to 08:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
16/04 – 04:55 to 06:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
16/04 – 06:55 to 08:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
17/04 – 06:30 to 09:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

British Touring Car Championship – Donington Park (ITV4)
17/04 – 10:30 to 18:15 – Races

Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 – Aragon
16/04 – 11:30 to 13:00 – Race 1 (BT Sport 2)
16/04 – 17:15 to 18:15 – Race 2 (BT Sport//ESPN)
17/04 – 11:00 to 12:30 – Race 3 (BT Sport 2)

European Le Mans Series – Silverstone
16/04 – 14:15 to 18:45 – Race (Motors TV)
16/04 – 14:15 to 19:00 – Race (BT Sport 2)

FIM CEV Repsol – Valencia (BT Sport//ESPN)
17/04 – 09:45 to 15:00 – Races

Formula V8 3.5 – Aragon (BT Sport 2)
16/04 – 13:00 to 14:15 – Race 1
17/04 – 12:30 to 13:45 – Race 2

IndyCar Series – Long Beach (BT Sport 2)
17/04 – 21:30 to 00:00 – Race

V8 Supercars – Phillip Island (BT Sport 1)
16/04 – 07:00 to 08:45 – Race 6
17/04 – 04:45 to 06:45 – Race 7

World Endurance Championship – Silverstone
17/04 – 11:30 to 18:10 – Race (Motors TV)
17/04 – 16:00 to 18:10 – Race (Quest)
17/04 – 16:00 to 18:10 – Race (Eurosport 2)

World Rallycross Championship – Portugal (Quest)
17/04 – 14:00 to 16:00 – Race

World Superbikes – Assen
16/04 – 09:15 to 13:00 – Qualifying and Race 1 (Eurosport 2)
17/04 – 10:00 to 13:00 – Race 2 and Support Races (Eurosport 2)
19/04 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights (ITV4)

World Touring Car Championship – Slovakia
16/04 – 13:00 to 14:30 – Qualifying (Eurosport 2)
17/04 – 11:00 to 12:00 – Race 1 (Eurosport)
17/04 – 13:00 to 14:00 – Race 2 (Eurosport)

As always, if anything changes, I’ll update the schedule.

Last updated on April 16th at 14:10.

Motors TV removed from Sky platform (and reinstated)

Motors TV has today (Thursday 25th February) been removed from the Sky platform.

The reason, as of writing, is unknown but the channel disappeared from its channel 447 slot on the EPG at some point late this morning. Their Twitter has not yet commented on the situation, but Sky’s Help Team on the social networking website said that Motors TV are “no longer broadcasting on Sky”.

The removal from Sky follows the removal of the channel from Freeview via an aerial and YouView earlier this year, having been added in late 2014. Obviously it is concerning that the channel has been removed from two platforms in the space of two months. The main casualty of this, if contracts do not change, would be the World Endurance Championship who currently have some races broadcast exclusively live on the channel.

If we hear anything more about this, I will update this post…

Update on February 26th – Thanks to those of you on Twitter and elsewhere who have linked to this piece on the Endurance Info website. The article, written on February 15th, contains quotes from Jean-Luc Roy who is the president of Motors TV. Reading the article, it appears Roy is deeply unhappy with Motors TV’s treatment on French platforms on beyond. The crux of the argument is that Motors TV has found itself sliding down the EPG, meaning they get a smaller audience.

My suspicion, although as far as I can see Roy does not confirm this, is that Motors TV has to pay a flat rate fee to the likes of Sky, irrespective of whether it is channel 413 or 447 on their EPG. For Sky, it would have been “we want X” to extend the carriage agreement, Motors TV would have said no and walked away. And, at the end of the day, no one is really going to defect from Sky to Virgin Media to watch Motors TV, maybe a handful, if that. Similar situations have happened before, and successfully resolved. Back in 2007, Sky’s basic channels were taken off Virgin for nearly two years because of a carriage dispute, at the time it was a high-profile dispute between the two parties.

With the above in mind, Motors TV could return to Sky. Don’t know when, but never say never. We just don’t know. But this is a desperately sad situation that is driven by finances. Is Motors TV closer to the brink than any of us realise?

Update on February 27th – Per Daily Sports Car, a source close to the situation is hopeful that the channel will be reinstated in the next week, which is good news for everyone concerned.

Update on March 4th – Motors TV has returned to the Sky platform in the same EPG slot as previously. On their Twitter page, they did not explain the reason for the disappearance.

Scheduling: The 2015 Race of Champions / Macau Grand Prix

Next weekend is a fairly big weekend of motor sport, with two annual events taking place. The Race of Champions will take place at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and is being broadcast exclusively live on Sky Sports F1. It looks like they have taken the live rights from Motors TV, I suspect that is a ‘one year only’ thing given that the event is in London.

Given the number of Formula 1 stars competing, such as Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button and Felipe Massa, the channel are presumably hoping that the event will do better than usual non-race weekend coverage, which should be do-able. Sky are providing their own studio coverage, hence a 30-minute edition of The F1 Show live from the Olympic Park. They are taking the World Feed commentary, which is being provided by Martin Haven and Jennie Gow, the first time I believe that either voice has been heard on the channel.

Elsewhere on Sky Sports F1, there is live GP2 and GP3 action from Bahrain, the two series supporting the World Endurance Championship this weekend, itself airing on Motors TV. What this means is that Sky Sports F1 has six and a half hours of live action on Friday, none of which actually contains F1! This is a good thing though, it is about time Sky airs non-F1 content on non-F1 weekends, a case of all things falling at once here.

The other big annual event is the Macau Grand Prix, which will air exclusively live on BT Sport. The channel will be airing just over eight hours of coverage next Saturday and Sunday including the 33rd running of the Formula 3 race.

Race of Champions – London (Sky Sports F1)
20/11 – 19:00 to 23:00
=> 19:00 – The F1 Show
=> 19:30 – Nations Cup
21/11 – 15:00 to 18:00

GP2 Series – Bahrain (Sky Sports F1)
~~19/11 – 08:30 to 09:20 – Practice~~
~~19/11 – 11:15 to 11:55 – Qualifying~~
20/11 – 12:25 to 13:55 – Race 1
21/11 – 07:40 to 08:55 – Race 2

GP3 Series – Bahrain (Sky Sports F1)
~~19/11 – 09:40 to 10:15 – Qualifying~~
20/11 – 10:15 to 11:15 – Race 1
21/11 – 05:55 to 06:55 – Race 2

Macau Grand Prix (BT Sport 1)
21/11 – 04:15 to 08:15
=> 04:15 – FIA GT World Cup Qualifying and F3 Grand Prix
=> 07:00 – Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix
22/11 – 04:45 to 09:00
=> 04:45 – FIA GT World Cup
=> 07:00 – F3 Grand Prix

V8 Supercars – Philip Island
21/11 – 03:45 to 04:45 – Race 31 (BT Sport 2)
21/11 – 05:45 to 06:45 – Race 32 (BT Sport 2)
22/11 – 02:45 to 04:45 – Race 33 (BT Sport 1)

World Endurance Championship – Bahrain
21/11 – 11:30 to 18:35 – Race (Motors TV)
21/11 – 17:00 to 18:15 – Race (British Eurosport)
25/11 – 18:00 to 19:00 – Highlights (Quest)

If anything changes, I will update the above.

Update on November 19th at 09:15 – Per GP2’s official Twitter page, it looks like no World Feed is being provided for practice or qualifying (same applies for GP3), meaning that the scheduled programmes on Sky Sports F1 will no longer air.