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 Perry returns to the MotoGP paddock as BT Sport’s new MotoGP presenter after a six-year absence, having been superseded by Jennie Gow as BBC’s MotoGP host in 2010.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.

Scheduling: The 2016 Bahrain Grand Prix

If you like your Formula 1, MotoGP, Formula E, IndyCar and British Touring Car Championship action, then you will be doing a fair bit of multitasking and channel hopping as April begins.

Formula 1 heads to Bahrain for the second round of the 2016 season. For the first time ever, live coverage will be shown on Channel 4 as part of their three year shared deal with Sky Sports. As we have learnt in the past week, that deal will not go beyond three years: Sky will be screening Formula 1 exclusively from 2019.

Susie Wolff will be part of Channel 4’s team in Bahrain, whilst a pre-recorded interview with Eddie Jordan and Bernie Ecclestone will be shown (note: this was filmed before the Sky announcement). Channel 4’s live broadcast will contain adverts, however the race itself will be live and uninterrupted. On the interactivity side, Channel 4 do not have access to the additional feeds and the popular F1 Forum will not be returning following each live race.

BBC’s radio schedule is a bit different than usual for Bahrain. Practice two will not air in full on 5 Live Sports Extra due to horse racing. The race itself will only air through updates on 5 Live due to Premier League football and Twenty20 coverage. The live full race commentary should be on BBC Sport’s website with the usual team. Speaking of the team, Jennie Gow will be in London as she is presenting ITV’s coverage of the Long Beach ePrix.

Jack Nicholls will be commentating on the Bahrain Grand Prix for 5 Live, meaning that he will not be part of Formula E’s broadcast team in Long Beach. It will be the first time that Nicholls has not commentated on a Formula E race. Nicholls and Gow have confirmed that Bob Varsha will be the lead commentator in Long Beach. Outside of the usual 5 Live programming, BBC Radio 2 are airing a special F1 programme on Easter Monday. Suzi Perry presents, with contributions from the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and David Coulthard.

Elsewhere, the British Touring Car Championship season gets going in Brands Hatch. ITV have assembled the usual team with Steve Rider, Louise Goodman and Tim Harvey leading the line-up. David Addison is their lead commentator for the fourth season running.

Channel 4 F1
Sessions
01/04 – 11:55 to 13:35 – Practice 1
01/04 – 15:55 to 17:35 – Practice 2
02/04 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Practice 3
02/04 – 15:00 to 17:30 – Qualifying
03/04 – 15:00 to 18:30 – Race
03/04 – 23:00 to 00:00 – Highlights

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
01/04 – 11:45 to 13:50 – Practice 1
01/04 – 15:45 to 18:00 – Practice 2
02/04 – 12:45 to 14:15 – Practice 3
02/04 – 15:00 to 17:45 – Qualifying
03/04 – 14:30 to 19:15 – Race
=> 14:30 – Track Parade
=> 15:00 – Pit Lane Live
=> 15:30 – Race
=> 18:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
30/03 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Preview
31/03 – 13:00 to 13:30 – Driver Press Conference
31/03 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut
01/04 – 18:00 to 18:30 – Team Press Conference
01/04 – 18:30 to 19:00 – The F1 Show
06/04 – 20:30 to 21:00 – F1 Report: Review

BBC Radio F1
28/03 – 17:00 to 19:00 – Suzi Perry’s F1 Anthems (BBC Radio 2)
31/03 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
01/04 – 11:55 to 13:35 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
01/04 – 16:20 to 17:35 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
02/04 – 12:55 to 14:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
02/04 – 15:55 to 17:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
03/04 – TBC – Race (BBC online)
=> updates on BBC Radio 5 Live

MotoGP – Argentina (BT Sport 2)
01/04 – 13:00 to 20:00
=> 13:00 – Practice 1
=> 15:45 – Reaction and Build-Up
=> 17:00 – Practice 2
02/04 – 13:00 to 20:15
=> 13:00 – Practice 3
=> 16:00 – Qualifying
03/04 – 13:30 to 15:15 – Warm Up
03/04 – 16:30 to 22:00
=> 16:30 – Moto3 race
=> 18:15 – Moto2 race
=> 19:45 – MotoGP race
=> 21:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Argentina (ITV4)
04/04 – 22:00 to 23:00 – Highlights

Formula E – Long Beach (online via FIAFormulaE.com and YouTube)
02/04 – 16:10 to 17:10 – Practice 1
02/04 – 18:25 to 19:10 – Practice 2
02/04 – 19:45 to 21:10 – Qualifying

Formula E – Long Beach
02/04 – 23:00 to 01:30 – Race (ITV4)
03/04 – 09:30 to 10:25 – Highlights (ITV)

British Touring Car Championship – Brands Hatch (ITV4)
03/04 – 10:15 to 18:15 – Races

IndyCar Series – Phoenix (BT Sport 2)
02/04 – 02:00 to 05:00 – Race

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

Updated on March 30th to reflect the Formula E lead commentator announcement.

Scheduling: The 2016 Qatar MotoGP

After a titanic battle between Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo last year, with Marc Marquez getting involved at the end, the 2016 MotoGP championship has a lot to live up to. Unusually, the action gets underway on the same day as the start of the Formula One season in Australia, the first time that has happened since 1995 – back then it was Formula One in Brazil and MotoGP in Eastern Creek, Australia.

The main news over the Winter is that Suzi Perry will be part of BT Sport’s MotoGP team for the 2016 season, presenting alongside Craig Doyle. Perry last presented MotoGP in 2009 with the BBC. Presenting duties have since travelled past Jennie Gow, Matt Roberts, Melanie Sykes and more recently the aforementioned Doyle. Perry and Doyle will be joined by Keith Huewen and Julian Ryder, now in their third season as commentators on BT Sport.

BT Sport’s 2016 coverage kicks off with a preview show live on Thursday afternoon from Qatar. Doyle presents the programme, with regular MotoGP faces Gavin Emmett and Neil Hodgson alongside him. BT’s post-race show, The Chequered Flag returns for a second year. Notably, in the past few days, Iwan Thomas has been removed from the description for that show. I don’t know his or Abi Griffiths’ status with regards to BT’s MotoGP coverage this year, but I will update this site if we get any updates on that front.

As has been the case since this deal came into effect, ITV4 will again be screening highlights every Monday after a race weekend which is good news for those of you that do not have access to BT Sport. BT Sport reaped the rewards of a fantastic MotoGP season last year, and they will be hoping that viewing figures continue to increase as year three of their coverage gets underway. In the next few days,

MotoGP – Qatar (BT Sport 2)
17/03 – 14:00 to 15:00 – Preview
17/03 – 15:00 to 19:45 – Practice
18/03 – 14:45 to 19:00 – Practice
19/03 – 14:30 to 18:30 – Qualifying
20/03 – 14:45 to 19:00 – Races
=> 14:45 – Moto3
=> 16:15 – Moto2
=> 17:45 – MotoGP
20/03 – 19:00 to 20:00 – Chequered Flag

MotoGP – Qatar (BT Sport Xtra)
20/03 – 12:45 to 14:45 – Warm Up

MotoGP – Qatar (ITV4)
21/03 – 20:00 to 21:00 – Highlights

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

Update on March 16th – Perry has confirmed that she will not be in Qatar. Her first appearance with the BT team will be in Jerez. Furthermore, both Thomas and Griffiths are no longer part of BT’s team.

Scheduling: The 2016 Australian Grand Prix

Just over three months ago, Nico Rosberg won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to finish the 2015 Formula One season. Meanwhile, in the pit lane both BBC and Sky Sports went off the air to conclude another year of racing. Unbeknown to the viewing public at the time, that race would also mark the end of BBC’s television coverage.

Fast-forward to March, and in just a few days, a new era of Formula 1 broadcasting begins in the United Kingdom. Enter Channel 4. A mix of new and old will greet viewers when their first programme hits the air on Saturday 19th March. Whilst commentary will continue to be provided by David Coulthard and Ben Edwards, Steve Jones is the new face at the front of Channel 4’s coverage.

Karun Chandhok and Lee McKenzie will be patrolling the pit lane. Both of them will be in Melbourne, the latter finishing her Six Nations Rugby commitments with the BBC this weekend. Coulthard, Edwards, Jones and Chandhok will be part of Channel 4’s team for round one, alongside (presumably) one or two of the pundits that the corporation have announced. Who that will be out of Channel 4’s range of analysts, we don’t yet know.

Their qualifying highlights programme is 105 minutes long, with the race programme a whopping two and a half hours long. The main reason for the extended length is commercial breaks. As I’ve discussed before, Channel 4 will be taking breaks as usual meaning that the length of the highlights programming will be longer than their predecessor. Based on previous years, the highlights edit will consist of around 65 to 70 minutes of action. Factor in adverts, and this increases to around 85 to 91 minutes of air-time (of which 20 minutes is adverts), which is the length of your typical Formula 1 race.

In other words, this will feel like an ITV F1 programme from back in 2008. The slot length for the race indicates that the race edit will start at exactly 14:00 and finish around 15:25/15:30. In my opinion, the only edits Channel 4 will make are to trim 5 minutes of action every time they wish to take an ad-break, giving an ‘as live’ feel to it. Qualifying is different: there will have to be edits within the individual sessions that will be noticeable to the viewer. Qualifying has three natural commercial break points and it makes little sense to force an ad-break in half way through a session. So, expect the qualifying session itself to be a bit more ‘sliced’ than the race edit…. which in itself may be a tricky task under the new format.

“It’ll make it that little bit harder to make sure that drivers and teams optimise the performance of their cars to get the best lap time out of it. The good thing about it is that the grid we’re going to get left with won’t be quite as refined and that means we’re going to have a few of the better drivers further back and there will be more action in the race as they gradually carve their way to the front.” – Jonathan Palmer, commenting on the then-new format during the 1996 Australian Grand Prix Qualifying session for BBC TV. Some things don’t change…

In terms of supplementary programme, Channel 4 have a special with Guy Martin as well as an extended 5-minute preview entitled Fast and Furious. Over on Sky, there are several significant changes to their portfolio. The F1 Show during each race weekend has been reduced to 30-minutes and I believe those episodes will no longer be live. Furthermore, the studio editions of The F1 Show have been axed, with the F1 Midweek Report being renamed to the F1 Report. The F1 Report will be airing on a weekly basis, with Natalie Pinkham presenting and Marc Priestley featuring as a regular guest. For Australia at least, every session will be simulcast on Sky Sports 1, continuing a trend that started last season.

Sky’s F1 team is similar to previous years. Simon Lazenby presents all the action alongside pundits including Damon Hill, Anthony Davidson and Johnny Herbert. Martin Brundle and David Croft will be commentating on all 21 races, with Ted Kravitz roaming the pit lane. Rachel Brookes and Craig Slater are primarily covering the action for Sky Sports News, but expect the former to turn up frequently on the channel during 2016 whilst Pinkham is on maternity leave. The only difference for Sky is that Bruno Senna, who was part of their team, has moved over to Channel 4. I don’t think Sky are bringing in anyone else, but I imagine the likes of Paul di Resta will appear in their programming as the year progresses.

For the first time since 2002, we have three broadcasters covering Formula 1 in the UK. Back then, it was Sky (through F1 Digital+), ITV and BBC. Now, it is Sky, Channel 4 and the BBC. Yes, the BBC are still covering Formula 1, but from 2016 through radio only. Independent of BBC dropping Formula 1 from television, the corporation also decided to replace James Allen with Jack Nicholls as lead commentator for their radio coverage. Nicholls will commentate on 20 of the 21 rounds, the exception being Austria, which clashes with the London ePrix II. Nicholls will be joined on commentary throughout the season by Allan McNish and Mark Gallagher, with Tom Clarkson and Jennie Gow down in pit lane.

Even if the on-track action does not live up to the hype, it promises to be a fascinating year off-track as Channel 4 embed themselves within the paddock and try to challenge the opposition. The thrills and spills start in Australia, and as usual the full schedule can be found below.

Channel 4
Sessions
19/03 – 12:30 to 14:15 – Qualifying Highlights
20/03 – 13:30 to 16:00 – Race Highlights

Supplementary Programming
17/03 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Speed with Guy Martin
18/03 – 21:00 to 21:05 – Fast and Furious

Sky Sports F1
Sessions
18/03 – 01:00 to 03:20 – Practice 1 (also Sky Sports 1)
18/03 – 05:15 to 07:30 – Practice 2 (also Sky Sports 1)
19/03 – 02:45 to 04:15 – Practice 3 (also Sky Sports 1)
19/03 – 05:00 to 07:45 – Qualifying (also Sky Sports 1)
20/03 – 03:30 to 08:15 – Race
=> 03:30 – Track Parade (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 04:00 – Pit Lane Live (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 04:30 – Race (also Sky Sports 1)
=> 07:30 – Paddock Live

Supplementary Programming
16/03 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Report: Australia Preview
17/03 – 04:00 to 04:30 – Driver Press Conference
17/03 – 20:45 to 21:00 – Paddock Uncut: Australia
18/03 – 07:30 to 08:00 – Team Press Conference
18/03 – 08:00 to 08:30 – The F1 Show
23/03 – 20:30 to 21:00 – Report: Australia Review

BBC Radio F1
17/03 – 21:00 to 22:00 – Preview (BBC Radio 5 Live)
18/03 – 01:25 to 03:05 – Practice 1 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
18/03 – 05:25 to 07:05 – Practice 2 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
19/03 – 02:55 to 04:05 – Practice 3 (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
19/03 – 05:55 to 07:05 – Qualifying (BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra)
20/03 – 04:00 to 07:00 – Race (BBC Radio 5 Live)

As always, if anything changes, I will update this post. Given the size of the above text, MotoGP’s schedule for Qatar will follow early next week.

Update on March 16th – Mark Webber is part of Channel 4’s team for the Australian Grand Prix.

Update on March 18th at 08:10 – Correction to the main body, The F1 Show is indeed live.