No, they stopped them because the cars were overheating. As I said watch it on Sky and you hear the radios plus the presenters get to hear a LOT more and tell the viewers.
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2019 Formula 1 Season Thread
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No, they stopped them because the cars were overheating. As I said watch it on Sky and you hear the radios plus the presenters get to hear a LOT more and tell the viewers.
They have the same on Channel 4. But they were racing up until the tyre change. Wherever you watched it.
I wouldn’t recommend anybody watch F1 on Sky either lol
Nope, far better then terrestrial but I hate paying them for it! Wish it was back on BBC but they said they couldn’t afford it anymore and were going to scrap it, so Sky literally saved it!
I like the Channel 4 team. Wish they had some live races, but highlights are extended.
DC and Mark Webber are knowledgeable having been there and done it.
Liberty Media want F1 back on FTA so I have a feeling Sky will not get a contract renewed which will be good for British F1 fans overall. Not sure how Sky saved it? They’ve got a fraction of the viewers channel 4 had and I genuinely preferred the presenting team on terrestrial. Really dislike Brundle and Herbert for personal reasons and Croft really grates for me. Past all the fancy camera work I can’t see what extra it really offers? I just want to see the race live and enjoy the team bringing the coverage.
Bring on 2024! Such a long way off.
Yeap, unfortunately Sky have it till 2024. But some of the F1 team bosses are starting to regret it being locked to Sky because the viewing figures have plummeted, unsurprisingly people aren’t prepared to pay for it.
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I don’t think Channel 4 could afford its rights. So Sky did a deal. They saved it from disappearing from UK television trust me, but also meant they have it all till 2024 now.
With Sky they follow the full weekend, plus do special programmes and interviews you won’t get anywhere else, for instance they did a piece with lewis driving one of Senna’s champion winning cars.stuff like that to fill in there 24hrs the F1 channel runs for.
But I’d be happy to watch the races only on FTA channels personally.
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I think F1 would have always had a presence on UK TV even if Sky were out of the equation. It’s not a market the sport would have shunned just because a TV channel refused to pay £120m per season to show. Sky simply wanted it to boost their sports portfolio as they are losing football to BT and various other opportunities. I had Sky illegally for years up until last year with an IPTV app on my TV so I saw what they offered. I didn’t bother renewing it.
All the fancy segments and full race weekend coverage is all great and all, but most F1 fans still aren’t watching it and that’s become a concern for the sports new owners. Bernie didn’t give a toss as long as the money came in but teams and sponsors want coverage to more than 800k UK viewers and the same in other European countries with PPV. I think the days of £60 a month subscriptions could be numbered as the likes of Netflix and Amazon look to add sports too as reasonable monthly subscriptions. The fact most sports finals are offered on FTA because they know it reaches more people shows the importance of this IMO.
Yeah we can hope so, I do think her in the Uk we are screed over consistently with television, it’s either Sky of BT or virgin that buy up all the rights and are fully supported to have manopoly’s on different genres...
Then we have what the biased BBC have now become.....
But if the viewing figures stay around a pathetic 800k then I can’t see Sky renewing it anyway as it is costing them a LOT to run that channel. I mean if we say it takes in 8 million a year from the subscribers that next to nothing compared to how much the rights cost. Your talking billions of pounds for football.
Apart from Now TV in the UK and Sky I can’t see any other way to watch F1? Channel 4 is just a bunch of highlights. I was looking into ESPN but that seems overly complicated or a dead end too?
It is pathetic, almost 9 million viewers tuned in to the BBC to watch Lewis Hamilton win his first title in Brazil back in 2008. No wonder teams are struggling to attract the big name advertisers, enabling con artists like Rich Energy to attract attention and get snapped up because they were seen splashing the cash (which didn't really exist) around the paddock.
I've been following F1 since the mid 70's and for the first time I can remember haven't bothered watching any of the races this year. I just feel totally disillusioned by pay per view channels grabbing exclusive rights to so much sport at the detriment to genuine supporters.
This was probably the best race for 2019 thus far. In spite of the nay sayers who come here after every race to say F1 is boring. The battles between Vestappen and Leclerc were epic and we saw a more aggressive Leclerc after his experience with Verstappen in Austria. The two Mercedes were in wheel to wheel battles in the first ten laps. No doubt Lewis benefited from the safety car but he drove a great race and would probably have won even without the SC. The fact that he was able to do the fastest lap on those old tyres speaks for itself. Also admire him going against team order by his decision not to pit with seven laps to go.
In the States, ESPN runs the Sky F1 feed. We get P1, P2, P3, Qualifying and the race.
It is pathetic, almost 9 million viewers tuned in to the BBC to watch Lewis Hamilton win his first title in Brazil back in 2008. No wonder teams are struggling to attract the big name advertisers, enabling con artists like Rich Energy to attract attention and get snapped up because they were seen splashing the cash (which didn't really exist) around the paddock.
I've been following F1 since the mid 70's and for the first time I can remember haven't bothered watching any of the races this year. I just feel totally disillusioned by pay per view channels grabbing exclusive rights to so much sport at the detriment to genuine supporters.
Yeap, I’ve been watching it on and off for a while and can remember Senna and Hill and Nigel, but I did stop when Schumacher won everything.
I do blame Bernie Eccleston and the way the teams fundings have been allowed to run rampant for the top teams including Red Bull. So it was bad enough having predictable results, but to then have to stick it behind an expensive paywall! I’m not surprised they are worried...
They need to get a grip on team fundings and put it back on terrestrial TV or even streaming it like on Amazon or Netflix. Still be a lot cheaper that way!
I’m still holding out for the 2021 rule changes but I did read somewhere not to get the hopes up on it.
Amazon has started to look more into sport over the last couple of years, it’s picked up the tennis that Sky has dropped. So maybe in 2024 they’ll put a bid in for it? If no terrestrial broadcaster wants it then it’s the next best thing I guess?
Typical, all part of the greedy licensing game.
Well Bernie was the master of choosing tracks for "dough, not show". It is why he hired Hermann Tilke to design so many of them - all an aspiring government had to do was cut Bernie a huge check for sanctioning fees and as part of the deal, Tilke would design the track for them so all they needed to do was follow the plans during construction.
He must be getting bored of winning! But it does say a lot when the Mercedes drivers ignored team orders to do some actual racing and have fun and they don’t like the tracks being selected!...
Not good..... they’ll either learn or kill the sport.
I still stand by my original predictions that Liberty will kill F1. Liberty has a NASCAR Mentality. People didn't like Bernie, but he was good for the growth of F1. OTOH, one can't deny the need for revenue in an ever increasing expensive sport.
My fear is that if this trend continues we will start to see the worlds best drivers choose other racing series. It will depend on their motivation. Will it be the paycheck, or their inner competitive drive to race that wins out.
I still stand by my original predictions that Liberty will kill F1. Liberty has a NASCAR Mentality. People didn't like Bernie, but he was good for the growth of F1. OTOH, one can't deny the need for revenue in an ever increasing expensive sport.
My fear is that if this trend continues we will start to see the worlds best drivers choose other racing series. It will depend on their motivation. Will it be the paycheck, or their inner competitive drive to race that wins out.
Well these drivers could of course take a pay cut... it’s not like they need the millions they are paid, just like footballers. And you can’t exactly argue it’s a dangerous sport, yeah so are coast guards or firemen and some of them do it for free!!...
There were rumours of Toto being made CEO of the FIA, and even lewis said he would be biased towards Mercedes and was not the man for he job!
Maybe put in a Salary Cap for the drivers in addition to a Spending Cap for the teams.
...er actually Lewis winning in 2008 was the last race shown by ITV.
Lewis snags pole in a brilliant lap. Impressive stuff from Max in second.. and disaster for Ferrari!
The Williams this weekend...
Flowvis paint.
Ferrari screwed up qualifying, yet again.
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