I agree I think, Saturdays are a bit worse but the weekend overall is better.
Would prefer Sprint to be reverse championship order and Quali to set the grid for the race.
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Formula One
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Would prefer Sprint to be reverse championship order and Quali to set the grid for the race.
Nick🎢
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It's a tough one. It's a fine balance between the integrity of the sport (which is a big part of its value and meaning) Vs entertainment.
NASCAR is a prime example of what happens when they kept pushing more and more down the entertainment route. The races lose the perception of meaning because it's become far too close to a lottery.
Nailing a nice balance of integrity and entertainment/ jeopardy is easier said than done I suspect.
IanB
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I agree 100%.
All I want to see is the best team and best driver win. I want to see overtakes happen because the driver has done something brilliant, or they have pushed so hard the car in front makes a mistake.
Does any other sport do reverse grids or punish teams who did well the previous season?
Nick🎢
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There are sort of examples.
Success ballast added to cars in touring cars.
Formula e used to qualify in groups in reverse championship order so the leaders got the "slowest" track.
As we saw in 21, all you need is 2 or 3 teams to be equalish and it will produce a dynamite season.
For me the solution is around making the cars as equal as they can get away with without spoiling the idea that these are genuine co constructors and it's not a single make series. I think that's what these rules are meant to work towards. Maybe we will find that once all teams have nailed the ride issues etc.
Complete side note: if anyone doesn't I recommend checking out Indycar on sky sports f1 next season (it's finished now). 1 car, 2 engines. Ultra competitive. Grojean is in there being himself. Illot, Ericson etc. It does show though because when you have 5 guys or whatever it was going into the last round able to win the title - it devalues it! It's not as exciting.
IanB
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Could Max be the first driver to get DQ from two world titles?
Sounds like RedBull have messed up, claiming stuff does not count against the cost budget, when it should have.
Toto seemed to be enjoying the Sky interviews a bit more than Christian was. The wording of Christian was interesting, the Accounts we submitted were below the budget cap.
Will be interesting to find out next week if they have broken the rules, and then the even more interesting part is to see what punishment they are given.
In other news, Sky has extended its coverage of F1 until 2029.
Nick🎢
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Yes I picked up on Christian very purposeful wording!
From the stories I've heard from employees and associates, I wouldn't rule any kind of skulduggery out to be honest.
pluk
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I wish this were the tavern so I could have a good old swear.
Nick🎢
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Even though I am a subscriber and pay through my
for 4k. Putting f1 behind such an extreme paywall helps nobody. Get it back on free to air!!!
IanB
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I dont mind paying for the F1 coverage as it is a lot better than what we used to get when it was free. There is room for improvement, but I would take what we have now over what was on free air.
No Adverts during the race, all sessions live on TV. Support sessions live on TV.
Plenty of pre and post race content.
I wish there was a way to get the race shown for free, It would not surprise me if F1 were to bring it all in house. I am sure most people would not mind paying £10 a month for unlimited F1 coverage (I think its currently $50 for the year if your in a location where its available)
No Adverts during the race, all sessions live on TV. Support sessions live on TV.
Plenty of pre and post race content.
I wish there was a way to get the race shown for free, It would not surprise me if F1 were to bring it all in house. I am sure most people would not mind paying £10 a month for unlimited F1 coverage (I think its currently $50 for the year if your in a location where its available)
pluk
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I don't agree with this at all. As is the case for nearly all things Sky, they spend a lot of their time and effort telling you how good they are rather than actually being good. All very smug and slick, but no personality or soul.
I found the coverage on BBC then C4 was no less in depth; the time they had might not have been quite as much (although not as much less as you might think), but they used it a lot better. There were no ads in races (you have to go all the way back to ITV for that mess), all sessions were live (even if some were on red button or support channels), all we've gained are some lesser series. Good to have some of them but not worth giving up free to air for by a long shot.
The lack of casual exposure will kill long term interest in the sport. With the rest of the world getting the FOM direct option and Liberty having been quite vocal against harsh paywalls I was hoping they'd come away from this awful set up. I despise it.
NuttySquirrel
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I've forked out for a Sky Sports subscription via Now TV and frankly I'm thinking of cancelling it. Just getting into my account is a complete pain, I have to put my log in details in every time even though I always click 'Remember me' and then I get taken to the Entertainment page even though I don't have an Entertainment subscription. Just not user friendly at all.
The main issue though is the live-only stream; there should be a better catch-up service without having to fork out a ridiculous amount per month for SkyQ or whatever. I'd like to be able to follow all the practice sessions, qualifying etc. but hey I have a job and a life and I'm almost always doing something else. Even the race is an effort to make time for on a Sunday afternoon, I can't even rewind 10 minutes if I miss the start. Quite often I just end up skipping the live race and then watching the extended highlights on C4 anyway.
The main issue though is the live-only stream; there should be a better catch-up service without having to fork out a ridiculous amount per month for SkyQ or whatever. I'd like to be able to follow all the practice sessions, qualifying etc. but hey I have a job and a life and I'm almost always doing something else. Even the race is an effort to make time for on a Sunday afternoon, I can't even rewind 10 minutes if I miss the start. Quite often I just end up skipping the live race and then watching the extended highlights on C4 anyway.
Nick🎢
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F1 have their own service but only for countries that don't have a TV deal. I don't know if there is anything that can be done with VPNs etc there.
My only gripe with paying is I am paying about £100 a month, pretty much for f1 and the odd thing like game of thrones. I justify it on the fact I get paid to be available at the weekends which more than covers the cost but still it's pretty poor value. We tried the nowt option when it was 100 quid a year for sports on black Friday once. It's the live only that lets it down. The whole pausing and watching it not quite live is a bit of a thing for us.
My only gripe with paying is I am paying about £100 a month, pretty much for f1 and the odd thing like game of thrones. I justify it on the fact I get paid to be available at the weekends which more than covers the cost but still it's pretty poor value. We tried the nowt option when it was 100 quid a year for sports on black Friday once. It's the live only that lets it down. The whole pausing and watching it not quite live is a bit of a thing for us.
You can pause live broadcasts up to 30 mins with a (discontinued) Now Smart Stick or Box, that's what I have to make sure I can sync BBC 5live commentary. Session replays show up on Sport On Demand eventually - sometimes seems to take days tho.
It's nowhere near as convenient as a being able to series link it and start the broadcast whenever you want, but it wouldn't be worth paying 2-3x more for.
I bloody hate the Sky coverage. Ted's Notebook is the only bit of their own content which is worth watching and they tend to put it on YouTube anyway.
It says it all that they buggered off air during the Abu Dhabi aftermath last year when the BBC stayed on air.
Their coverage of the Indycar series is unwatchable.
Nick🎢
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To be fair they don't cover Indycar, it's just the NBC feed. Unless you are counting that random guy that dials in on Skype to talk over the ad break with some waffle.
Bit confused about the Abu comment given the BBC haven't aired it for some years.
Yes, it's awful. Worse than if they just let the NBC feed playout raw.
Badly needs a proper international commentary team.
Not true. I was enjoying it only a few hours ago.
Nick🎢
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Did they do that one race? Assuming BBC = TV likely totally missed that. Agree on the Indycar, the cutaway is so cringe.
Jonathan
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BBC Radio 5 Live still do F1 coverage, IIRC.
You're conflating BBC coverage with BBC TV coverage which was once part of that. The (excellent) radio coverage and website are still very much ongoing, and stayed on air (admittedly dipping in and out) until the stewards finished their deliberation after the Abu Dhabi GP.
Nick🎢
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If you are putting me at fault for assuming f1 coverage meant visual... So be it. Would suggest it's fair to assume the default way to consume sport in 2022 isn't audio only.