Formula One

[Rhys Benjamin]

Ben Edwards was shit. No other word for it; "Mark Webber isn't as quick as Hamilton but goes quicker than everybody." sums it up rather nicely.

Whereas James Allen was shittingly shit:

Having woken up at 5:50 in order to listen to the qualifying, James Allen promptly ruined it for me. For example, this morning, "As you can see....". I couldn't see anything but a BBC Radio 5 Live logo! Alonso's misdemeanours were blighted by James' inability to tell me what actually happened, & cutting co-commentator Jaime Alguersuari ( ) off to shout out "NICO ROSBERG'S GONE FASTEST!" 2 minutes into Q3 is not my idea of a good commentator. His usual biased self, getting horny about Lewis Hamilton, made things even worse.

Does anyone actually have Sky Sports F1 here, and did anyone watch it today? If so, can you write a long email to my Dad nagging him to get it? Please!?

[Eoin Monaghan]

Happy St.Patrick's Day.

[Rhys Benjamin]

The BBC say they're showing "key races."

VALENCIA!? SINCE WHEN WAS THAT A "FRICKIN'" KEY RACE!?

[Gavin Chipper]

The BBC say they're showing "key races."

VALENCIA!? SINCE WHEN WAS THAT A "FRICKIN'" KEY RACE!?

A few of them are strange. Given a free choice I would probably have had Australia (first race of the season), Canada, Italy, Japan and USA, and maybe ditch China, Spain, Europe (Valencia), Korea and Abu Dhabi. And obviously keep the rest that they have already - Monaco, Britain, Belgium, Singapore and Brazil.

[Rhys Benjamin]

Bernie Ecclestone, April 2011: "Pay-per-view F1 would be disastrous."

Pfft.

The BBC say they're showing "key races."

VALENCIA!? SINCE WHEN WAS THAT A "FRICKIN'" KEY RACE!?

A few of them are strange. Given a free choice I would probably have had Australia (first race of the season), Canada, Italy, Japan and USA, and maybe ditch China, Spain, Europe (Valencia), Korea and Abu Dhabi. And obviously keep the rest that they have already - Monaco, Britain, Belgium, Singapore and Brazil.

Each one had picks of 3 but neither could have more than 2 consecutive live (or 2 consecutive (in the case of sky) exclusively live).

[Rhys Benjamin]

We've only had two wet races all year - Malaysia and Monaco. The rain wasn't really stimulating enough in Monaco but it counts as a wet race as Jean-Eric Vergne used the intermediates. Nonetheless, when the rain came down, the Ferraris came into their own. Massa, in Monaco, caught up by two seconds per lap to the five cars in front. Massa's drive in Malaysia was awful though. On the other hand, Alonso excelled in the very wet part of Malaysia by easily outrunning Hamilton, and, before Alonso's tyres went off, Pérez. In Monaco, once the rain came, Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, and Massa hit a rolling roadblock in the form of Mark Webber. If that was somewhere which wasn't a one-laned Scalextric track then I think Rosberg would have won in Monaco. In Malaysia, Webber had a quiet race to fourth and Vettel spent all afternoon winging at Karthikeyan.

I haven't heard one interview on the BBC this weekend not using the word "rain".

[Gavin Chipper]

We've only had two wet races all year - Malaysia and Monaco. The rain wasn't really stimulating enough in Monaco but it counts as a wet race as Jean-Eric Vergne used the intermediates. Nonetheless, when the rain came down, the Ferraris came into their own. Massa, in Monaco, caught up by two seconds per lap to the five cars in front. Massa's drive in Malaysia was awful though. On the other hand, Alonso excelled in the very wet part of Malaysia by easily outrunning Hamilton, and, before Alonso's tyres went off, Pérez. In Monaco, once the rain came, Rosberg, Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, and Massa hit a rolling roadblock in the form of Mark Webber. If that was somewhere which wasn't a one-laned Scalextric track then I think Rosberg would have won in Monaco. In Malaysia, Webber had a quiet race to fourth and Vettel spent all afternoon winging at Karthikeyan.

I haven't heard one interview on the BBC this weekend not using the word "rain".

There's no guarantee of rain tomorrow though. They seemed to change their minds about whether it would rain in the race a few times on the BBC. And even if Alonso wins, 4th would still do it for Vettel.

[Gavin Chipper]

Bernie Ecclestone, April 2011: "Pay-per-view F1 would be disastrous."

Pfft.

The BBC say they're showing "key races."

VALENCIA!? SINCE WHEN WAS THAT A "FRICKIN'" KEY RACE!?

A few of them are strange. Given a free choice I would probably have had Australia (first race of the season), Canada, Italy, Japan and USA, and maybe ditch China, Spain, Europe (Valencia), Korea and Abu Dhabi. And obviously keep the rest that they have already - Monaco, Britain, Belgium, Singapore and Brazil.

Each one had picks of 3 but neither could have more than 2 consecutive live (or 2 consecutive (in the case of sky) exclusively live).

Back on this, I read that BBC had the first three picks, and then Sky had three, and then it was one each from then on (with no-one allowed three in a row). So this is how I think it went:

BBC: Monaco, Britain, Brazil (three fairly obvious choices)
Sky: Australia, Italy, USA (Australia being the first race, Monza being a "classic", and USA being prime time and being America)
BBC: Belgium (classic track)
Sky: Canada (prime time race)
BBC: Singapore (fast becoming a modern-day classic)
Sky: Germany
BBC: Spain (by the three-in-a-row rule, this would commit Sky to Bahrain)
Sky: Hungary
BBC: Europe (Valencia)
Sky: Malaysia (second race of the season, which would give them a head start with their coverage with the first and second races, but it seems in preference to Abu Dhabi despite the latter being a European time race - BBC now committed to China)
BBC: Abu Dhabi
Sky: Japan (classic track, but early in the morning - not good for viewing figures)
BBC: Korea (picked over India it seems)
The rest are now set by the three-in-a-row rule:
Sky: Bahrain, India
BBC: China

[Rhys Benjamin]

I grabbed the Brazilian race and put it on my Android tablet. http://bit.ly/brazil-racept2 with Sky commentary if anyone's interested. It's on Google Docs so don't get worried about spam. Hamilton's Mercedes move is money-driven.