That would be very nice but I think it's as unrealistic to expect it of the BBC as it is ABC, RTL or ITV.

In terms of 'features' I fully expect them to be pretty balanced, but I'll be surprised if their obvious joy at a Hamilton or Williams win, for example, did not show.

Personally I think the BBC coverage will be excellent if for no other reason than there will be no adverts.

As a FYI: The first of hopefully many BBC F1 blogs has arrived.

Don't think it's under a totally fresh BBC F1 banner though.

They've done more than enough with pre-coverage -- the proof will be in the pudding come end of March.

Were the US broadcasters really neutral during their coverage? Or the French broadcaster? Or the Germans?

- adverts
- James Allen

+ Red Button
+ The Chain
+ onboard feeds
+ blogs

The coverage has already got off to a better start than ITV's.

Photos of the BBC F1 launch: http://www.flickr.com/photos/52647217@N00/page2/

Also, on a very interesting note, this Thursday looks like it'll be VERY interesting. Check this out:



On DS, I said: "Now... is this thing Thursday just for the blogs... surely this can't be announcement Part 2? I'm guessing based on the last part that the website is being relaunched Thursday as well..."

jb26's response to that was: "You may or may not be correct in that assessment. "

Apart from the adverts Premiere get more options, full screen onboard and full screen live timing (BBC has no live timing).

We do get full screen onboard but only online.

Wow shes much nicer then Goodman

Brundle doing a straw-poll on Twitter with regards to the gridwalk?

http://twitter.com/MartinBrundle

Probably isn't even him. Most of the famous people on twitter seem to be fans. There have already been fake Clarkson, Hammond and Mays on there.

Instead we have boring old Jonathan Legard and no GP2.

Adverts do not bother me, since most of the time nothing is happening anyway.

Worse than ITV imo. Or should I say not as good.

Could be, but then his profile points to the F1 section on the BBC website and he seems to update it about once a month. Silly thing is, he can't see any responses given he's not actually following anyone on there. Admittedly I'm a Twitter newbie so don't know the whole ins-and-outs of how it works!

The following from LeeMcKenzie's Twitter: "LeeMcK: Having an office morning setting up F1 driver interviews and some much needed planning for the next month. It's looking pretty busy! about 2 hours ago from web"

You guys are obsessed.

Ask Lee if Brundle is the real one, that should answer the question. Oh and having a link to the BBC site means nothing, all the fake Top Gear ones had that.

To be honest, I couldn't care less, but I wonder what the motives would be for someone to pretend to be Martin Brundle on a rubbish website if they weren't going to use it for some purpose - either for amusement or tarnish his reputation?

May I ask if you have ever heard Legard commentate? And GP2 hasn't been 110% officially confirmed either way yet.

I've no clue. The fake James May was quite convincing.. and then one day they just posted "Oh, I'm fake btw". I think they just try to get as many followers as possible. It's all rather stupid.

It doesn't matter --- Soon, the BBC will get fanboys wanting marbles from the race track. There's no pleasing them.

I thought that's what you guys were?

Then you have someone like Ross Stonefield who wants the whole endeavour to fail so he can say "Told you so".

I really doubt that: Ross has to watch the races too, and I'm sure he wants that to be as good as it can be for when he does watch. But maybe he hasn't drunk the kool-aid.

The BBC Radio 5 Live team have a twitter page, and it is not fake. Updated when and if I can be arsed!

I should say the name it is under is 5LiveF1 if anyone wants to follow... Until we all get a bit bored with it and move onto something newer and shinier on the interweb.

Not the race, just the presentation. There's "cautious optimism", "pessimism" and then there's "Rossism".

So the thread is in balance. We've got people soiling themselves over blogs and intro music and other people waiting to see what the on-track product is like.

From 5LiveF1's Twitter: "Our first broadcast will be an hour long special on Thursday 26th March live from Albert Park on BBC Radio 5 Live." ;)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport/default.stm

Spot all the sports down the left-hand side. What's changed you may ask? Well, Formula One is now positioned second down directly underneath football. At the moment it links to http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/default.stm , however I strongly suspect that'll change tomorrow when the whole motorsport section is relaunched.

I hope this doesn't sound insulting, but why does Legard (on this new page BTW: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...8585.stm#legard) look like a puppet?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/20...ark_wilkin.html - *waits for everyone to bombard BBC Sport's F1 editor *

The new BBC F1 section is up and running: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/default.stm

And new trail: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/7911126.stm

I like the layout (will comment on theme later).

Wonder who put together their list under 'More Internet links'? F1-Live is the biggest pile of rubbish on the Internet fed by GMM.

The car chase thing is crrrap.

Would be you who'd say that wouldn't it Ross You seem to have had it in for the BBC since day 1 (have you praised them for anything at all yet?)

Haven't seen the coverage yet, so it's hard to say.

You're not going to seriously tell me that trail is worthwhile? The highlight clip is much better.

Ah the greatest hit video! such memories!!!!

I've certainly seen worse-personally although you say you havent seen the coverage (obviously no-one has yet) you seem to be consistently negative about whatever they've announced or done

Im actually more negative against the blind love of the members of the thread. So far the BBC has shown very little so I am holding judgement, but I have consistently said not to get your hopes up because there's very little indication or reason to assume their coverage will be dramatically different or better from anyone elses.

That said it was a good move that they seem to have bought the rights to footage covered under the ITV regime to use in their broadcasts.

-coverage of all sessions on various formats
-no adverts
-no james allen
-blogs from practically every member of the crew
-the chance to vote for an all time great race to see again in full before that weekends race (eg 5 great oz races to choose from before oz,same for the other races)
-interactive options (could probably be improved but better than what itv gave us,which was nothing)
-pundits who can put a proper english sentence together (unlike blundell)

i could go on,personally what i've seen so far in terms of what they've shown us,and what they plan to implement before/during the season,is infinitely better than itv gave us

You know, you may be on to something. If ITV had blogs all these years, the races could have been so much better.

we're not just talking about what happens on track you know Ross, its about the package as a whole, and as an all round package, in my opinion (and i appreciate that on a forum it's all about opinions) is going to be infinitely better than what ITV did

In your opinion, do you think it's possible for someone to hold an alternate opinion to your opinion?

I have no opinion

Have to agree with Ross (!) but that trailer is absolutely bobbins. Doesn't capture any sense of excitement or showcase F1.

Also think the BBC F1 site is a bit amateur. White text on black? And zero continuity between pages as well. Glad they're asking the vital pre-season question as well: 'Angelina or Keira?'

There is no pleasing some people, BBC websites are all basic looking, check out their football page for instance

A lot of good stuff so far, you get the impression that they're really trying to make the coverage great.

Yes and they work very well because each page layout is essentially the same. Their F1 front page, blog entries, features and news are set out in various different ways. It's not rocket-science nor does it really bother me as I can't remember once seeing something on the BBC F1 site that wasn't yesterday's news and had been paraphrased from somewhere else.

If you don't like the website I suggest commenting here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/20...ook_for_f1.html

Also we can stop staying "where are the headlines" - there is a fuckload of new blogs; new videos etc.

Everyone is about to clap in a minute (I hope). Read the following VERY carefully: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/andrewbenson/20..._melbourne.html

"Before every race this year, we will be asking you to vote for the classic event that you want to watch on the BBC Sport website." - highlights only

(may also be on Red Button according to jb)

Murray Walker's Greatest GP's: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/7924943.stm
- possibly on as part of GP Night.

*yawn* I like it, much easier to navigate for a first time viewer than itv-f1

well, they're faster than autosport on honda surviving http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/7911490.stm (lenny is contributing to the site as well by the looks of things)