thats the page i was on! loaded late for me. just a little lag, no onboard

Just started watching FP1 live on BBC iPlayer high quality, awesome stereo sound, great commentary so far!

F1 is back and better than ever!

Thanks BBC!

Its looking a bit grey, is that melbourne or my computer?

It's overcast.

Apart from the commentary team talking about Lewis Mercedes every 2 minutes?

"McLaren have been slow in testing"

"Yeah, but Lewis is still the driver to watch"

"Of course, there's no-one better"

Thanks for the heads-up, my red button channels aren't working on my Freesat box.

They really have not been focusing on lewis or mclaren, stop talking shit!
Everyones getting talked about.

Hardly

At the moment they're answering texts, can only answer what they're given.

Besides why judge on the only team that was in place last season?

wonder if it works on a iphone like iplayer does?

BBC coverage 18 seconds delayed from live timing.

Not on TV it aint

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/2937/dsc00832c.jpg

My setup

They havnt been focusing on Lewis/McLaren at all. Its been fantastic already and very even. Talked about Bruno Senna for 5 mins. Talked about Buemi (who just completed the first flying laps of F12009) and the other Sebastiens. Even unearthed the nugget that Bourdais and Buemi share Olivier as a middle name also! And that Buemi wanted compatriot Clay Reggazzoni No.12 on his car.

Antony Davidson (Brawn GP tester and former Honda/SA) is currently sharing the commentary and is fantastically knowledgable as he is listenable. Just commentated on Massas moment at penultimate turn.

Amazing, the blue button multiscreen has Adelaide GP from the 80s!!!

Where have you been for the last week?

Anyone get the bbc stream working from abroad?

Just heard a quote from Murray and James Hunt "reminds you of the old days". Lol! And that was said in '86!

That's it Holly wasn't over in the Renault garage for Fred leaving, the BBC are shite.

First impressions are good ... it's great to have the option to watch free practice on television

Yes, i did.

I just finished watching first practice.Am happy that i made it because you can't watch practice in the country am living right now. I made use of a proxy. The only problem was that the proxy was killing my Internet speed and i couldn't watch the more high quality video but am gone a search for a better proxy that will allow me to do that.

You are an idiot! I bet you dont even have access to commetry with that bile you spout. I have hardly heard Lewis mentioned

Happy days!!! This is the first time since I started watching F1 in 1993 on SKY that I have been able to watch a free practice in my living room on my telly. Just how it should be.

I thought Crofty and Ant did a very good job. Looking very much forward to the 2nd practice.

Any of you outside the UK who are serious about wanting the BBC live stream and reliable should invest a meagre amount in a UK VPN. I don't use this site but I know many who do, specifically for iplayer:

http://www.vpnuk.info/

It's only £6.50 per month. What's that? 2 beers?

I got 7 sec, maybe its about connection speed how long it buffers...

I don't mind the slight delay as it lets me watch some of the slo-mo replays twice Well done so far BEEB!

Every time Maurice Hamilton summed up proceedings during Practice I felt an Ad break comming on! Funny how things get ingrained.

I have to say well done, i was watching online and the feed was stable decent quality and it was nice having driver positions available on the same scree (though i had live timing on a second screen ;) also good was the posting of certain quotes and emails etc as per their text commentary that is usual for the football.

Enjoyed it and a great start.

Yeah BBC did a good job. In the second practice i found a better proxy and i saw it in Higher quality

1st practice:
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/7967239.stm (report)
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport...one/7967367.stm (full replay)

Full replay looping on Red Button.

I might make my students watch it this morning

Watching the first practice replay and the commentary is pretty good from the Radio 5 team rather than the TV squad. Ant. is doing a particularly good job and bringing out some interesting points.

BUT why on earth did the BBC pick a pitlane reporter who clearly knows little about cars and racing ?
Holly Samos has supposedly been a Radio 5 F1 pit lane reporter for two seasons yet when told that a car was in the pits to have a drive shaft boot replaced, she cheerily admitted she had no idea what they were talking about and had to ask the commentary team !

IF the BBC really do have to have a woman in the team to be politically correct, surely, somewhere, they could have found one who had some idea what she is talking about. After two seasons you think she might have done a bit of research.

Hopefully Lee McKenzie, with her background in the sport, won't have this problem.

Ooooohhh I love the way the Beeb are replaying in full the practice sessions on the red button.

(I must admit, although I'd seen they were going to cover practice live on the red button, I'd not spotted in advance they were going to do replays; it was a nice surprise.)

Okay, perhaps I'm admitting that I'm no longer keen enough, (or is that young enough?), to justify getting up early, or staying up late, to watch it live from Melbourne...

When I got up this morning I was resigned to just seeing the practice times on the PC, so finding what was on the red button was amazing!

With the same reservations as above on the pit-lane Holly-dolly thing, it is nice to have some commentary for practice as well. When it was live on the ITV website, it was always without commentary.

Well done BBC! 99 out of 100 so far. (1 off for Holly.)

Don't be too harsh, I've been following F1 religously for 20 years and I don't know what a driveshaft boot is!

She still is. Remember, on the red button, you're getting the live TV plus Five-live radio commentary.

I'd give Holly 'one'... I'll get my coat...

Are they going to do a replay loops for FP3/Qualifying too?

Yes. My understand is that it'll be 07:15 Saturday to 06:00 Sunday.

Any chance of not quoting drivel like this when replying to it. It kind of renders the Ignore feature useless.

Just ignore him. There are thousands of people on this forum, you wont miss anything important by setting his account to be ignored, and it stops him from attention seeking.

By even replying to him you've given him exactly what he wants. A connection to someone the only way he knows how.

Just ignore him, seriously!

Or at least don't quote him so the people that have elected to ignore him are able to do so.

Having watched both sessions now, the first one with Anthony Davidson was excellent. He gave so much detail- I really wasn't expecting it to be that good. Having seen the bile about ITV coverage and not really agreed with the fact that they only focused on Hamilton it was refreshing to listen to them talk about all teams and all drivers (though how possible that ll be during quali or the race show remains to be seen).

The other guy commentating on the first session- is he the lead commentator for races??

david croft (main commentator in FP1) does the radio coverage of quali and the race

Very interesting point.

I liked Davidson's commentary too, it was personal, informative, informal, cool, but as you say I doubt they can be like on air on BBC 1. If it's not Lewis they talk about, it's gonna have to be Button. They have potentially 5-6m British viewers to cater for, so I think I will have it on mute.

have to remember as well though that if the director wants to show alot of button or hamilton, then in that respect theyre bound to talk more about them during the race, but to say you'll have it on mute, when you don't even know what the commentary will be like on raceday is a bit presumptious, should at least give it a race or 2 before deciding to have it on mute-never know, they may not go OTT with the brits

Fantastic coverage so far - have had the loop of practice on all day. Liked listening to Ian Phillips from Force India too - very candid about the diffusor row - apparently FI were approached to throw their hat in the ring with the protestors but declined. Also said he though Newey and co didn't really seem to know what they were protesting about and called it a 'fishing exercise'! Keep it up Auntie!

Gee Ant Davison is unlistenable, he's just terrible. Where's DC?

Some people are hard to please

This isn't the team that will commentate on the race.

Just watching 2nd practise replay on the web. Good old Auntie Beeb!
At last I feel that I'm getting value from my TV license!

Don't get me wrong, I love the BBC and still check it daily even though I am not english nor do i live there. I just think Ant was dull as dishwater and the ultimate fence sitter, it won't kill him to offer an opinion.

You're on your own there, pretty sure everyone else loved his commentary, he tried to fence sit on the Bruno Senna issue but couldn't and ended up giving a great reasoning as to why he doesn't think Senna should be in F1.

thought AD was very good personally

What did he say about Senna?

He tried to be very balanced and carefully, but suggested he is overhyped, somethign along the lines 'if he was next Ayrton he would be on track right now'.



It was the first time I heard the radio commentary, and geez, it's a blast! There is a gang atmosphere going on but it's still very accurate and technical. And it completely lacks the full-on 'typical sport commentary' vibe ITV had. Ant was GREAT.

Ditto, he doesn't have a traditional 'broadcast' voice, but good to hear his opinions.