52 replies to this topic

[nmansellfan]

Unlike these days, back in the 50's to 70's not all Grand Prix's were shown on British TV (The BBC and ITV) as far as i can tell. Only being 23 i cant vouch for this myself. But does anybody have any history of TV coverage of Grand Prix's, i.e. which ones were shown and who commentated on them? Is it true that for some races there was no TV coverage, not even local, like the '67 South African GP? Does this mean that visual footage of this race is lost forever?

Not having access to the BBC archives, i cant find out much myself. But does anyone know anything themselves? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks

PS Because of the enthusiasm for James Hunt's championship charge in '76, i've heard that the Japanese GP was shown live on the BBC and ITV at the same time! is this true and if so who commentated on ITV because i presume it was Raymond Baxter or Murray Walker at the BBC.

[Rob29]

Ho! 1st motor race ever televised was a London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace in Oct 1937. First WCGP shown in UK seems to be Silverstone '53. We did not have a telly then.First one I saw was'54. '55 Aintree was not shown. AFAIK every British GP since '56 has been on either ITV or BBC.First one seen live from abroad was Monaco '59. South Africa '67 could not have been seen anywhere as there was no TV in that country untill early seventies. Until recently it was not possible to have live TV if the local service was not covering it. Now we have the crazy situation that involves German TV coming to Donington Park to cover the DTM live,but those in Britain without satellite will not be able to see it.

[dolomite]

Originally posted by nmansellfan
Unlike these days, back in the 50's to 70's not all Grand Prix's were shown on British TV (The BBC and ITV) as far as i can tell. Only being 23 i cant vouch for this myself. But does anybody have any history of TV coverage of Grand Prix's, i.e. which ones were shown and who commentated on them? Is it true that for some races there was no TV coverage, not even local, like the '67 South African GP? Does this mean that visual footage of this race is lost forever?

Not having access to the BBC archives, i cant find out much myself. But does anyone know anything themselves? Any information would be appreciated. Thanks

PS Because of the enthusiasm for James Hunt's championship charge in '76, i've heard that the Japanese GP was shown live on the BBC and ITV at the same time! is this true and if so who commentated on ITV because i presume it was Raymond Baxter or Murray Walker at the BBC.

Both BBC and ITV showed edited highlights the afternoon after the race (being in Japan the actual race was during the night and there was no all-night TV in those days!). Since I can recall seeing both versions I think they must have been on at different times. The BBC one was commentated by Murray and the ITV one by Barrie Gill I think.

I got into F1 in '76 when it was virtually nonexistent on TV, in general the only coverage if you were lucky was 10mins of highlights on ITV World of Sport a week after the race. The earliest race I can remember seeing in this manner was the US GP at Watkins Glen, which featured a fantastic battle between Hunt's Mclaren and Scheckter in the 6-wheeled Tyrrell. The BBC had pulled out some time before after a row over the amount of advertising on the cars (!).

In 1977 ITV continued to show short highlights of most races, one in particular I remember was the Argentine GP which was in fuzzy black and white (Argentina did not have colour TV at that time) and was described by Autosport as 'reminiscent of John Logie Baird's original experiments'! BBC's only coverage was a short film of the British GP, like ITV shown a week after the race.

In 1978 ITV showed the South African, Monaco and Swedish GPs live, then pulled out to make way for the BBC whose 'Grand Prix' highlights programme started at Monaco. BBC also televised the British GP live for the first time since 1975. Bear in mind though, that in those days 'live' coverage of a GP meant we got to see the first 10 laps, the last 10 laps, and a bit in the middle if you were really lucky....

[Vitesse2]

But of course before that, when the Beeb were totally anti-advertising (those were the days!) all we had was Raymond Baxter and a Scalextric set!

Yes folks, the week after the race, Raymond would present a programme purporting to be the highlights of the GP with the aid of a Scalextric layout - I kid you not!!

Having typed that, I'm npw not 100% sure it was Baxter, but if it wasn't, I can't remember who it was ....

[Gary Davies]

The first Grand Prix I saw on telly was the Monaco Grand Prix, shown in bits and pieces by the Beeb (every race I've seen subsequently has been less enthralling: ).

I recall for several years, Auntie showed the Grands Prix of Britain, Monaco and Italy - all by way of numerous crosses back and forth and all accompanied by the mellifluous voice of Raymond Baxter. Needless to say, the crosses came at infuriatingly inappropriate times, as famously noted by Russell Brockbank.

Is my recollections correct in nominating those Grands Prix? And for how long did RB continue to do motor racing on BBC before he was replaced by that moto-cross chappie?

Gary

[2F-001]

I, too, remember the slot-track reconstructions of Grands Prix!
This must have been around 67 and 68 (??? - I recall a McLaren M7 winning something). I think this was on the children's programme ''Tom Tom'', and you could write in for a grand prix results keeping kit. I misunderstood the size of the stamped-addressed-envelope required, so mine arrived folded into three which spoiled it somewhat. Maybe Baxter did the commentary, I don't remember. The ''operator'' was an avuncular and balding model-maker - a sort of cross between Murray Walker and Barrie Bucknell (which will mean nothing to non-Brits and Brits under about 35... Bucknell was the original television DIY guru, when DIY was more of a closet perversion than the cheap mass entertainment it is now). I do remember a car being on fire once as it crossed the line. I don't recall which real-life blow up this recreated but the flames were hopelessly out-of-scale...!

Ooooh, the kids today! They don't know they're born. etc, etc, (young fogey rant).
In the mid-seventies we had 'Sunday Sport' on BBC Radio 2 at around 6 or 7pm: on a Grand Prix weekend, that was the lead story. They were not routinely shown on TV. Prior to that, I would never know who had won a GP until my father came in from work with an Autosport or Motoring News on Thursday evening. Some people find that hard to imagine... (Maybe the results were in a National Daily after the weekend - I don't know, we did't take one in our family.)

[2F-001]

One of the hot DIY tickets in Bucknell's day was covering over your traditional panelled doors with a cheap piece of hardboard - this was cutting-edge stuff...

Vanwall - don't think I'd seen that particular ''Brockbank'' before, but it neatly sums up many a frustrating weekend afternoon in our house!

[dmj]

Wow! I can't believe that TV coverage in UK started so late. I mean, even while living in a Communist country (former Yugoslavia) I've been able to watch most of races from 1978 to date live. And I believe coverage started some time earlier...

OT: That Brockbank was great, as usually. Is there any Brockbank books published? - I would really like to have these cartoons by hand and I have just odd one here and there in magazines...

[Vitesse2]

There were several Brockbank books published between the 40s and 70s, but the best bet for TNFers is probably Brockbank's Grand Prix, which is a collection of his racing cartoons. There's a second-hand copy for sale at Chaters at the moment:

www.chaters.co.uk

for a mere £20. I bought mine new...

[moody]

Remember that famous win Villeneuve had in Spain... well the dozy pillocks at the BBC that day let the race get to 10 laps to go and then went to bloody cricket!! They showed the final laps 2 hours later after the poxy cricket. And you know what that race was like.
The first televised GP for me was Dutch in 1962, but it was 10 minutes at the start, 5 minutes about half way through and the final two or three. And it was like that for quite a while here, until the late seventies, but we stikll had the Villeneuve type of thing to put up with then.
I would love to see some of the old TV coverage of Eurovision of sixties races again, it wouldn't matter about the language of the commentary would it.

[fines]

I'm pretty sure the '66 German GP was the first televised in this country. My first "live" TV memory is from the "Deutschland Trophäe/Jim Clark Gedächtnis=Rennen" (I still vividly remember the "=" in the title, some quirky German form of hyphen, which confused me no end! ), with Stuck Junior winning. Patrick Depailler was his main opponent, and he somehow damaged his nose cone and had to pit for a new one. The March guys managed to fit a "Jägermeister" nose onto the "elf" car, and I was beyond me because I thought they'd mix up the cars! I was seven and a Depailler fan, you see...

Live broadcasts were usually confined to the German GP until RTL started their programme with the '84 Monaco GP. The Long Beach races were also shown live, because they aired late at night. I got special exemption to see the '78 race when I was 11, and I was VERY proud - my elder brothers had to go to bed, and even my parents left me alone to watch!

Mostly the races were dealt with short reports (10 to 15 minutes) in the main sports programmes, some were cut short because of other "important" events! I was most annoyed when the '81 Monaco GP was dealt with what must've been 2 or three minutes, due to the "Sportschau" celebrating their tenth or whatever "birthday"! I'll never forget that one

[dolomite]

One that particularly springs to mind was ITV's live coverage of the '78 Monaco GP, which took place the day after the FA cup final. We had to miss 1/2 hour out of the middle of the GP while they showed footage of the winning football team being driven around their home town on top of a bus!

At various times I've seen BBC video clips from the '69 Italian GP, '70 Monaco GP, '72, '73 and '75 British GPs and '75 Monaco GP, so maybe these still exist in the archives somewhere (although given the BBC's tendancy to wipe tapes from that era I wouldn't bank on it).

[OssieFan]

Does anyone know the history of F1 coverage in Australia? As far as I know we got the coverage in the late 70's early 80's but I'm not sure if Channel 9 or the ABC were the first to broadcast it (or any other channel for that matter ).

[Gary Davies]

I remember becoming hugely excited to discover that Channel 7 were to cover the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix from Fuji. And not only did they cover it but they hung in there when the race went way over time due to the wet conditions.

I believe it was in the days prior to that race that Channel Seven Sydney's Wonn Casey interviewed Emerson Fittipaldi via satellite and called him "Mr. Emerpani."

Gary.

[Option1]

Originally posted by OssieFan
Does anyone know the history of F1 coverage in Australia? As far as I know we got the coverage in the late 70's early 80's but I'm not sure if Channel 9 or the ABC were the first to broadcast it (or any other channel for that matter ).

I remember seeing racing on the ABC in 69 or 70, but it may well have been Tasman races rather than F1. Ray will probably know for sure.

I'm pretty sure those late 70's/early 80's races were on Channel 9 at some ungodly hour on a Tuesday night, if my worn out memory serves.

One thing I do vividly remember was how incredibly poor the picture quality and camera work/direction was back in them thar days. Would have to take the commentator's word for it as to which car(s) you were looking at. It didn't take me long to realize that my guess was probably as good as the commentator's. Not surprising really given that I think the commentator was usually Murray Walker, but I could be very much mistaken about that. But in the end it didn't really matter because at least I was getting to watch F1.

Neil

[Ray Bell]

That's right, some Tasman races were covered by the ABC if they didn't clash with any other major events... a rowing regatta or something.

When you say Channel 7, Vanwall, I think you might be in error. It was the Nine network that carried that race and ever subsequent GP televised in Australia. And Melbourne's Channel 7 was no longer in the Nine network by then. I think 7 and 9 changed over in about 1968 or so...

Regular coverage began in mid 1980, if I'm not mistaken. As Jonesy headed for his title win... it was certainly not a full season the first year, and '81 was shown as a full year.

[Gary Davies]

Oh Ray, now you've got me thinking. I must confess I was/am totally certain it was Channel Seven ... I remember at the time it seemed it seemed so surprising that they should pick it up. But ... as the years go by, more neurons become inoperative...

You do realise that if I find out it was Nine, I'll feel obliged to start studying the Retirement Homes ads.

Gary.

[josh.lintz]

Originally posted by moody
Remember that famous win Villeneuve had in Spain... well the dozy pillocks at the BBC that day let the race get to 10 laps to go and then went to bloody cricket!!

And I thought it was bad in 1987: ESPN cut away from the '87 Portugese GP to show taped college football! I would have to find out the next day that Prost had indeed won his record-braking 28th GP. A little absurd, considering Jackie Stewart himself was commentating!

If it's any consolation, I believe the first American sights of F1 racing was the Monaco GP during the late-60's, but it wasn't until 1985 (?) that ESPN bought the rights to broadcast the other 15 events. And nobody in the US saw all the events on one network until 1994.

Anyone else wonder why it's never caught on here in the States?

[Gary Davies]

Originally posted by Ray Bell
When you say Channel 7, Vanwall, I think you might be in error. It was the Nine network that carried that race and ever subsequent GP televised in Australia.

Know any good retirement homes?

[nmansellfan]

Here in the UK, even as recently as '89 or '90 the BBC was missing GP's out. Im sure they missed the Brazilian GP in '89, the year Mansell won on his Ferrari debut. No idea why, probably some cricket match on or something.

Am i also right in thinking that the BBC refused to televise any GP's in 1968 because of its anti advertising stance? I cant believe this, particularly because Graham Hill took the Drivers championship for Britain for the first time since '65... :

[Vitesse2]

The BBC was still very anti-advertising in 1968. It went to great pains not to mention brand names at all - as a small example, the cartoon Top Cat, which still airs today on Cartoon Network, was retitled Boss Cat, because there was a leading brand of cat food called Top Cat at the time. Even the word "Sellotape" could not be used - the children's programme Blue Peter always referred to "sticky tape" (that's Scotch Tape for you Yanks and Durex for the Aussies!).

Their refusal to show F1 should be viewed in this light.

And I think you're wrong about Brazil 89, nmansellfan. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing that race: it may not have been shown live though, but on "delay" or only as highlights. And it wouldn't have been cricket that would have caused this anyway - the race was on March 26th and the cricket season doesn't start until April! Snooker or darts more likely at that time....

[king_crud]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
The BBC was still very anti-advertising in 1968. It went to great pains not to mention brand names at all - as a small example, the cartoon Top Cat, which still airs today on Cartoon Network, was retitled Boss Cat, because there was a leading brand of cat food called Top Cat at the time. Even the word "Sellotape" could not be used - the children's programme Blue Peter always referred to "sticky tape" (that's Scotch Tape for you Yanks and Durex for the Aussies!).

I've always said sticky tape in Australia. Durex would certianly imply something else................nudge nudge wink wink

[king_crud]

Originally posted by Option1
Not surprising really given that I think the commentator was usually Murray Walker, but I could be very much mistaken about that

Unless I'm very much mistaken..........................and I am!!

[Maldwyn]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
The BBC was still very anti-advertising in 1968. It went to great pains not to mention brand names at all

I remember they had great difficulty when they were due to cover the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch in 1976 because of the Durex Surtees

[man]

Regarding BBC's anti advertising stance, I recall races from the early 1980's on the BBC when Murray Walker would often refer to Lotus as "JPS" and McLaren as "Marlboro" i.e. "There is Mansell in the JPS" or "There is John Watson in the Marlboro". Very strange.

The BBC did cover the 1989 Brazilian GP because I have it on tape. What about the history of Eurosport? I recall watching live Eurosport races in 1990. When did Eurosport start to cover F1 races live?

[FredF1]

As far as I can recall,

The last race on British TV not to be shown live was the Canadian GP in 1993.

James Hunt's last commentary as well.

[Maldwyn]

Didn't ITV show delayed coverage of the 2001 US GP or is my fading memory playing tricks again :

[FredF1]

Feck,

You're right.

I have the advantage of being able to get RTE as well so it didn't affect me.

Had to smile at the spat between Bernie and Brundle on the grid in Bacelona though.

[dolomite]

I have an old Autocar from 1970 that I found in a secondhand book shop a few months ago - as it happens this gives details of the scheduled TV coverage of the 1970 British GP:

Live coverage: ITV World of Sport: Saturday, 18 July 1970: 2.20 p.m. to 2.40 p.m.; 3.25 p.m. to 3.35 p.m.; 3.50 p.m. to 4.00 p.m.; 4.25 p.m. to 4.35 p.m. Commentary by Anthony Marsh. London Weekend TV: Sunday, 26 July 1970: edited version of race-'The Big Event' at 2.45 p.m.

It also says admission tickets to Brands on raceday were £1 4s (£1.20)......

[racer69]

In regards to TV coverage in Australia,

i have found out that we have recieved every GP since Germany 1981,
prior to that i'm not sure, i guess probably just the occasional one,
as for when they were shown, not sure,
but i recently got the last 3 1981 races and a number of 1982 races on tape and all of them are in full, as taped on channel 9.

Commentators were either Murray & James, in Canada 1981 it was Ron Reushe, Jackie Stewart and Barry Gill in the pits, while also occasionally we apparently got the team that included David Hobbs etc..., but as for when they were shown on TV, not sure

As for the earlier races, not sure, would love to find out as much as possible though, this is very interesting, i love the use of the scalextric track,

[FEV]

I'm not sure when TV started airing live F1 races in France, although I know Indy was live on the sole French channel during the sixties. What I recall vividly about the coverage of F1 was the unmissable horce race ("tiercé" is a religion in France) that made us miss half an hour of the race. This lasted untill the late 80s at least. I have a tape of the 1978 Austrian GP that was already cut in pieces by horse racing and some other major sporting event like gymnastics or fencing. But the rain intermition during the race helped us to not miss much of it ! Monte-Carlo TMC for which I used to work has broadcasted the Monaco F1 Grand Prix live every year from 1955 to 2001. They probably won't in 2002.

[moody]

So, who or what os EUROVISION now then, who has all that old film????

[jonpollak]

These recollections are side splitting...
Good lord, we have it 'cush' now,..
Which led me to think.... (The satellite?,.. Bernie's tool for proliferation..BRILLIANT!!)

Having been born in the USA in the late Fifties I was blessed/cursed with parents who had an eye for all things worldly and an attachment to the media.
So it makes sense my consumption would be total ...

my first F1 Experience

I remember either in 1966/67 ABC television in the USA relayed( live or 'as' live) massive amounts of The 24 hours of Le-Mans?
Now, while I was not allowed to stay up past 10pm at the tender age of eight so Frog Marched to bed I was.
Latter I snuck downstairs and fell asleep on the couch to what was a black and white screen with dots of headlights streaking accross the screen like blurred comets...Playing away for hours at a time....

Incredulous,... my parents were

The first GP I recall aired was the '70 Monaco event(Brabham in the hay bale on the last corner..etc)
it was shown in a program called Wide World of Sports
This same program will show the 2002 Monaco Grand Prix

Progress?...
Not here amongst the great unwashed
Jp

[Gary C]

'So, who or what os EUROVISION now then, who has all that old film????'
Eurovision is not a TV company. It/was a company that routes TV signals around Europe. For the recordings of the races, you'd have to contact the individual TV companies in the countries they were held in (this is pre-Bernie of course), if they still have the recordings that is!!

[scheivlak]

How about the Dutch coverage? I remember complete live coverage of the Monaco GP in 1967 , the fascinating 1970 German GP at the Hockenheimring without chicanes, and the stunning 1972 Monaco GP - JP Beltoise's piece de resistance. I think several Dutch GPs were shown live in their entirety in those years - but I was mostly there on the spot......
And I remember a fascinating highlights presentation of the wet 1966 Belgian GP in "Studio Sport" that me an instant Jochen Rindt fan.... despite(?) being a Surtees/Ferrari fan even earlier on.

[Vitesse2]

Originally posted by Gary C
'So, who or what os EUROVISION now then, who has all that old film????'
Eurovision is not a TV company. It/was a company that routes TV signals around Europe. For the recordings of the races, you'd have to contact the individual TV companies in the countries they were held in (this is pre-Bernie of course), if they still have the recordings that is!!

Or somewhere unlikely ... "lost" BBC programmes have turned up in Malta, Cyprus and other strange places, including garden sheds! Countries which took feeds of these may have VT sitting in their vaults, unrecognised ....

[Gary C]

Absolutely.............
Saying that, last week I managed to buy some home movie film that was shot at Indianapolis in the early 60's (up to about 67 I think), I've yet to receive it, but it MAY be good stuff (I'm just praying it wasn't shot from the back of the grandstands...........)

[nmansellfan]

Vitesse2, i agree with you on the 'lost tapes' thing.
Probably there's also something about the FIA having ownership of GP broadcasts, doesnt matter who hosted them (BBC, ABC, RTL etc.) so they cant discard or destroy them without the FIA's permission. This is just a guess, but it might be right. If it is, then It will explain why you hardly ever see clips of old GP's on television, the broadcaster probably has to ask the FIA for permission (and pay truckloads of cash) to show it!

Dolomite, i've also seen clips of the '67 Italian GP on the BBC a while back, and theres also clips of it on Murray Walkers 'Murrays Motorsports Spectacular' video, which only came out a couple of years ago. The clip has been re-dubbed by Murray im sure, but i saw the same clip on the BBC about ten years ago and it had Murrays original commentary on it, it must have been one of his earlier F1 commentaries. Fantastic race, Murray getting hyperactive as usual...

[Rob29]

Actually,I seem to see a lot of old clips of F1 on TV. Try channels like 'Life 'or MotorsTV' I doubt that Bernie's companies have any rights to material before 1982.They would be beween the local host broadcaters and the race organizer.FIA did not involve it's self in financial matters. Don't think anyone has mentioned 1958 when a 15min film of each race was shown about mid-week of each race.

[dolomite]

Originally posted by nmansellfan
Dolomite, i've also seen clips of the '67 Italian GP on the BBC a while back, and theres also clips of it on Murray Walkers 'Murrays Motorsports Spectacular' video, which only came out a couple of years ago. The clip has been re-dubbed by Murray im sure, but i saw the same clip on the BBC about ten years ago and it had Murrays original commentary on it, it must have been one of his earlier F1 commentaries. Fantastic race, Murray getting hyperactive as usual...

You're partly right, I have on on video both clips as shown on BBC circa 1990 with the original commentary, which was Raymond Baxter in '67 and Murray in '69. The programme including these clips was called 'Grand Prix 500' made to commemorate the 500th world championship GP.

[LittleChris]

I've got it on tape as well. Nigel Roebuck does the commentary I believe.

[Schummy]

I will try to recover from memory...

In Spain, I remember watching F1 "conciously" for the first time in GP Spain'69, and from that year on I think every GP Spain was broadcasted in "free" TV (except in the last seasons! )

I remember seeing that glorious Monaco'70 and as far as I remember, Monaco was always showed every year (again except last seasons...). I loosely remember some Britain GPs (one Stewart-Ickx in Brands, for example, with that wonderful sliding thru Clearways they did in that epoch), I remember the Schekter's Big Bang pile-up in Silverstone, when he was yet a wild younger. I think along several years we had in Spain coverage of GP Spain (when it existed), Monaco and Britain.

I don't remember well when a whole season was broadcasted for the first time but I remember the entertaining 85 season (Prost-Alboreto, first Lotus season for Senna, etc). That year I began to tape (almost) every F1 race (often with dismail picture quality due to local problems).

Quality of commentary was usually laughable, with honorable exceptions. The best ones was when we had drivers doing some talking (Campos, Pérez-Sala, Pareja, etc). I remember 1994 season as one when commentary was so (unintendedly) amusing that it was virtually a comedy more than a sport. Sadly, the low point was Imola'94 when commentators went so light-heartly about all the weekend that it was eerily shocking. I can remember one reporter in central studio announcing with a standard semi-smile about Senna having a brain surgery and in a hopeless state It points out how low profile has got F1 in Spain in comparison with others sports or even motorbike racing.

I recent times we have got zero F1 coverage in free TV, and this year we hace got a lowest point with no coverage at all free or not... But, be happy, we have a lot of soccer in every thinkable form

[fines]

Originally posted by Schummy
I recent times we have got zero F1 coverage in free TV, and this year we hace got a lowest point with no coverage at all free or not... But, be happy, we have a lot of soccer in every thinkable form

Why would you bother? We have F1 on at least two channels here in Germany, but I don't want to fall asleep on Sunday afternoons. Ah yes, and that strange game with one ball and two fishing nets... it's popular over here, too! But as to why, I never understood...

[nmansellfan]

Jackpot dolomite, 'Grand Prix 500' was the one. I think after a while the programme could be bought on tape as well, under a different name. A friend had it but discovered it was the same one that had been on TV a while back, and so he swapped it for 'The Road to Phoenix 91' which had that great on-board lap of Senna at Monaco in the McLaren Honda. Which brings me to...

When was the first on board lap shown on TV coverage? My guess is maybe '80 or '81, something like that.

One final thing, does anyone know when Raymond Baxter's last commentary was?

[fines]

Originally posted by nmansellfan
When was the first on board lap shown on TV coverage? My guess is maybe '80 or '81, something like that.

I believe it was Senna's Lotus at Monaco practice in '86. Camera mounted atop of the roll-over bar.

[LittleChris]

Searching my somewhat befuddled memory cells, didn't Renault run Phillipe Strieff in a 3rd car at Estoril in about 1983 to test an on-board camera during the race, although I can't remember whether the results went on air at the time ?!?

[man]

I think Johnny Dumfries in the Lotus was really the first time on board camera shots were used in live coverage in 1986. Renault had one in 1985 but was hardly used. Tyrrell also has on board camera in 1986 with Streiff. Its a shame F1 didn't have the type of coverage then and in years before that it does have now regarding on board cameras etc.

[Jim Thurman]

The on board camera on the third Renault (Phillipe Strieff) was at the European GP at Nurburgring in '85...first F1 champ race on the "new" 'ring.

I always thought the 1970 Spanish GP at Jarama was one of the first available for European television. Now, that's not to say that each country picked up the feed...but, still, I thought I read that was the first uplinked to satellite.

When I get the chance, I'll add some personal memories/recollections of the sorry state of U.S. F1 telecasts. The earlier post on that featured some spot on comments.


Jim Thurman

[dolomite]

The earliest test of an onboard TV camera was on Patrese's Brabham at Monza in 1982. It was mentioned in Autosport at the time but I don't remember if any of the footage was actually shown on TV.

[Rob29]

Originally posted by Jim Thurman


I always thought the 1970 Spanish GP at Jarama was one of the first available for European television. Now, that's not to say that each country picked up the feed...but, still, I thought I read that was the first uplinked to satellite.



Jim Thurman

Much earlier than that Jim.1959 Monaco was seen live in UK via Eurovision. I believe 55 Monaco was available but not taken up by the BBC,which was the only channel in UK at that time and they did not show ANY sport on Sundays!
First racing live from USA was 1966 Indy 500,but for that you had to go to a theatre where it was projected on the screen in black & white.I remember rushing from Crystal Palace F2 to Finsbury Park to see it.