[TMD_24]

With today's dramatic news, Sky had a special live F1 Show at 6pm. Not many programmes that I have seen/heard about have not come from the new studio in recent weeks, but this did. A bit unfortunate the news became official at 7pm, just after they went off air.

www.youtube.com 

It went out at 6pm but was actually pre-recorded from earlier, you could see from when Craig Slater put his lockscreren on and the time was "16:28" and the link to Rachel Brookes outside the Mercedes HQ was a bit bright for 6pm.

[RhysJR]

It went out at 6pm but was actually pre-recorded from earlier, you could see from when Craig Slater put his lockscreren on and the time was "16:28" and the link to Rachel Brookes outside the Mercedes HQ was a bit bright for 6pm.

Ahh, okay. Lucky it wasn't on air at 7pm then.

[JK08]

Natalie is the only person there who looks like they know how to sit on a sofa. Everyone else is obviously used to standing around the paddock! Maybe a desk wouldn't have gone amiss.

[RhysJR]

F1 this week announced that the schedule for sprint weekends will be changing again for this season.

Sprint qualifying will be on Friday afternoons/evening, with the sprint "race" on Saturday mornings. The full race qualifying will be on Saturday afternoons/evenings, with the race alone on Sundays.

I'm not sure if these changes are for the best. Saturday afternoons and Friday evenings were far better timeslots, with Saturday morning a particulary poor timelsot.

One benificary of this change will presumably be the Channel 4 highlights, which barely covered the traditional qualifying last season when it was on Fridays.

www.formula1.com 

F1 Sprint format tweak agreed ahead of return for 2024 season | Formula 1®
F1 Sprint will return for a fourth season in 2024 and a format tweak is set to m…
  Source: www.formula1.com

[bkman1990]

The British Grand Prix will remain at Silverstone for another 10 years until 2034.

www.skysports.com 

British Grand Prix: Formula 1 agrees deal to keep Silverstone on calendar until …
The British Grand Prix will remain on Formula 1s calendar until 2034; a 10-year …
  Source: www.skysports.com

[RhysJR]

For the first time, David Croft will not commentate on every race for Sky Sports this season. He will miss the races in Imola, Austria and Azerbaijan, and will be replaced by Harry Benjamin. Benjamin is currently the most frequent lead commentator on BBC Radio's coverage, and commentated the kids commentaries last season.

Although a very minor change, a significant change as Croft has not missed a race for any reason (planned or otherwise) in the twelve seasons Sky have covered.

www.independent.co.uk 

Sky Sports F1 make commentator change with David Croft to miss three races | The…
Exclusive: Sky broadcaster ‘Crofty’ has not missed a race for Sky since the chan…
  Source: www.independent.co.uk

[RhysJR]

For the first time, David Croft will not commentate on every race for Sky Sports this season. He will miss the races in Imola, Austria and Azerbaijan, and will be replaced by Harry Benjamin. Benjamin is currently the most frequent lead commentator on BBC Radio's coverage, and commentated the kids commentaries last season.

Although a very minor change, a significant change as Croft has not missed a race for any reason (planned or otherwise) in the twelve seasons Sky have covered.

www.independent.co.uk 

Officialy confirmed below. The rumours of a new star pundit have not transpired. But good to hear Bernie Collins will be appearing more often this season, she was a great addition last season. No other changes by the looks of it.

x.com 

---

Barring a few team branding changes, the world feed graphics look the same.

www.youtube.com 

[Neil Jones]

I appreciate 24 races is a heck of a lot of talking, but I can't help wondering if if it had occurred under his tenure, would Murray Walker have commentated on 24 races? Martin Brundle already doesn't do the full seasons at the previous lenghts I notice so maybe Walker wouldn't have done so either.

Of course how high can the number of races in a season go? How long before we get to 25? 30? 32?? With a season that runs pretty much ten months of the year, how long before we get to weekly races?

How much is too much?

[WillPS]

Barring a few team branding changes, the world feed graphics look the same

FOM usually hold new graphic packages back until the first race weekend; in 2020 the pre-season practice used the previous year's graphics.

[SuperSajuuk]

For the first time, David Croft will not commentate on every race for Sky Sports this season. He will miss the races in Imola, Austria and Azerbaijan, and will be replaced by Harry Benjamin. Benjamin is currently the most frequent lead commentator on BBC Radio's coverage, and commentated the kids commentaries last season.

Although a very minor change, a significant change as Croft has not missed a race for any reason (planned or otherwise) in the twelve seasons Sky have covered.

www.independent.co.uk 

I wonder if Crofty has other pre-arranged committments that have to take priority as 3 races seems very low if they were trying to plan for the future with "new voices" to the Sky F1 team. The fact the stand-in is the lead commentator of the BBC coverage feels like they just asked him if he wouldn't mind filling for them on 3 races, which are conveniently all European-based.

Wil be interesting to see how Harry Benjamin handles being on the primary UK broadcaster, I'm sure Brundle will be there for at least Imola and Austria though.....