planetf1.com

I was just wondering as to why these are not televised? Or are they? I foolishly booked off the 5th-8th as I had extra holiday accumulated; as I thought they were televised on Sky! Doh..

Also found this regarding the RB9 - thought it was interesting..

Gary Anderson
BBC F1 technical analyst
"I was expecting the new Red Bull to be more different from last year's than it is.

"They have retained the slim nose from last year - it has a very small cross-sectional area. That is important for overall downforce as the thicker the nose the bigger the volume of air it displaces, and the more it detracts from the effectiveness of the front wing.

"The front wing is similar to the one with which they ended last year although the mounting points have been moved to ensure they pass the tougher deflection tests this year. And the endplates are not extra exciting. I expected them to do more work there.

"They have retained push-rod front suspension, rather than following Ferrari down the pull-rod route, which has a marginal aerodynamic advantage.

"The leading edge of the sidepods are quite narrow. That will work with a revised rear bodywork, which appears to end earlier than last year's, to enhance the airflow through the critical 'coke-bottle' area at the rear and increase downforce.

"Overall, I'm not seeing the steps forward I saw on the McLaren, on which everywhere you looked you thought: 'Yep, that's better.' On the Red Bull, that's less so. More of it looks the same."

#F12013 - hurry up!

Every bloody year.....

It's not televised because it won't make for good television. It's not like a practice session where the teams have to get stuff done in 90 mins. They have eight hours each day which means there is a lot of inactivity on the circuit. The cars go out and pootle around testing stuff, not practising for a race so there's no competition. The teams are also allowed to pull down the garage shutters when the car comes in so there isn't much to see in the pitlane unlike at a race weekend. Oh and the moment someone bins the car in to the gravel the session is red flagged. Finalliy the level of camera coverage at the circuit is nowhere near what you get at a race weekend. The TV companies (including FOM and Sky) will individually send only one or two camera crews for library shots and interviews. So even if anything exciting did occur on track the chances of you seeing it on TV is slim.

In essence it's actually quite dull.

Sky F1 have the best idea with a daily 15 min roundup at 2100 followed by one of Ted Kravitz's excellent notebooks.

It's not televised because theres little to no point. They have 8 hours in a day. They take out 1 hour for lunch, they don't do much between 8-930 in the morning, and usually finish early. And then even, they don't have to do anything during the day. They spend long hours analysing data, putting new parts on and testing things out. It'd make for boring TV.

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Formula Mercedes

Alonso

Ah cheers! I see a fair few points there, had not thought of it like that..

I have only watched F1 religiously in the past three years, and actually become involved in the sport so you will have to excuse my ignorance.

I was convinced I watched the test at Jerez last year?

You could probably find odd bits and clips of the cars on youtube fairly easily. News channels such as sky sports news will have some background footage in the background of news reports. I doubt you'd watch the whole thing live, I doubt they have the full camera crews that they usually have a race weekends.

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Formula Mercedes

Alonso

I remember watching it live on the bbc 3-4 years back. Maybe I have it wrong tho, but I am fairly sure I watched live coverage before the first race weekend.

The BBC never covered testing live.

I dont really want or demand television coverage, but FIA and FOM should seriously think about live streaming the event on internet for dedicated fans. I would love to check on it every now and then to see how cars are looking on the track.
If not for free live video streaming, give special access to those who buy their ridiculously pricey Android and Apple official timing app. That will actually make me think about buying that waste of a money app. Even just simple SD 360P youtube broadcast will do.

how long till it starts? i really want to follow this on twitter/live updates

It doesn't make sense, and the fans can't make sense of it. The teams will be secretive and at this point in time, lap times mean nothing. You don't know if they are doing installation laps, what components are being tested, all you see is cars leaving the garage, trundling around, then returning to their garage.

I would be happy watching a Pitlane camera and Ted chatting all day. Call me sad, but I live for watching F1; regardless of activity.. !

Testing will never, ever, be broadcast live, in any country, until the FOM sends out it's broadcast team to cover the sessions in the same way it covers a race weekend.

Theoretically an individual channel (i.e Sky, BBC) could set up cameras around the circuit in the same way FOM does, but this would be ridiculously expensive. No broadcaster would do that for such a niche programme. Not only that, but the broadcast would be significantly inferior to a race weekend due to lack of onboard cameras and repeated stoppages.

The only way anybody could have seen live testing is if they were at the circuit.

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I don't follow F1 so I don't know what I'm talking about

All valid points as to why it isn't televised, but it blatantly will be soon. A lot of people thought it was crazy when they started radio commentary on Friday test sessions, now full Friday coverage including mobile camera crews in the pits is a cornerstone of many of our viewing schedules. The only reason I can see not to day is the expense of getting the cameras and personnel in place. Give it a couple of years, if Sky don't have something like a two hour highlights package at the end of each day I'll be amazed.

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I went skating on your name,
And by tracing it twice,
I fell through the ice,
of Alice

Yup, it does not need to be pretty or slick telecast. some stationary camera around the circuits broadcasting live on internet is fine. Maybe make it completely interactive so user can select which camera to watch and when. Lot of journalists are already there. Mainly those from main broadcasters do go to tests. Some minor snipets as commentary will do. If not, video + continuous live timings scrolling at bottom or on left hand side of screen will be fine.
As I said, it does not have to be full fledged live TV broadcast. Its age of web, these people should start using it for non main events like testing. Teams are learning, they moved to online launches for pre season publicity and fans like things like those. I am sure many will like this option of just watching some testing. We are in 21st century for gods sake, we just need to use available tools.

And according to Benson's comments this morning on BBCF1; it seems this year has seen a far busier first day of testing than in previous years..
Like many have said; it surely wouldn't cost that much to televise it via remote cameras and the Internet. Most of the Sky Sports F1 team are there anyway!

they would be much dead air as the teams mess about in the garage with their cars.
practice isnt even that interesting most of the time, so testing would be miles worse.

Seems like sky F1 will broadcast the testing live over the four days, it won't be all day I believe it starts 4pm. While it may be boring as the action will be limited it may lead to complete live testing next year.

Edit:

Only the last test at Barcelona before the first race

Ted doesn't really have anything to talk about, at least not for hours

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