My993C2

We fans of F1 here in North America really do get the short end of the stick when it comes to TV coverage. But I guess beggars can't be too choosy. Here in Canada I usually have two options to watch the race.

1) Speed TV

2) TSN which carries the BBC feed of the race.

Speed TV usually gives us a 30 minute pre-race show (not bad, we don't really need more), then Speed TV gives us the race. It's the post race where Speed TV does us a disservice. Most of the time Speed TV does show the podium celebration and does show the driver interviews. But Speed TV has been known to cut away immediately after the race ends to bring us their 4 hour NASCAR pre-race show.

My other option is TSN (which is Canada's version of ESPN). TSN has no pre-race show, they cut immediately to the BBC race footage moments before the race starts, and then for the post race you are lucky if they show the podium celebration and interviews before TSN drops the BBC feed in favor of some baseball coverage, or whatever other sports highlight TSN wants to show.

I only bring this up because I just finished watching the BBC's entire footage (from a download) of the 2010 European Grand Prix from Valencia where Webber flipped his car after hitting Kovalainen and the post race show from this race was funny as hell. If it wasn't for this download I never would have seen the exchanges between Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard concerning who was at fault for Webber's flip (Coulthard giving you the driver's perspective, Jordan giving you the team owner's perspective ... both of which had valid arguments for their side of the story) and the really funny part was when they were interviewing Christian Horner after the race. Jordan comments to Horner "I am afraid I am going to have to disagree with you" and Horner's response to Jordan was "Eddie I often disagree with your choice of shirts that you wear" and Eddie is silent. LOL

It was a classic ...

As I said, beggars can't be choosy, I do have two options to watch the races. But we here in North America really do get screwed over from some of the good post race footage our British counterparts likely take for granted.

ilko

I only watch the BBC version. They have a very high quality team that can't be beat. Even the practice sessions are full of incredibly detailed information (I just finished watching the 2nd practice from Shanghai where Anthony Davidson was on the money for every move and off-track excursion of the cars). And of course the banter between Eddie and the rest of the guys is priceless.

TTLATION

If you can understand any of Coulthard's banter.

Too heavy an accent for my liking, not to mention that he was an arrogant jerk during his career.

Jarez Mifkin

You guys got a link to it? Is it available live during the race?

ilko

Not available during the race, but you can watch in on BBC's iPlayer web site with the appropriate browser proxy. Which is fine by me, since I rarely have time to watch the races as they happen. Last weekend was an exception and I watched the Malaysian GP live at 10AM but I was in Europe...

I've been listening to Coulthard for a third year in a row now and his accent isn't nearly as bad as fellow Scottsman, Force India rookie Di Resta. I've never considered Coulthard arrogant, quite the opposite.

Serge944

I love the speed trio of commentators: Varsha, Matchett and Hobbs.

Kein_Ersatz

The thebox.bz for full F1 torrents along with, TG, FG, BTCC, WRC, and other UK auto coverage. Usually available within hours of F1 sessions/race.

The Brits do auto TV stuff very well, puts Speed to shame, but then again what doesn't.

Flying Finn

I think the Speed commentators are pretty good bunch but the coverage indeed lacks, especially after the race and quzali coverage too.

You can't beat BBC, just watched China quali live (I'm in London) and it's always great, very knowledgeable (Brundle & DC are a great pair) and being British, lacks the unnecessary PC. And I can somehow understand Coulthard fine. I wish BBC America would broadcast it.

MJSpeed

+1...several times a year while in Europe (mainly Italy) I get to watch their F1 coverage. It's awesome! Coverage starts in the morning and ends at some point in the evening with a roundtable of former drivers with no PC filters whatsoever. Patrese, Capelli, Alesi or any other driver whose last name ends in a vowel, etc...

I was in Europe last year for the German GP and man the post race interview with Stefano Domenicali was hilarious!

Speed TV could do a much better post quali/race coverage; just have Will Buxton walk around and interview all the protagonists and/or anybody else he can find, then do the F1 Debrief show live and oh yeah opinions are wanted (**** all that PC ****).

Pre-race/quali have Machett do tech segments with different teams as well as interviews with the engineers/technical directors and then go to grid coverage with Will Buxton.

chakka

I think it's ridiculous that Speed doesn't replay qualifing on Saturday mornings after the live coverage. ONLY coverage I see listed for this weekend is at 2am! They aren't even replaying the race on Sunday! No tivo in my house so I don't get to see them. But for sure, Gears, two guy garage, chop cut rebuild and other highly watched re-runs are on Saturday/Sunday mornings.........don't even get me going on Nascar EVERYTHING coverage. I think I saw coverage of Kyle Busch taking a crap with a post BM interview with DW.....

the flyin' scotsman

And what accent do you have?

The live quali and race Speed coverage is blacked out on our Satellite service here so we have TSN which is the truncated BBC feed. The full BBC feed is excellent as broadcast covers all the pre and post race, strategies etc.

I do like the Speed coverage also when it can be seen in replay, like the guys banter......Hobbs is halairious

gbuff

No, but it's on tomorrow (Monday) @ noon.....I'll be taping that one. Went to Mid-Ohio this weekend w/ OVR and completely forgot about the race...

avader906

Also recommend BBC (channel 1) coverage of both quali and race. You would need a (free) UK VPN provider to get the UK IP address.

m73m95

Another 1 for the BBC feed. Not only do they have better broadcasters, but they seem to have more access.
I swear the SPEED guys are watching the a video of the race on mute, and voicing over it...It just seems fake to me. Steve Matchet (sp?) and David Hobbs can be funny though.

I download from Racing Underground. Martin Brundle, and David Coulthard FTW (And Lee McKenzie is hot too!!)

Phokaioglaukos

+1 for the BBC coverage. Worth getting a UK VPN connection to watch on the BBC iPlayer (I have). So many teams have a big English connection that the BBC is really the way to watch, an hour pre-race show, the full race, and plenty of after-race interviews (at least with all the British teams, the winner and often Michael) and commentary--all without commercials. If you are in the UK you can also get even more, and less politically correct, commentary on the F1 Forum by pushing the red button on your TV remote.