“Kimi made it at last” (F1 2007 season DVD)

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Formula One Management guard the rights to show Formula 1 video with utmost jealousy.

The cost of buying and broadcasting Formula 1 footage is so extortionately expensive that even major television news channels will only show the briefest glimpses of race action.

The end-of-season video reviews remain the only official way to watch the highlights of a previous year.

So how good a job have they done of re-telling the high drama of the 2007 season, and the battle to the end between Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton?

The official F1 season review runs to three hours and 20 minutes, and has half a dozen extra features including pieces on Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen.

Previously the reviews have been distribute by Duke Video but this year FOM has switched to Lionsgate. It’s not obvious why – whenever I’ve bought videos from Duke in the past I’ve found their service to be excellent.

What they should have changed is who actually edits the material together, because once again they’ve done a sub-par job.

As ever, this is especially galling because FOM have a monopoly on the right to produce F1 video. They have access to all the extra footage that doesn’t get shown on the conventional television broadcast (such as the onboard shot of Fernando Alonso’s crash at Fuji Speedway which you can watch here).

There’s nothing wrong with the footage itself – in fact it’s excellent. The problem is how it is put together.

The loud and intrusive music is very distracting. It seems to have no relevance to the action and starts and stops for no obvious reason. It’s as if they’ve let a toddler play with the sound deck. It drowns out the cars and as there’s only one audio track you can’t turn it off.

The commentary is delivered by Ben Edwards (who is a fine commentator) but as usual they have him pretending he’s commenting on the action live. This leads to various awkward grammatical contortions and some painfully embarrassing moments – especially when he’s pretending the drama of Robert Kubica’s crash is unfolding for the first time right in front of him.

These silly mistakes are repeated every year and are so off-putting I invariably watch the new season reviews once before chucking them on the pile and never bother to watch them again. Whereas I’ve played the better videos from the 1980s and 1990s so many times some of them have worn out.

It’s a shame because as a review of the season the footage is balanced, thorough and entertaining. The action gets replayed from every conceivable angle and the developments at the rear of the field are covered as well as the race at the front.

Of course 2007 was all about controversy and the programme makers have done a good job of handling the various incidents as even-handedly as possible. Although I felt the tension between Alonso and McLaren was downplayed a bit.

There were a couple of other disappointing omissions, like Anthony Davidson’s qualifying lap at Istanbul, and Heikki Kovalainen’s exceptional drive at Montreal, which largely get ignored. Much of the exciting Nico Rosberg-Jenson Button battle at Monza is also cut and the off-season is largely ignored.

Otherwise it’s the same old story. The season review is only going to be as good as the season was, in which case we’re talking about a handful of good races and a few really wretched ones (which, happily, get far less coverage).

The vast potential for this kind of product remains completely untapped. Where’s the multi-disc box set collectors’ edition for the hardcore fan? Why is there absolutely no supporting material in the box?

And above all, where’s the off button for that wretched music?

RaceFans rating

Released 10th December 2007
£19.99
Lionsgate
2007

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on ““Kimi made it at last” (F1 2007 season DVD)”

  1. If i look at previous years I know you’re right.
    I keep saying the Season reviews that got free with the F1 games on ps2 some years back are the best i have seen, great great sound and multi angle.. just love it!!

  2. They were quite good although I remember the menus were very clunky. You can buy the 2000 one but I think you can only get the 2001 one with the game:

    2000 F1 DVD
    2001 F1 DVD

  3. “The cost of buying and broadcasting Formula 1 footage is so extortionately expensive that even major television news channels will only show the briefest glimpses of race action.”

    not sure it’s cost that’s the issue.

    FOM heavily restrict how post-race footage is used, here’s a sample from August this year:

    “Restrictions: ACCESS ALL APART FROM RACE ACTION WHICH IS AS FOLLOWS – SCHEDULED NEWS BULLETINS WHICH INCORPORATES GENERAL CURRENT AFFAIRS (BUT NOT SPORTS NEWS ONLY). NO USE AFTER 1500 GMT, JULY 27. MATERIAL SHOULD BE ONLY FOR USE BY BONA FIDE TELEVISION BROADCASTERS.
    NO OTHER USE WHATSOEVER, INCLUDING INTERNET, RADIO, & ANY OTHER FORM OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA, EXCEPT WHERE THE PRIOR WRITTEN PERMISSION OF FORMULA ONE MANAGEMENT (FOM) HAS FIRST BEEN OBTAINED.
    24-HOUR BROADCASTERS (INCLUDING CNN, SKY NEWS & BBC NEWS 24) CAN USE ACTION A MAXIMUM 3 TIMES IN ANY 12 HOUR PERIOD.
    GERMANY: BROADCASTERS MUST CLEAR WITH RTL TELEVISION GMBH BEFORE ANY USAGE.”

    there’s no cost though.

  4. Three times in 12 hours? No wonder the sport gets so little coverage.

  5. it’s worse here in oz, all we see as a race report on the news is the winner crossing the line, all we hear about quali is who has pole and where webber is regardless of where the title contenders are.
    the review is ok, but what hit me is the lack of actual “racing” we had this year! hindered further by the stupid rev limit. also hearing the traction control everywhere did ruin the onboard footage for me, none of that now tho so lets hope it stays away for i fear the fia will bring it back in a couple opf years because it’s all road car relevant.

  6. So instead of showing the footage in mainstream news, that make all the people who actually care about the sport wait until the season is over to but a sub-par over priced review. Most people will just rent it because it doesn’t deserve to be collected.

    So instead of making a ton of money and expanding the sport, they would rather make $10-20 off of what few hardcore fans there are…. Max isn’t the only problem in the sport.

  7. So instead of making a ton of money and expanding the sport, they would rather make $10-20 off of what few hardcore fans there are

    i think the restrictions are in place in order to justify the extortionate prices FOM charges to ITV etc. they wouldn’t pay what they do if the news channels could show re-runs over and over.

  8. Really good

  9. Why couldn’t the FIA employ an action movie editor (someone big time) with some F1 specialists in the room (I’m thinking the likes of,Martin Brundel and that young guy on BBC who’s part of the pre race segments, who talks very fast)and with access to all footage, all angles, onboard ect. And put together a proffessional, kick ass documentry style review, that is worth watching more than once. Without the intrusive music, that especally ruins onboard shots, where you want to hear the sound of the engine and gear changes. (No music “period” is fine with me)
    Then we would have a worthy record for future generations to look back on, and for the hardcore to watch again and again. It seems such a waste considering the amount of footage there is that never even goes to air. And (this is my on going beef with broadcasts as well) there should be more onboard footage!! with full uninterupted laps. That is what the hardcore live for!
    …It seems the FIA have more than enough cash to pull off a production of this kind (McLarens 100 mill fine over spygate would have been enough to do reviews for the next 20 years!) and they would probably profit from it in the long run as well.

  10. gadgets (be/nl)
    5th December 2011, 7:38

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