Will F1 get DVD box sets like the WRC?

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WRC DVD Box Set
Duke Video has just brought out DVD box sets of the World Rally Championship season reviews and Le Mans 24 Hours races.

They look great and they’re going on my Xmas list. But are we ever going to be able to get past official F1 season reviews on DVD?

Formula One Management took until 2003 to start offering F1 season reviews on DVD. Before that there were special editions of the 2000 and 2001 seasons available on DVD, but the 2001 review was only available with the PlayStation 2 Formula 1 game.

A series of F1 DVDs covering the 1970-1980 seasons has also been released by Brunswick Films. This period was before FOM’s monopoly of Grand Prix video coverage.

But the 1981-1999 and 2002 F1 seasons can only be bought on video tape. And many of those are very hard to track down.

So why hasn’t FOM got around to offering those seasons on DVD? You’d think it would be easy money for them.

They should re-master the coverage and offer both the original commentaries and updated versions available as different audio tracks. (The original commentaries on these videos vary between the excellent – Clive James, 1982, 1984 and 1986 – and the painfully bad – Brian Kriesky, 1983.)

And what about emerging alternatives such as Blu-Ray (which appears to have buried HD-DVD)? Or web downloads?

It’s the usual story of Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM being utterly hopeless at promoting F1 and taking advantage of new (or, in this case, old) technologies.

Do you want to see the official F1 season reviews available on DVD? What other formats should F1 season reviews be available in?

Read reviews of all the past official F1 season videos and DVDs: Official F1 Season Reviews

Buy WRC and Le Mans DVD box sets

You can buy the WRC and Le Mans DVD box sets from Amazon via the links above. F1 Fanatic earns a commission from sales generated via these links, but you are not charged any extra.

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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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24 comments on “Will F1 get DVD box sets like the WRC?”

  1. Why FOM didn’t embrace DVD and the web as distribution channels is a mystery to me. Unbelieveable that they keep on promoting TV only. While I understand that TV will probably remain the most important channel, I reckon even casual fans would buy DVDs or (pay for) download(able) videos.

  2. it is crazy. maybe FOM has lost all the mastertapes.

  3. One of the early 90s tapes had a god-awful commentary by Jonathan Ross which completely ruined the whole thing. According to Jonathan, one of the drivers on the grid was Andre Du-Cheese-Airies.
    .
    If they ever get around to transferring the tapes to DVD, perhaps they can overdub Mr Ross’ feeble efforts.

  4. dream on, FOM hasn’t even made it out of the stone age!

  5. FOM taking advantage of technology? Hahaha!

    If it took them until 2007 to broadcast in widescreen (!) then it should be another 10 years before they finally release the old reviews on this so-called magic that is the DVD.

  6. Personally all this new-fangled technology is the work of the devil, I tell thee! Those flickering images that show us scenes of far-away events like some satanic telescope can only be the work of diabolical sorcery!

    Burn them! Burn them at the stake!

  7. ‘And what about emerging alternatives such as Blu-Ray (which appears to have buried HD-DVD)?’

    HD-DVD is dead. Toshiba (the creator) has abandoned it.

    ‘Burn them! Burn them at the stake!’

    Burn them! Burn them to DVD!

    :P

  8. I would LOVE to see F1 go to a full season boxed set of DVD and Blu-Ray. Each race, with the team radio as an alternate audio track (like director commentary on many DVD’s) would add some really cool insight to the races. Post race analysis from the drivers, team managers, etc would make the fans really happy, i think.

  9. I would love to see the season reviews on DVD. I managed to get hold of a 1998 VHS Tape but thats about it.

  10. Chris Georgacas (USA)
    18th September 2008, 19:17

    Couldn’t agree more. There is undoubtedly a worldwide market for comprehensive DVD box set reviews of F1 seasons; FOM would make money, increase long-term fan following of the sport, and wet the appetites of new fans (including the new markets Bernie wants to create). The content potential is enormous: complete race video feed; on-board video; radio communications; commentators (live broadcast and/or after the fact); select practice and full qualifying video; award ceremonies; post-race news conferences; special features on: technical changes, stewards’ decisions, teams’ personnel changes, landmark events (for the 2008 season, think: Barrichello’s record starts, Phil Hill’s recent death, 40th anniversary of Jim Clark’s death, to name a few). Furthermore, the historical presentation of all available video (galleries of lots of still pictures) of Formula 1 season by season since 1950 is a tantalizing idea (an outstanding model might be the SpacecraftFilms DVD treatment of NASA material). One day, the powers that be will recognize the sporting and financial benefits of such a DVD project. For us current fans, let’s hope it happens before we’re dead.

  11. Indeed it is strange they don’t embrace dvd’s… it would be easy money for sure.
    Those 80’s dvds would sell hard!
    But as said above it took ages to start WS broadcasts.
    F1 is top tech… but not on all fronts.

    Look at nascar/irl and their sites, it’s much more interactive.
    And give the teams some of the cash the digital stuff brings in and the sports will be healthier.. cause maybe bernie has earned enough and doesn’t want more money? :)

  12. I’ve been given a few season reviews and to be honest they’re not as good as they could be.
    The editing and commentary could be vastly improved.

    It’d be nice if they could find a decent production company, get all of the old footage remastered & put together a BluRay and DVD collection.

    The sound on the F1 games is great due to the surround sound being used to it’s fullest, imagine how good it would be with real F1 engines, combine this with some remastered footage in HD and you’ve just given me a reason to quit work for six months.

    They could also do a full set of interviews with all of the surviving drivers & team members giving their opinions and memories of past seasons as well as some technical development documentaries showing how the cars have evolved over the years.

    F1 is the greatest show on Earth, why is still presented & sold like some 80’s style cocktail ?

  13. Funnily enough, it was searching for the existence of such box sets that I found this site a few months ago and set about watching all the video stuff you have on here.

    I agree, it’s baffling that you can’t buy box sets of, say, each decade of F1 racing. It’s such an obvious thing to do and would make the wish list of just about every F1 fan out there.

    Sort it out Bernie!

  14. Are you lot blind?? I’ve seen the 2008 season compilation on sale at Woolies. It had Massa’s car on the front, with him holding the trophy………

  15. It is utterly insane how far Bernie and his band of merry men lag behind on the teck-a-nogi-cal front.

    The only thing that keeps me going on the off season is watching my V8 Supercar DVD’s, and reliving the best bits. That, and youtube.

    I must say I am surprised that Bernie has left such a golden opportunity for more $$$ begging. He could release the boxsets and charge sponsor money for the hardcovers – thus we could have the Santander Season 2008 highlights or the ING Best of ’06 complete with corporate logo :P

  16. To me it’s a shame that F1, the pinnacle of motorsports, would not offer their reviews on the best technology to date. While blu-ray is still catching up to DVD, why not release both. Personally I’d buy the blue-ray. If they offered it for past seasons I’d most likely buy those too.

    However, the price they would charge with Bernie still at the helm would be more than I’d pay. So until they start catering to the newer generation of multimedia users, I’ll stick to my memories. Maybe by the time I can’t remember anymore I’ll be able to watch some old races and enjoy them again.

  17. did i read right?
    ‘web downloads’?
    classic,
    i have all the season reviews and love them all, in fact i watch them all in order over the off season in order to keep my sanity!
    not only was ’07 the 1st in widescreen, it was also the 1st dvd to have the sound in-sync!
    watch onboards from ’06 review and u’ll see what i mean.
    on race reports anyways, i think the qualy laps are ok.
    speaking of which, instead of having just 1 quali lap for quali highlights,
    y not show the last 2mins from q3 (and other incidents during quali) to show them cross the line and see the grid shuffle at the end of quali, a way to relive the most exciting part of race weekends these days!
    on the ’07 review they only did that at the last round in brazil!

  18. What I would really love (but doubt will ever happen), is to have DVDs of the F1 races with Murray Walker’s commentary. Surely the BBC and ITV could release their archive footage onto DVD/Blu-ray? I’ve never owned an F1 season review, but I doubt that it would ever beat Murray’s broadcasts.

  19. It’s a shame for another aspect in that many great races and seasons will only be read about and, youtube vigilance prevailing, may be lost for viewing pleasure – until Bernie does something about it!

    I used to record as many races as I could, god knows where those tapes are now, I’d happily watch them all.

  20. It’s totally unbelievable that you can’t purchase full F1 seasons. I’d love selected seasons from the past but you can’t get them for love nor money. Yet ANOTHER area in which Ecclestone is TOTALLY FAILING FANS.

  21. My Father in law wants the F1 DVD 2000 – 2009 box set.

    I take it he has seen this advertised on T.V somewhere,

    Does anyone know where I can buy it?

    Googled around but doesnt seem to throwing up any links!

    Thanks in advance

    Wayne

  22. I have pretty much every race available on DVD, the quality wont be as good as if Bernie decided to release the stuff on BR or DVD. But I have all the footage, I’m in the UK so most of my stuff comes from BBC but I have always tried to find the best quality versions I can :)

    There is a list of what I have on DVD at the bottom of this post, and if anyone wants to contact me about them please feel free to do so at this e-mail,
    flugplaz@gmail.com

    List of DVDs
    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZY5CDEA5

    Cheers

  23. i’ve bought a lot of old f1 races from oldf1dvds.com

    they do blueray versions as well but i’m not sure if the quality is any better or not

  24. There are rumours of a blu ray version of the 2011 season but what would be better than the original vhs seasson reviews from 1981 onwards would be the BBC versions with Murray and James. We know they are there as the BBC have been showing shortened highlights on the red button the past 3 years and the Senna film used FOM archive. You can gonto i tunes and buy a Monty Python sketch for 1.49 each. Why not Dijon 1979, Silverstone 1987, Spa 1998 etc etc. The BBC has already done the editing.

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