It’s Monaco Grand Prix day! Join us for live comments on the race starting one hour before the Grand Prix gets underway.
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Meet Schumi’s biggest fan (Metro F1)
“Like Michael, we were used to seeing him in red Ferrari garb, but now he’s made the switch to silver.”
F1 insider: Monaco preview (Wheels 24)
“What happened next defied belief: Briatore arrived at the electronic turnstiles at the main entrance and was granted admission. After greeting various F1 folk he sauntered off to the a silver bus used by Bernie Ecclestone as dining/hospitality area, and was again admitted. Briatore disappeared from view, then emerged an hour later with the F1 tsar and Berger. (It has long been rumoured Berger is in line for 79-year-old Ecclestone’s job when that time comes…) Meanwhile FIA president Jean Todt arrived by car at the governing body’s motorhome parked beside Bernie’s Bus, so was simultaneously in the paddock with the man he banned from the place for two-and-a-bit years just over a month ago. Obviously the word ‘ban’ has elastic meanings.”
Comment of the day
The footage of the Monaco Grand Prix qualifying supplied by FOM (see comment) was very poor as Keeper rightly points out:
They seemed to think Alonso’s sulking head was more interesting than the qualifying session.
That was disgraceful television coverage – Webber was second in Q1, second in Q2 and put in two flying laps for pole yet we saw none of it.
Instead we got to see a lap from Kubica, a bit of Button, two full laps from Buemi (despite both being 1.5secs off the pace, and the rest was Alonso’s head. Shocker!
Keeper
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Rob A!
On this day in F1
Ferrari scored a one-two in the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder in 1976, with Niki Lauda leading home Clay Regazzoni.
Although that championship is best remembered for the fight between Lauda and McLaren’s James Hunt – which Hunt won – Ferrari nonetheless won the constructors’ title that year.
sato113
16th May 2010, 0:23
‘with the man he banned from the place’
this is wrong i’m sure. Mosely banned Briatore, not Todt.
George
16th May 2010, 2:06
Was Briatore banned from attending races, or just being involved with the sport?
sato113
16th May 2010, 2:31
um, i think involved with the sport. and he wouldn’t be allowed paddock access.
Magnificent Geoffrey
16th May 2010, 0:28
Everyone ready for 78 laps of not having a clue what the yellow flags are for or why the Safety Car has been deployed untill at least a minute after the incident has occured?
Mark Hitchcock
16th May 2010, 2:07
Wouldn’t be surprised if Mr Director cuts away from some imminent overtakes or close battles to have a look at what’s going on in the pit lane a few times as well.
Gotta zoom in on the Martini advert every.single.lap as well.
Sush Meerkat
16th May 2010, 9:33
Expect long video feeds of HRT, Bernie said he’d help them out.
BasCB
16th May 2010, 15:34
Completely right there, not once did they get these moments before we saw a SC deployed.
Highpoint was the restart after the second SC, when the director switched to a replay of Baricellos car stranded on track instead of showing the top 10 getting away over the straight.
Duncan Stephen
16th May 2010, 0:40
It might be worth noting that FOM still do not produce the coverage at Monaco. It’s one of just two grands prix where the local host broadcaster still provides the coverage (the other being Japan). The coverage of qualifying (and indeed all the other sessions) in Monaco has indeed been woeful.
Einar AI
16th May 2010, 0:45
Indeed- I thought about that earlier. The FOM-produced coverage has actually been rather decent lately.
sato113
16th May 2010, 2:05
apart from bahrain where the coverage was shocking. missed a few overtakes (yes there was some!), forgot to put some graphics on screen and made a bad race even worse.
Einar AI
16th May 2010, 3:01
Yeah Bahrain wasn’t perfect. I detest when the coverage tends to concentrate on the leading drivers only – in fact this was happening quite a lot in Barcelona as well – even if there is absolutely no action at the front. I think the coverage should be more versatile – even of that means watching the backmarkers more often than the leaders. I’d personally enjoy more backmarker fights and less lap-after-lap processions of leaders. those are pointless.
Mike
16th May 2010, 7:09
Watching Lotus vs Virgin is actually rather good!
BasCB
16th May 2010, 15:35
Today we had a lot of Ferrari vs. Virgin in the first laps of the race. Not too bad as it was the only action on track at that moment.
Alonso must have been in all the on track passing moves today, inclusive being overtaken by Michael after the last corner.
Icthyes
16th May 2010, 3:28
That does make sense now you mention. Of course, had it been after Bahrain it would have made sense for it to be FOM’s fault! But after the opener I think they realised their mistake, because there’s been a lot more focus on the back-markers since then.
On a side-note, I love Japan’s coverage because of that distinctive picture resolution! Reminds me of old Super 8 film.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
16th May 2010, 8:34
Rally I thought FOM did them all now?
In that case, apologies to FOM!
wasiF1
16th May 2010, 1:47
Even I was frustrated to see Alonso so many times! I think they should have telecast more about Massa, Roseberg but they didn’t.
Rob A
16th May 2010, 2:05
Thanks for the birthday greeting Keith! Hope I get my desired present of a classic Monaco GP to watch :)
sato113
16th May 2010, 2:30
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-BBC-F1-Drinking-Game/112753062075349?v=app_2347471856&ref=ts -brilliant.
Icthyes
16th May 2010, 3:19
You’d be paralytic based on the Eddie Jordan ones alone!
Travis
16th May 2010, 2:33
I had the timing page up while watching and during those last few laps thought it must have been playing up.
I was thinking “Surely there’s an error – how could the BBC commentators not say anything about Webber’s sectors lighting up magneta”
And then sure enough while showing Kubica’s second “flying lap” Webber suddenly appears P1.
Mind you, despite being a Webber fan it would be great to see Kubica do well.
Macca
16th May 2010, 6:14
Totally agree with Keeper’s comments.
MPJ1994
16th May 2010, 6:50
And then with Ch10 cutting to ads every two seconds it just made bad coverage even worse.
I wish they would follow the BBC’s lead and show everything uninterupted.
Travis
16th May 2010, 8:37
Couldn’t agree more. The coverage here is hopeless. The only time OneHD show practise sessions are when it’s here in Melbourne.
Macca
17th May 2010, 10:54
Yere, they show Moto GP uninterupted with all the lower classes but we get ads through the race and no GP2. It’s crap.
twig
16th May 2010, 10:41
One of the most popular entries on the old forum was a list of the music BBC played at the end of qualifying and race coverage – most of us sadly made that into a playlist on the ipod and relived the memories !
With 6 races gone at the end of today I was thinking of putting up the music used this year for all to share as the list is long already as the BBC uses one song for qualie and two for races – anyone interested in that list ?
I do have two missing entries if anyone can help :
1. The end of the Barca race coverage used Bat out of Hell and something that included the lyrics “lets go go “. Any ideas ?
2. The qualie session for Monaco yesterday I missed – anyone know the tune ?
Cheers for any help – will put up list tomorrow if any interest.
Zahir
16th May 2010, 11:23
I know that at the end of quali yesterday they played Oh My Gosh by Usher if that helps. Can’t remember any others though unfortunately
Romanov
19th May 2010, 17:42
quality idea, i’m trying to work out the second tune they used at the start of the qualifying programme (monaco) on sat.
Lucas.M
16th May 2010, 22:03
Well, you were wrong Keith, you said at the start of the year that Alonso would win in Monaco (He would have if he hadn’t made that mistake)
P.Fisher
14th November 2010, 17:31
Can anyone tell me who sang and the title of the song that the BBC used for the very last montage after the abudabi race,included the line want to be first across the line.