First true HD F1 broadcast announced

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: F1 in proper high definition at last and is A1 Grand Prix about to make a comeback?

Links

Sky zeigt Formel-1-Rennen 2011 erstmals in nativem HDTV (Digital Fernsehen)

Sky Germany will broadcast F1 in high definition in 2011. See here for an automatic translation.

Thanks to F1 Addict for the tip

A10 World Series

Pointed out by James Roberts on Twitter. The clock seems to run out at 10:30am (GMT) tomorrow – shortly after the Autosport International show (which I will be at) opens.

Is this a resurrection of A1 Grand Prix? This site suggests an announcement about A1GP is due on the same day (thanks to Ed Marshall for that link).

Also, Tom Parr on Twitter dug up some details about the domain owners.

Via the F1 Fanatic Twitter app

Maurice Hamilton on Twitter

On BBC’s F1 team plans: “I really hope Martin Brundle has thought this through…”

Via the F1 Fanatic Twitter app

Nominees for 2011 Laureus World Sports Awards are announced (Laureus)

World champion Sebastian Vettel is among this year’s nominees.

Karun caught in legal tangle (Deccan Chronicle)

“Hispania boss Colin Kolles revealed that Karun [Chandhok] was suspended from the team after the British GP last year ‘for not fulfilling the contract. When he signed an agreement with us for the 2010 season, Karun made a lot of promises on paper. But, he failed to fulfill his obligations. We waited for some time, but we didn’t have any other choice than suspending him at the German GP. We, however, did everything diplomatically. We didn’t make it public. Since then, Karun was never in the team’s radar.'”

Alain Prost drives a Dacia Duster in the Andros Trophy (F1 Fanatic on YouTube)

In search of fairer privacy laws (The Guardian)

An article by Max Mosley who is taking his privacy case to the European Court of Human Rights.

‘The Flying Lap With Peter Windsor’ – A Live, Motor Sport, Online TV Show Launches Jan 12! (The Race Driver)

“The technology and studio base have been many months in the perfecting and the making and I think now represent the razor-sharp cutting edge of what is achievable on the Internet.”

Jan. 11: On Firestone, Beatriz and Edmonton (IndyStar)

On Bridgestone brand Firestone’s potential departure from IndyCar: “I see it as a group of marketing types wanting to get away from being involved in motor sports. The company dropped Formula One last year. Yes, it was expensive, but I think it was a sign for IndyCar. Some of my sources have said Firestone has been dropping hints for some time. I hope I’m wrong.”

New Pit and Paddock Building (Silverstone on Facebook)

The Silverstone Wing takes shape.

Vitaly answers your tweets! (Lotus Renault GP)

“I get on with all the drivers and try to have a little chat with everyone at each race. But I always talk a lot with Kamui Kobayashi.”

What a foot up! (Richard Branson)

“I’m ‘hopeful’ I’ll be ready for the flight to Malaysia but my knee may mean that wearing high heel shoes is now a step too far!”

Comment of the day

Ajokay welcomes Martin Brundle’s promotion in the BBC F1 commentary box:

2011 will be Martin’s 15th (believe it or not) year as a commentator. His commentating career has already outlived his Formula One career. An as much as we all loved him as an F1 driver, and he didn’t get the breaks he deserved, I believe he’s a better commentator than he was an F1 driver.

He started out at the driver expert?óÔé¼?ª the ex-competitor, the colour commentator. The Jerry Lawler to Murray Walker’s Jim Ross (if you’ll excuse the WWE comparison), but over the many years of his second-to-none time in the box, I believe he is more than capable of being the Jim Ross.

He is the expert of all, and he knows how to commentate. He is accurate, witty, and on-the-ball, and It’s about time he was made the number one in a team. And I’m sure Coulthard will fit into the expert driver role just fine.
Ajokay

From the forum

Casanova wonders which drivers have driven for all the top teams?

Site updates

We’re working on some changes to how F1 Fanatic is hosted to make it run more quickly, reliably and with increased security. Any work that may cause a disruption to the site’s service will be announced in the round-up beforehand.

Some users have reported intermittent slow page loading on the site. If you notice any please let me know plus what browser you’re using.

Happy birthday!

No F1 Fanatic birthdays today. If you want a birthday shout-out tell us when yours is by emailling me, using Twitter or adding to the list here.

On this day in F1

Michael Schumacher warmed up for his F1 return by testing a GP2 car at Jerez in Spain on this day last year:

Author information

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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48 comments on “First true HD F1 broadcast announced”

  1. Didn’t know that about Karun. Shame!

    I seem to be having the slow loading problem daily. I use opera. Seems to be the ads holding things up! Is there anyway we can pay a subscription and have no ads? I’d be happy to pay!

    1. Yep. I’ve been having slow loading on the main site lately related to ads as well. Glad to hear of the updates!

    2. No problems with Chrome… Especially with ads…

    3. The thing is I’m not sure I believe anything HRT say.

      Karun made a lot of promises on paper. But, he failed to fulfill his obligations. We waited for some time, but we didn’t have any other choice than suspending him at the German GP.

      If Karun didn’t provide his funding case why then did they originally drop Senna for Yamamoto at Silverstone?

      Second of all, why would Chandhok very publicly announce that he had turned down a HRT seat for 2011 if they were in the process of suing him? Either he is a complete idiot (which I doubt) or there is a lot more to this story.

      1. Ah bugger. Sorry for the weird html. The first part is the quote, the second part is my opinion. Sorry about that!

      2. Senna was dropped for Silverstone because an e-mail that was highly critical of the team was sent out to everyone on his contact list. Senna apparently hit “Send All” instead of “Send”. Kolles dropped him as punishment, probably because the e-mail was jsut criticism rather than constructive criticism.

        1. I am having no trouble with the loading with FireFox 3.6.13.

        2. Colin Kolles has been telling us how good his teams will be and how committed to the sport they are since 2005…. Why would I believe what he says about a driver (or two). He’s also now telling us that HRT will prove they’re the best of the new teams in 2011. With what car?

      3. As Bernie was solidly involved in the runnings with having Karun in the car, I suspect the reason for withholding might be with the team failing to show what the money will be used for.
        I did hear some rumours before, but both the team and Karun never showed us anyting of a serious break up in Germany. He was even wearing team gear and joining their pit box regularly even after he stopped driving.
        There was certainly a more complicated background to the story.

      4. We, however, did everything diplomatically. We didn’t make it public.

        Until now.

        I seriously don’t like Colin Kolles – he has now slagged off both of the drivers who started 2010 driving for him team in the space of a week.

    4. sometimes i get no ads at all. just grey boxes instead. (firefox latest)

      1. I cant believe a formula 1 team is suing a driver for not bringing money. When I first read the article here i thot maybe because his promises of Good driving weren’t fulfilled. This is sad that drivers have to go thru legal action even if they are decent drivers.

    5. To me, the ads are the only thing that loads up. (Chrome)

  2. The BBC should really be next in announcing HD coverage. After all, they were the ones that were constantly in Bernie’s ear.

  3. HD only on a Murdoch channel.. is this good news or not? Not sure.

    1. Is Sky a Murdoch channel too? That’s good news for those of us in the US then, as SPEED is part of FOX. I’ve emailed them to see if they will be making an announcement about HD, but no response so far.

      1. I’ve already got speed in HD and had all of last years GPs in HD.

        1. That would be upscaled to HD from SD as they don’t use HD cameras yet.

          1. I don’t mean to try and be smart, as I have HD myself and thought that the event would have to be filmed with HD cameras, but how have they managed to upscale so many 1970’s films up to 720p or even 1080p? Is it just the live broadcasts that need HD cameras ie the Football? I think it’s disgusting that such a rich sport has yet to be broadcast in HD. If you can get Britains Got Talent in HD, for heavens sake surely F1 too!

          2. In the case of 70’s films and the like, it is far easier to get them in HD, as the original analogue film stock that the film was shot on is somewhat beyond HD resolution anyway, so they just re-transfer it to Blu-Ray (or the TV-Station’s hard drive) when they eventually want to show it in HD.

            For F1 and other live events, it is filmed on electronic cameras, which don’t make a direct high-resolution Film, and so have to be HD cameras in order for it to be properly broadcast in HD. Although upscaling is possible in this case, it isn’t revealing any new detail, merely making the existing picture slightly less blurry and more pleasant to look at on an HD screen.

      2. From what Bernie said before, combined with the fact that Sky is not for free, it might be that they really pay more for the feed than they would for receiving the non HD feed. I am not sure Speed is willing to do the same.

        1. Of course, I could pay more to my cable company and get tv channels in HD, and I would consider that, if it included the Dutch F1 AND/OR BBC coverage in HD – without those I don’t have a big need the HD.

          The question is how to let them know – esp. BBC.; I guess I should send the Dutch RTL an email that I would go to HD if they provided HD F1.

  4. That is one MASSIVE round-up

  5. The pinnacle of motor sport finally tickles out also from the television sets of the audience

    Oh, I love cheap shots at the expense of dodgy auto translations :)

    1. Haha Ned! I had a little giggle at that too. :P

  6. Love the a10worldseries.com website… love the no frills countdown timer from the website

  7. Do the stewardesses have to wear heels on Virgin airlines? If so then maybe Branson should use this as an opportunity to think about what he is putting his own employees through… Fernandes too.

    I’ll save the rest of my feminist critique about the feminine as punishment for later.

    1. Not sure about what they wear on Virgin, but Branson will be flying in an Air Asia uniform!

  8. For Aussie F1 fans, I asked the One HD twitter account re: HD F1 next year and they confirmed it’s coming! Excellent.

    1. Fantastic news!

    2. I too was wondering about this, thanks for finding this out.

  9. Next year as in this year, or 2012?

  10. Carsvschildren
    12th January 2011, 3:21

    @prisonermonkeys: an $8 million debt or a rude email? I know which one I would punish.

  11. Kolles blaming Chandhok for the teams lack of progress due to budget shortfalls is alarming. While throwing mud on everyone (apart from himself), he’s revealed that the teams finances are so dire that the extra 6 million euro that they didn’t receive was vital to the team.

    An F1 team should be able to cover the cost of racing without the need to have pay drivers. If they can’t do that, maybe they should try another form of motorsport. Remember, budget caps were pegged at £40m, while it suggests that big teams curb their spending, it also implies that smaller teams should have funding that roughly corresponds to that figure. Kolles complaining that “Karun ruined everything” because of a 6 million euro debt shows that HRT is not financially secure enough for F1.

    1. Note: I didn’t mean to imply budget caps were implemented, I was suggesting that the figure provided by the FIA was what they felt was “affordable” for an F1 standard team.

    2. Especially as the reason for not putting in the finances might well be the simple fact, that these backers (with Bernie probalby being there as well or at least close to them) were worried what the team would do with the money.
      Look at Lopez bringing Argentinian money to USF1 that ended in the gutter!

  12. Prost’s Duster looks like an ice spec Megane Trophy, isn’t it? I mean, under the plastic wrappings. Is there any relation between the two?

    1. Dacia are owned by Renault and sold as a low cost brand and aimed mainly at the eastern-european market, so it is likely there is every relation between the two.

      1. Wikipedia says they’re not built from related platforms. The Megane is built on the Renault/Nissan C platform, while the Duster is built on the B platform.

        That doesn’t mean there aren’t any common parts between them, though.

        1. These are just look-a-like cars. Not related to production models. Under a composit bodywork, both have a mid longitudinal v6 and the rollcage looks identical. Thats why I tought that they are the same.

  13. I still don’t know what to think of Kolles. On the surface of it, he seems to be running a bad outfit – again.
    However, if you look at his other and earlier achievements and the fact that he is running his own racingcompany with activities in DTM and LMS, then I cannot help bu thinking the man must do something well. For example, his dealings with Jordan/Midland/Spyker/force India turned out well in the end.
    Maybe he’s just like mr. Wolf from Pulp Fiction: someone good at cleaning up other’s mess.
    So I just wait and see, how he steers this sinking ship through the storm.

    Having said that, he does come across as an ********

    1. He does sound like a bit of a moron to be fair.

  14. Intresting to find out that its 8 million for a season racing at the back of the grid in a car that had no testing.

    1. That might be some of the reasons, Chandhok’s backers valued it at only 2m for half the season in the end!

  15. Autosport has confirmed FOM will send a HD feed to all existing broadcasters so hopefully we will all get F1 in HD for 2011. So now i have no blurry pics to moan at or leggards comedy commentating to moan at this year on the bbc,

    1. Cool! So I guess I need to go get the HD channels then :)

  16. Don’t expect full HD on BBC HD – 1440×1080 at 9.7Mbs instead of 1920×1080 at 17Mbs which the virgin version gets.

    Can someone explain why if HRT are using pay driver they aren’t asking for the cash up front? The fact Karun paid at all after having the car not turn a wheel before the 1st race is astonishing.

    1. Oh and this quote

      “A higher bit-rate will not automatically deliver higher picture quality.”

      comes from the head of BBC HD so don’t get your hopes up for F1 in full HD

Comments are closed.