F1 Fanatic

Okay, first of all, this is not a thread for discussing the Sky-BBC deal. We have discussions on the main site for that.

No, in this thread, you’re taking on the role of a fan who has been approached by the BBC executives. They want to know which ten races of the 2012 championship should be broadcast, and they want you to decide which ones. Bernie Ecclestone’s proposed calendar has been released, showing twenty races (Turkey has been dropped), with a few – most notably India, Korea, America and Bahrain – being moved around. You can see the full calendar here:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/93455

So, which ten races should the BBC broadcast? We already know that Monaco, Silverstone and the season finale – Interlagos – will be shown (but you can advise the BBC to drop these if you wish).

Please note that any answers along the lines of “The BBC should show all twenty races” will be interpreted as “We want to see ten races at Valencia!”. Like I said, this is not a thread for discussing the decision to split the broadcast – it’s to separate out the ten best races from the championship, the ones with the msot intrinsic value.

Actually, Bernie’s calendar has Bahrain as round 18 of the championship. It gives the government more time to convince the world that the country is safe. But if the BBC asked me which races to broadcast, I’d definately recommend Bahrain. It might not be the greatest venue in the world, but as it’s at the end of the season, there’s a reasonable chance that the championship will be decided there.

Australia
Monaco
Canada
USA
Britain
Germany
Spa
Monza
Abu Dhabi (purely because it’s place as second to last race, if another race is second to last cover that instead)
Brazil

Basically they should concentrate on the ones in Europe/the Americas since the early morning fly away races are usually only watched by the hardcore fans anyway.

Australia/first race
China
Monaco
Canada
USA
Britain
Belgium
Italy
Japan
Brazil

Tough titty if the championship is decided somewhere else

Australia
USA
Canada
Britain
Spa
Italy
Germany
Brazil
Hungary
Iceland (only joking)

I would be happy to settle for those 9 if I could not get all of the rest

Never ever Monaco – way too boring

Stupid question… they should be airing every damn race !

Stupid answer – didn’t you read the opening post?

Please note that any answers along the lines of “The BBC should show all twenty races” will be interpreted as “We want to see ten races at Valencia!”

Like I said, this is not about discussing the merits of the Sky-BBC deal. This is about picking out the ten races that have the most value to the sport.

Melbourne, India (assuming the track’s good), Monaco, Canada, Britain, Belgium, Italy, Japan, USA, Brazil

Singapore was number 11 for me – spectacular, but just looks wrong at 1pm! Maybe better as highlights – the race can go on a bit. Same arguably applies to Monaco.

More likely they’ll want to spread them more evenly (i.e. every other race) and, say, show one of each of the back-to-back pairs.

I love the live evening races in American time zones, and Montreal’s always a good ‘un – but not sure what BBC want to achieve here. Grab the higher ratings, or clear the schedules for some “entertainment” landfill?

If I were the BBC I’d pick the 10 highest-viewed races (or likely to be highest-viewed) to keep. This would mean:

- The season opener, wherever it was
- Malaysia
- Monaco (confirmed by BBC)
- Canada
- Britain (confirmed by BBC)
- Hungary
- Singapore
- USA
- Brazil
- The finale (confirmed by BBC)

If the opener and finale were at circuits already in that top 10 (and Brazil’s currently supposed to have the finale), I’d have Belgium and either Europe or India.