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The on board shots from the 80’s also look insane because the camera is bouncing all over the place
That was down to where teams had the camera mount points on the cars than anything else.
Back in the 80s/early 90s most teams used to have the engine cover bodywork extend around the cockpit so it all came off in 1 piece. The cameras were mounted to that & given how it wasn’t part of a solid structure there was a lot of flex in it so we saw a lot of vibration in the in-car camera image.
However there were teams (Williams for example) who didn’t have the engine cover wrap around the cockpit, It was more as we see today… Just an engine cover. As such when cameras were mounted on there cars they were mounted on the roll structure & the image featured a lot less vibration, About the same as what we see today actually.Also the tracks of the time were a lot bumpier than what we see today & the cars had a bit more suspension travel to cope with those bumps & this also affected what you saw through the in-car cameras.
In terms of trackside cameras, Back when FOM were just starting out the F1 Digital+ service in 1997 as put a lot of research & effort was put in to trackside cameras, Coming up with the best ways of panning/zooming to capture the sensation of speed & we actually did a lot of work revising existing equipment to meet what we wanted to do as well as inventing some new things to get some new shots.
For example take the remote controlled cameras, A lot of effort was put in to coming up with a way of getting them to pan faster & we tried different lubricants, motors & mounts until a solution we were happy with was found.
We had innovations such as a cut to live button on every camera so that if a camera operator saw something happening infront of him he could press it & his camera would immediately be cut into the main broadcast which allowed us to catch a lot more overtakes, accidents, spins etc.. live.
We were putting in-car cameras in new places, giving new angles & we started playing around with different lens types to try & better catch the feeling of speed.
It was the same with the audio, We spent ages looking at mic placement around the track not only to catch the best quality but also the best stereo separation as the cars passed by.
For example-It was a great time to be around motorsport broadcasting because we were introducing so much innovation back then, always trying new things, bringing in new technology & really pushing motorsport broadcasting to a new level. its just a shame it had to end at the end of 2002 as we had a lot of new stuff in the works, a lot of those ideas just kind of died because people were let go, budgets were cut & the pressures of been the worldfeed broadcaster left less room to try new things.
you still see it at times with things like the thermal imaging in-car camera & then the thermal imaging dual camera overlay shots, but its less frequent than it used to be sadly.I think the issue with removing the kurb at memorial corner (Turn 7) is that it would be too quick & would make the approach speed for turn 8 faster which could be an issue.
For street circuits they tend to look at approach speed, corner speed, run-off & barriers when laying down the kurbing & deciding on what is/isn’t acceptable from a safety point of view.
They also get some input from drivers via the GPDA in the drivers briefing.The thing about the German tv ratings is that unlike other regions you cannot blame it on a change to the broadcasting as nothing has changed in Germany as far as availability goes, Its the same as its been since the 90s.
Every qualifying session & race is available live on RTL which is a Free to air broadcaster. Practice sessions are also available Live or as highlights on FTA broadcasters.
And alongside the FTA coverage is a PayTV option via whats now Sky Germany who carry every session live with no ad-breaks & additional video options (As they have since they 1st took the F1 Digital PPV service in 1996 when they were known as Premiere World).In other places such as the UK there is a clear change which you can point to when explaining the drop in TV ratings, That been the Sky/BBC deal. And while every race is still shown on FTA Tv (BBC), Only about half are live, Rest are highlights.
Its actually how it used to be until around 1995, BBC never showed every race live back then however Eurosport (Only available via a subscription cable or satellite service) did show every qualifying/Warm-Up & race live.Getting back to Germany, There was a big ratings increase when Schumacher came in & starting doing well & there was a small drop after he retired at the end of 2006, I’m also fairly sure there was another small increase when he came back in 2010 although I’m not 100% certain on that.
Aside from that I do know that both Sky & RTL have done fan surveys on there website & in there coverage which seem to suggest that German fans seem to be far less accepting of DRS & the High Degradation tyres than in other places & the big drop in figures did start in 2011/2012 seemingly going along with the introduction of those factors.
Also Vettel has never been as popular in Germany compared to Schumacher & its the same with Rosberg who many seem to not really consider to be German (He was born there but spent most, If not all his childhood in Monaco).
Its similar with Mercedes, The team is a German brand but only in name. The team are based in the UK, The car is designed & built in the UK as is the engine. Most of the employee’s are British for both car & engine programs.I’m fairly sure that driver to driver radio is actually banned, If not by regulation then by an agreement as I was told some years ago that while possible there not allowed to do it.
It used to be done in Nascar, Drivers could tune into the frequencies of other drivers (Not just teammates either) & would often discuss drafting & other tactics (Especially useful on the 2 restrictor plate tracks, Daytona & Talladega).
However Nascar banned that 2-3 years ago because drivers were using it to plan the 2 car drafts (1 car bump drafting the other all round the track) as well because it was thought it could be used to block faster cars.
Drivers also said it was a bit distracting when they were having to try & remember what frequency they needed for which car & having to concentrate on the driving & switching the frequencies over.Here’s an example of it-
“IndyCar needs to get a set of F1 barriers”
The barriers/fencing Indycar uses are actually the same designs as whats used in F1 & other international racing events.
Any series classed as an International event (Which Indycar is) has to run to the same FIA safety regulations & standards with regards to the circuits.Its also been reported that the decision was made as this was Dario’s 3rd serious concussion in 10 years.
The 1st was caused in a Motorcycle road accident back in 2003, The 2nd was at Goodwood in 2006 & the 3rd was at Houston this year.They have a bunch of videos from the service on there youtube page.
https://www.youtube.com/user/F1onZume/videosAs I understand it this is a deal done between FOM & the Japanese broadcaster, Much like the deal with Sky in the UK for there Mobile/Tablet F1 app.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yjRv5wSzUcContent available should be identical as well, The 6 feeds produced by FOM (world-feed, In-car Mix, Pit Lane, Timing, Driver Tracker & Rolling Highlights) as well as additional in-car feeds & app defined page layouts & audio options.
Regarding the rear wheel guards & extended floors behind front wheels, They were more designed around preventing wheel to wheel contact launching cars doing similar speeds on the ovals (Think Ryan Briscoes 2005 crash) & they have worked in that regard.
When you have 1 car driving into the back of a car with a relatively big speed differential as we saw yesterday then there isn’t much you can really do as the wheel guards are not going to be able to withstand that sort of impact.
In terms of this crash it was just very unlucky in that everything happened in the worst way at the worst point of the track.
Taku got sideways on a bump with Dario very close to him & then the angle at which Dario hit Taku’s car & the extra speed he was carrying launched him over the wheels at just the wrong angle to go into the fence at the worst possible part of the circuit.As to the fence, They are built to FIA specification using the same materials etc… that’s used elsewhere in other categories.
I know that the FIA are looking into new types of fencing but thats still in the trial phase & not something thats been widely used right now.The biggest problem in these sorts of accidents & the thing which tends to do the damage to drivers is the fence posts. The actual fencing gives which absorbs energy but with the posts been solid they tend to put a big G-load through car & driver & its that which can do serious harm.
Another angle was shown in the fom highlights video shown after the race which ive heard showed more shots showing that drivers had to take avoiding action for mark running across the track to get to fernando’s car.
if webber ignored or simply did not gain permission to go onto the track from the stewards then it will be seen as a serious safety violation & is something thats always acted upon. Its unfortunate for Mark that been his 3rd reprimand it gives the grid drop for korea but if you get 3 reprimands then any penalty is justified in my view.
if a driver stops at the side of the track he must do as the marshall’s say & is not allowed to run out onto the track or run across the track without gaining permission from the marshal’s, Its a safety thing.
“In eight years in NASCAR, Montoya has only managed to win twice in 288 races so far.”
True, However the Ganassi Nascar team hasn’t exactly given him the equipment to be able to win races.
That team is in dissaray, Not helped by the fact that Ganassi puts all his best guys & most of his organisations budget on the Indycar program because thats the series Chip cares about the most.
“He’s not exactly a hot driver anymore, is he?”
He’s still very highly thought of amongst open wheel teams & fans (Look at the responce from Indycar fans today) because those who followed him in CART & F1 know full well have good he really is in those sort of cars.There was talk of removing a chicane some years back, In the end the drivers felt removing the 1st chicane would be too dangerous but quite a few were open to removing the 2nd chicane.
The issue with Grand-Curve without the 1st chicane is where the wall comes back towards the track at the exit. There was also the issue with the 2nd chicane with the increased speed, Not as much run-off there as you would need at 210-220mph.
Im also not sure it would work with F1 cars, With the low downforce package they run at Monza + DRS they would probably be on the Rev-limiter before they even got to Grand-Curve. They run there lowest downforce package & highest top gear’s at Monza currently & are often touching the limiter before turn 1 as it is.
LMP cars are designed around Le Mans so are designed to be doing 220mph+ down the Mulsanne straight. F1 cars are designed to work everywhere so there’s no way anyone would throw a significant amount of R&D developing a super low-aero package/much taller gear ratio package specifically for a chicane-less Monza.
Regarding ‘illegal streams’.
Sky are working hard to clamp down on them, Don’t know if anyone has noticed but you may often see numbers appear above the Sky F1 logo, Thats an Anti-Piracy feature as its displaying your viewing card number.
If your providing a stream, They will see your viewing card number & start legal action against you.@Tayyib, As I said in an earlier posting an official streaming service from FOM is complex because of the broadcast rights.
Its easier for the NFL because the way the TV rights are handled is different. In the US the TV rights tend to be owned by the broadcaster (Fox, ESPN etc…) so if that broadcaster is OK with a streaming service its easier to do.
Indycar used to have a streaming service but the NBC deal put a stop to that as NBC (Well Versus as it was at the time) brought the TV rights & decided to block the streaming service.Not heard anything official regarding this although did heard some speculation when the BBC announced the FA Cup deal last week.
@sozavele, Live F1 online streaming direct from FOM is complex because of the broadcast deals. Many broadcasters pay for exclusive rights, The Sky/BBC deal give them shared rights (Including online).
If BBC pull out of there Live races then Sky would hold exclusive live UK rights & if FOM wanted to start an online video service they would have to renegotiate the contract with sky to remove the exclusivity clause.