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Official 2018 F1 Discussion Thread

27K views 192 replies 16 participants last post by  Tridus 
#1 ·
As changes are being announced for the 2018 season, I wanted to start a new thread for this season as the conversation continues in the 2017 thread.

The race season will start on March 23rd, 2018 with FP1 and FP2 in Melbourne. This year's season has been set for 21 races.

Pre-season testing will start February 26th in Barcelona and run until March 9th. Further testing will occur in Barcelona after the Spanish GP on May 15-16 and after the Hungarian GP from July 31-August 1.

Car launches are schedule by the various teams to be in mid-February. However, several teams are leaking new liveries.

Lance Stroll will continue to be the lone Canadian driver this season in F1.

Bell Media will have the rights for F1 this season in Canada for both French and English broadcast rights. TSN will carry the English feed from UK's SKY F1, while RDS will produce their own feed in French. TSN will also carry the pre and post shows following qualifying and the race as scheduling allows. The assumption is FP2 will continue to be broadcast on TSN, along with RDS for the Canadian GP.

TSN GO carried the coverage from the TSN channels live last year, and had the Qualifying and Race sessions available approximately 3 hours after the late season races. Some of the early season races were not available on TSN GO. The new F1 streaming service (TBD) may change what TSN GO will carry this season.

ABC will also broadcast some races that will be available in Canada, with Monaco and the U.S. GP confirmed. ESPN will take over the rights in the U.S.

BBC Radio 5 will also have radio discussions available pre and post race weekend available to download in MP3 format legally at:

BBC Radio 5 live - Chequered Flag Formula 1 - Downloads

SKY F1 last year had some coverage available on their website - it was hit and miss and assume the same again. Sky will cover the race in 4K, but we won't be seeing that format.

The various car changes, rule changes, driver changes, etc. have been discussed in the 2017 thread and as they come confirmed, we can discuss and analyze.


F1 will also have a new logo this season, replacing the logo used since the mid 1980's.

Looking forward to this season!

https://www.tsn.ca/live/schedule (Added by 57)
 
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#2 ·
Started this thread as today, Disney, owners of ABC/ESPN in the U.S. has bought portions of the FOX/SKY empire.

Not sure what this will mean for F1, but may mean close ties between ESPN and SKY for the races this season. Also, with Chase Carey's connections to Disney, it may lead to larger involvement of Disney's products/partners that started this season with the Pixar "Cars" garage at some races in pitlane.
 
#5 ·
@buckycat - watched Williams as well - very good documentary. Thought that the relationship between Frank and his wife was really strange - and surprised that he had that many "indiscretions"...I also enjoyed how he "sold" people their old racing cars as "new" in the 1970's.

I felt bad that Frank's son/Claire's brother is relegated to a corner of the building sorting out vintage nuts/bolts/parts while she runs the team.
 
#6 ·
Force India sign Nicholas Latifi as 2018 F1 test and reserve driver | F1 News

Another Canadian Driver (Toronto based) will be on the circuit this year - Nicholas Latifi - as Reserve Driver for the team currently known as Force India.

I thought that the Stroll family was going to get him over at Williams with DiResta looking at Formula E this year, but Force India beat them to it.

I doubt he will get a shot at a race this year - but if Perez/Ocon keep crashing into each other, maybe the team will penalize one of them this season.
 
#7 ·
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...for-f1s-tv-and-digital-audiences-in-2017.html

Found the last line of the article interesting...

*Top 20 markets, in alphabetical order: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, UK and USA.

I'm just surprised that Canada is one of the top 20 markets, and countries, such as Japan, Mexico, Netherlands are not in the top 20. Also surprised by Denmark, Greece, Poland, and Romania with no F1 presence and small populations being in the top 20.

Wish they had some numbers (viewers) per each country - would be interesting. I know that Canada typically hovers around 200,000 to 300,000 per live race.
 
#19 ·
Sky has confirmed that it will have Craig Slater and Ted Kravitz putting together reports (15 minute F1 Report, 15 minute Ted's Notebook) from each of the 8 days of testing in Barcelona starting on the 26th.

Previous seasons, you could watch these segments on Sky's website without geo-blocking. They also appear on YouTube (grey area - but Sky doesn't force them to take down Ted's Notebook and he jokes often about how many people watch it on YouTube).

Still no word on the OTT service F1 is to launch this season. It will be available in the U.S. - but doubt TSN will allow it in Canada to compete against TSN Go.
 
#22 ·
They also announced new camera angles, and graphics packages for this season. Hope they don't go for the same banner NASCAR and IndyCar use at the top of the screen - I find it nauseating to have it moving in one direction, and the race action all over the place.
 
#23 ·
You haven't watch NASCAR so far this year. FOX new graphic is now a sidebar leaderboard on the left of the screen. Nothing is moving.

BTW, when the new F1 logo has been unveiled last November, images of the new graphics where circulating. It's pretty much the same as last year, but with a new font.
 
#25 ·
The goal is to have a handful of races, both on a full and highlight basis, available at launch,” said F1’s director of digital and new business Frank Arthofer. “Going back to 1981, so 36 years.

And a lot of that content has never been really seen or released, it’s been sitting in our production studio at Biggin Hill and we’re doing our best to make it available to fans. I personally think it’s a really great asset and something that, regardless of whether fans will pay for it, it will surprise and delight them once they sign up for the service.

That content should be available throught the F1 TV Access package - the one without live F1/F2/GP3/PSC - and it could be available in Canada as soon as this year (waiting for confirmation).
 
#26 ·
So what company owns the digital rights for Canada that prevents this service being available here?

If there is such a company why are they not selling an OTT service themselves?

If this is caused by Bell and I certainly don't know then the sooner Bell are forbidden from content and are put back to being a purely infrastructure company the better.


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