Channel 4 has revealed which ten races on the 2017 F1 calendar it will show live.
The first live race on British television this year will be the third round of the championship in Bahrain. The season finale at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi will be shown live, but the penultimate race in Brazil will not.
As last year the races in Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Britain, Belgium, Malaysia and Abu Dhabi will all be seen live on free-to-air television in the UK. They will be joined by the Russian, Monaco, Singapore and USA rounds which were not seen live last year. The Monaco Grand Prix will be live on free-to-air television for the first time in five years.
However the races in Spain, Hungary, Italy and Mexico, which were part of Channel 4’s live line-up last year, will not be shown live by the terrestrial broadcaster in 2017.
The 2017 season will be the penultimate year of live F1 coverage on Channel 4. From 2019 Sky will have exclusive rights to the series.
| Round | Race | Date | Channel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australian Grand Prix | March 24 – 26 | Sky |
| 2 | Chinese Grand Prix | April 7 – 9 | Sky |
| 3 | Bahrain Grand Prix | April 14 – 16 | Channel 4 / Sky |
| 4 | Russian Grand Prix | April 28 – 30 | Channel 4 / Sky |
| 5 | Spanish Grand Prix | May 12 – 14 | Sky |
| 6 | Monaco Grand Prix | May 25 – 28 | Channel 4 / Sky |
| 7 | Canadian Grand Prix | June 9 – 11 | Sky |
| 8 | Azerbaijani Grand Prix | June 23 – 25 | Channel 4 / Sky |
| 9 | Austrian Grand Prix | July 7 – 9 | Sky |
| 10 | British Grand Prix | July 14 – 16 | Channel 4 / Sky |
| 11 | Hungarian Grand Prix | July 28 – 30 | Sky |
| 12 | Belgian Grand Prix | August 25 – 27 | Channel 4 / Sky |
| 13 | Italian Grand Prix | September 1 – 3 | Sky |
| 14 | Singapore Grand Prix | September 15 – 17 | Channel 4 / Sky |
| 15 | Malaysian Grand Prix | September 29 – October 1 | Channel 4 / Sky |
| 16 | Japanese Grand Prix | October 6 – 8 | Sky |
| 17 | United States Grand Prix | October 20 – 22 | Channel 4 / Sky |
| 18 | Mexican Grand Prix | October 27 – 29 | Sky |
| 19 | Brazilian Grand Prix | November 10 – 12 | Sky |
| 20 | Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | November 24 – 26 | Channel 4 / Sky |
2017 F1 season
- Sepang pays Haas compensation for Grosjean’s 2017 crash
- Williams revenues rose in 2017 after Bottas deal with Mercedes
- Australian Grand Prix cost government £56 million last year
- “Grand Prix Driver” takes you inside McLaren’s nightmare final year with Honda
- Undisputed champion: 10 titles name Hamilton top driver of 2017
Sumedh
5th January 2017, 10:42
Basically covering all street tracks (no matter how boring they may be).
Seb
5th January 2017, 11:45
3 out of the 10 races are street circuits. Basically of the live races a third are street circuits. C4 is not broadcasting all of the street circuits live either, as it is not showing Canada or Australia. So in fact it’s covering 3 of the 5 street circuits, which is half of the street circuits if you round 2.5 up to 3.
Moshambles (@moshambles)
6th January 2017, 8:13
Canada and Australia are park circuits. The other 3 are true street circuits.
MG421982 (@)
5th January 2017, 19:50
Yup, a true street-related channel!!
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
5th January 2017, 10:48
My 10 would be:
Australia
Canada
Austria
Britain
Belgium
Italy
Japan
USA
Brazil
Abu Dhabi (only because it is the final race, no other reason!)
David Bell
5th January 2017, 10:56
I’d make sure i had Hungary, always seems to be a good race their.
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
5th January 2017, 15:46
Recently Hungary has hosted a few good races, but it usually needs rain / mixed conditions to do so. Track is far too technical to promote decent racing, main straight is not long enough. Even DRS has failed to help overtaking for evenly matched performance cars.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
5th January 2017, 11:58
Problem with that is that if you didn’t have sky, you would have to wait a painful 12 weeks for the next live GP after Australia! I wouldn’t like such a large gap.
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
5th January 2017, 12:49
But the five I’d miss are typically dull IMO so highlights for those is fine for me.
mfreire
5th January 2017, 13:20
You can’t not include Monaco in that list. It’s the most important round of the year.
FreddyVictor
5th January 2017, 14:53
I agree, I would include Monaco just for the atmosphere/buzz and not necessarily the actual race !
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
5th January 2017, 15:44
Yes nothing better than watching the atmosphere / buzz on TV. If anything F1 needs more opportunities to cut to celebrities watching the race rather than, oh I don’t know… letting TV viewers watch the race?
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
5th January 2017, 15:49
It offers the same points as any other race, unless it rains it is a procession and other than the possibility of a safety car mixing things up I don’t know how anyone could rank Monaco as anything other than more boring to watch than most of the other races on the F1 calendar?
Haribo
5th January 2017, 23:02
Even if the race is processional, I personally still find enjoyment in watching the drivers on the limit at one of the toughest races in the world.
THOMF1S (@thomf1s)
5th January 2017, 11:01
I don’t know why Channel 4 doesn’t show American races live and Asian races as highlights, would save either getting up early or staying up late for highlights! Or am I just old before my time…
Simon
5th January 2017, 17:37
They don’t get to just choose their ten. They have to take it in turns with Sky to choose which ones SKy has exclusive, and which ones C4 can have.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
5th January 2017, 11:44
Interesting to see how this cross-references with the top-rated circuits per the Rate the Race scores:
https://www.racefans.net/rate-the-race/circuit-ratings/
The two circuits with the highest average ratings (Montreal and Shanghai) won’t have live races but the next three (Spa, Circuit of the Americas, Silverstone) all will. And we will get live races from the two lowest-rated tracks (Baku and Sochi).
Rick Lopez (@viscountviktor)
5th January 2017, 11:50
Not as good a line up as last year.
Hugh (@hugh11)
5th January 2017, 11:58
Shame, because Ben Andrews and DC is a much better commentary team than Crofty and Brundle. Oh well, we just livestream from the laptop onto the TV for the non-C4 ones as we don’t have Sky. Not as good quality but you can see it perfectly fine.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
5th January 2017, 12:05
@hugh11
Ben Anrews :D
It’s Ben Edwards. But I agree they are more enjoyable to listen to. Brundle does too much moaning about how much better it used to be and what is wrong with it now and Crofty talks so much off topic nonsense that he sounds like he commentating for a different program a lot of the time. DC and Ben Edwards sound way more passionate about the sport to me. Although I liked DC with
Brundle when they were together. That was when it was better still.
Hugh (@hugh11)
5th January 2017, 14:53
Didn’t think Ben Andrews sounded right but had a brain fade so stuck with it, yeah, Ben Edwards… That’s right.
Yeah it’s Crofty who annoys me, same reasons, he goes off on a tangent too much. Can deal with it in practise sessions but in quali or the race it’s just annoying.
Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
5th January 2017, 16:19
I agree that year of DC and Brundle was the best comms since Murray left
PeterG
5th January 2017, 12:10
@hugh11 i’m actually the opposite in that I much prefer Croft & Brundle over Ben Edwards & DC.
I simply cannot stand DC’s boring & monotone commentary style & feel that he’s really dragged Ben Edwards down just as he did Brundle the 1 year they were together in 2011.
pSynrg (@psynrg)
5th January 2017, 14:54
@hugh11 DC is about as anodyne as a human being can be. Even when he’s trying to be fun, or god forbid, edgy, he as good as sends me into a coma.
Hugh (@hugh11)
5th January 2017, 15:27
See what you mean with DC but tbf I think he’s improved a lot alongside Ben
Charles King (@charleski)
6th January 2017, 22:52
While I feel a lot of affection for DC, I’ll never be able to forget the White Jeans Incident at the Red Bull pool in Monaco several years ago, when he pleaded not to be pushed in. I think he was afraid people might be able to see it visually.
Rob Burgess (@robertjburgess)
7th January 2017, 15:47
The far biggest problem with Channel 4’s coverage is Steve Jones, his overly smug, cocky, faux enthusiasm is disingenuous and like he is constantly mocking F1 and everyone he speaks to. He thinks its all about him and completely spoils it, unwatchable. At least Sky deliver facts and seem genuinely interested.
chughes
22nd July 2018, 18:57
Totally agree,he is unbearable with little knowledge and rather pathetic questions.why was he ever employed?
petebaldwin (@)
5th January 2017, 12:10
Have the rules changed from how it was with the BBC deal? I can only assume Channel 4 have whatever was left or had someone picking races who has never seen F1 before…
It’s a shame because it’s my first year without Sky… I can’t justify the price to watch F1 anymore and am hoping that without spending hundreds a year, I won’t be as bothered by the races being dull. They can spend lap 2-10 showing replays of the start and can focus on adverts, landmarks and Bernie’s stupid CGI messages all they like – I won’t be sat there thinking “seriously, I’m paying for this!?”
I’d love to say I’ll watch Channel 4’s coverage of the adverts with brief updates from the race squeezed in-between but there are so many better options that are also free….
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
5th January 2017, 12:25
@petebaldwin The way Channel 4 select races is exactly the same as it was with the BBC.
They start out with Channel 4 picking 3 races, Then Sky pick 3 & it then carries on from there with them getting 1 pick each until all the races have been done.
There is also an agreement that neither can show more than 2 races in a row.
glynh (@glynh)
5th January 2017, 12:38
Also if you haven’t watched channel 4 before they don’t show adverts during live races.
BasCB (@bascb)
5th January 2017, 14:12
Well, they do not have advertising brakes @glynh, but what @petebaldwin means is the time the live coverage focusses on the various banner ads along the track, the CGI ads on tarmac, etc. that takes up a pretty large part of the total time of the footage
petebaldwin (@)
5th January 2017, 16:10
@glynh – I didn’t actually know they didn’t have ad-breaks during the live coverage – when I’ve tried to watch Channel 4 previously, there were been so many in the build-up to the race that I switched back to Sky.
Good to know I can watch half of the season (legally) :)
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
6th January 2017, 20:28
@petebaldwin I think both networks front-load ads into the pundit time because they’ve got agreements saying they ‘won’t do an ITV’ and throw an ad-break into the final lap run-in.
That said, C4 do put adverts into their highlight races without losing any racing.
Luke
5th January 2017, 12:31
I actually prefer the highlights shows to the full race coverage… means you get the good bits, but for laps where literally nothing happens these are nicely skipped. Naturally, I would like to watch this “live,” as in, at the time the race occurs… but you can’t have everything. Will Channel 4 still show highlights from 2019? Or is the only option at all going to be Sky? I agree with @petebaldwin – waayyy too much money for the enjoyment I get from F1 these days. Personally preferring the MotoGP at the moment!
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
5th January 2017, 15:51
F1 will start to die in the UK if at the very least highlights aren’t available to watch FOC. Sky’s viewing figures are a fraction of what the BBC / ITV had in the past.
Tiomkin
5th January 2017, 19:46
But so long as people continue to pay Sky, F1 will stay locked up and expensive. People know what to do but they don’t have the guts.
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
6th January 2017, 9:18
Yep totally agree. Same with football, rugby league etc…
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
6th January 2017, 20:45
Tiomkin, the only problem with this logic is Sky only has one sports subscription – thus the numbers who watch is muddled in with the millions who pay for football, rugby, cricket etc. As long as they break even across all their exclusive licenses, they’ll continue to buy into them as they’re USPs.
The only hope is that Liberty recognise where CVC didn’t that there’s hundreds of millions of people across the world who would be happy to pay race-by-race to view it online. FOM loaded the TV contracts with additional online streaming rights, but there’s a slim chance that Liberty may seek/attempt to force this to be sub-contracted.
Heck, if Sky would do an F1-only NOW-TV option, priced accordingly for just the F1 channel, I’d bloody buy it. I’d hate it, because I can’t stand the current presenting team or Croft on commentary, but who knows, it might get refreshed a bit when all the C4 team are without contracts.
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
6th January 2017, 20:40
@tonyyeb
Academic – Sky overpaid for F1 exclusivity to stop BT or Virgin poaching it any time soon, just like they do with all sports. They’ll recoup this investment through the sports channel subscription, which went up recently and likely will keep doing for many years. Their only concession for non-sports subscribers was that the British GP would be shown live on their Sky Mix channel, which is only available for standard package owners.
F1 is dead to the majority of the UK from lights out in 2018…
glynh (@glynh)
5th January 2017, 12:44
Seems like sensible picks to me with a lot of my favourite tracks in there. Shame they couldn’t get all the late races but nice to see Monaco back which should get them good viewer numbers.
Santiago
5th January 2017, 12:45
Slightly off topic but, when was the last time we didn’t have a German GP?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
5th January 2017, 13:26
It was only 2015:
https://www.racefans.net/2015-f1-season/calendar/
mfreire
5th January 2017, 13:32
While we are on the subject of television, I thought I might explain the North American side of showing F1 on TV. The only races that are shown on free-to-air channels are Monaco, Canada, USA, Mexico and sometimes Brazil and Britain. The rest are shown on pay-TV and because the rest of the GP’s (other than the ones I mentioned) particularly the ones in Europe start at 2 pm local time, the live races over here start at 8 am if you live on the East coast (New York, Washington, Miami) and 5 am on the West coast (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas)- and sometimes, there are re-runs of the commercial/advertisement littered races later in the day. And as for the Far Eastern races, take 4-6 hours (depending on start times) off those times I mentioned. The average working American works 40 hours a week and does not want to wake up early on a weekend watch a GP when they can watch IndyCar or NASCAR at 11 am-2 pm local time. These are really the two reasons why F1 has not caught on in the USA. Only the most dedicated F1 fans in the USA (of which there are a very small percentage, if you divide that number by 320 million).
Jason
5th January 2017, 19:01
That’s why most Americans, who have figured how to get around that problem use torrent downloading sites. You can get every session all practices, qualify, race, everything from sky or channel 4 whichever you preferred. I mean even the piratebay has sessions released very quickly. Just have to know how to work around it in America
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
5th January 2017, 21:08
You don’t discover a championship you haven’t seen before by seeking it out. You have to discover it in the first place.
Rick (@)
5th January 2017, 21:53
I hate to break it to you, but you sound like you’re complaining about nothing. I’m from Europe, The Netherlands to be specific, and the last 5-7 years or so have been the same all around Europe: almost no free-to-air coverage, just pay tv. I don’t mind that at all, even though I have to pay €15 ($16-17) each month just for F1. I do get six HD channels and 4 SD channels and each race weekend is fully covered from P1 to post-race analysis, with qualifying and the race using no less than 6 channels at the same time, the regular FIA feed with Dutch commentary, 2 on-board channels, the live timing, a dedicated pit feed with stats and finally a secondary feed that differs all the time. Heck, I can even watch those using PIP on my iPad and/or laptop.
Sounds too good to be true? It is, because even though all of that is true, the quality sucks. Dutch presenters are horrible, they know nothing about F1 and even though they invite old F1 drivers from Robert Doornbos to Jan Lammers, they never ask in-depth questions. It’s like every pre and post session in the studio is for beginners again.
Before this, we had free-to-air BBC to watch Formula 1 as well. Ah man, that was something! I never once watched F1 on the free Dutch channels, even when they went on to became HD when the BBC wasn’t yet (in NL). We still have a ridiculous amount of BBC channels (1-4 and 3 theme channels) and even when F1 went to pay tv in both the UK and NL, I still had Germand RTL which I could somewhat understand.
Anyway, there are also a lot of races, like the ones in your continent that are at inconvenient times (dinner time or just afterwards) for us Europeans but I just record them and watch them a couple of hours later. You could do the same for those early morning races from Europe.
Anyway, I would kill for a Sky subscription over here or some US equivalent, but it’s just not possible due to geographical limitations. Amazon has shown us with The Grand Tour that those limitations can be lifted, so I have hopes for Liberty Media. If there’s one thing the Americans can definitely do better than Europeans, it’s getting the general public involved and creating some worldwide subscription models. I do believe the British have the best quality coverage, but too bad everything is so strictly fenced. We do have Sky Sports, but only for soccer, golf and such, no F1 whatsoever.
Until that time, I’ll happily pay my monthly fee for Dutch F1 coverage. You’re either a fan or you’re not.
mfreire
6th January 2017, 1:15
Like Keith said: You don’t discover a championship you haven’t seen before by seeking it out. You have to discover it in the first place.
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
6th January 2017, 20:50
@addvariety
By comparison, Sky TV in the UK costs *at least* £570 (€665.02) per annum, which is the base package with the Sports add-on.
The only alternative is Now TV passes, covering day, week or month periods (prices here – http://www.nowtv.com/sports) which only offers on-demand streaming.
Basically, the UK costs aren’t even comparable to your great value for money offering… :)
Rick (@)
6th January 2017, 21:36
@ optimaximal
Really? But with “Sky TV” you mean the whole TV package including F1, right? Still that’s an awful lot indeed.
On this side of the North Sea we’re used to so called Triple Play packages, which contain internet, tv and a regular phone line. For me that comes in at € 70 a month (£60), which gives me all regular tv channels including 32 in HD (1080p for most), 100/100 Mbit/s fiber internet and the phone line I don’t use (I don’t even have a phone at home anymore, except for my smartphone of course).
On top of that comes the € 15 a month for the Sports package alone (which includes F1). So I don’t know what you pay for your internet connection, but if that would be around £25/26 then we would roughly pay the same each month.
Rick (@)
6th January 2017, 21:37
@optimaximal see the reply above, I couldn’t edit it.
Optimaximal (@optimaximal)
6th January 2017, 22:02
@addvariety Yes, that cost is the entire Sky package, sans movies (that’s another add-on).
It’s a bit muddy because Sky offer a phone and broadband package alongside the TV stuff, but both are separate costs (although sometimes bundled with discounts). Then there’s the ~£145 per annum TV license that funds the BBC.
Sky TV w. Sports is *technically* £47.50 per month and they currently have a internet & phone deal for £20 per annum with TV, so if you signed up today, you’d be looking at £67.50 per month + £12 TV license, so there’s a minimum cost of €92.71 per month to watch Sky Sports F1 via TV.
Rick (@)
6th January 2017, 23:02
@optimaximal That BBC funding sounds familiar. I just found out that by Dutch law, anyone who offers a TV package must include all Dutch and Flemish public broadcasters and also a selection of British and German ones (which includes the BBC).
Although technically we don’t pay the TV license for our public broadcaster (NPO) anymore, it was obviously bundled into the rest of the costs. Back then I went from € 12 for the license + € 20 for digital tv to € 32 for digital tv (no other options possible, except free-to-air analog).
But alright, I’ll stop complaining about the cost, I just wished the BBC still covered F1. Then again, I also wished I could still watch Top Gear on BBC HD with Clarkson, Hammond and May. ;-)
dex
5th January 2017, 13:55
What about Ron Dennis and Beckham then, Ron should have gubbed him in the Maldives. Don’t like Becks anyway, desperate for a knighthood that one. Ron will get one before him!
Phil-F1-21
5th January 2017, 14:57
I don’t pay for Sky but last year I used the Now TV option for a couple of races that were not on Channel 4 live. However I prefer the commentary team on C4 to be honest. There is not so much aimless waffle. I also don’t really find the very limited ad breaks much of an annoyance. People always find something to complain about no matter how small the problem.
pSynrg (@psynrg)
5th January 2017, 14:58
I’m upgrading to Sky’s 4K UHD coverage before the season kicks off.
Sky’s coverage since inception has been excellent. Just Herbert that grates a bit too much, Hill has developed into an interesting pundit. Brundle is the master. I still can’t see the point of Lazenby, but if it means less of Herbert, I’ll take it.
pSynrg (@psynrg)
5th January 2017, 15:00
Oh, and Kravitz has morphed into an even more annoying James Allen, but Ted’s segment can be easily skipped.
tek
5th January 2017, 15:28
I like how you said their coverage has been ‘excellent’ and then slagged off 60% of the presenting team :D
pSynrg (@psynrg)
5th January 2017, 22:45
You got a point tek, well, it’s mainly Crofty & Brundle and defo a Brundle fan-boy, as they say, and always enjoy hearing Damon. Maybe 50%? :)
Coverage also means everything they have on F1 – not just the presenters.
Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
5th January 2017, 16:23
I like Ted! I find his boyish enthusiasm endearing. Could watch the notebook all day
pSynrg (@psynrg)
5th January 2017, 22:46
I like his tech & team focused stuff, gets on my nerves with anything else.
dex
6th January 2017, 7:55
I have grown to like Ted too. I was not a fan when he was on ITV F1, but over time I get him. Damon is very good and his family are legend in F1. I like Jonny Herbert, he’s funny brings humour to the show, but he know his F1 too. Martin is very good obviously, however he has been over egging his point at times in recent years, rather than being an interested observer. Poor Mr Croft, I don’t like everyone calling him Crofty, he should be addressed as Mr Croft or by his Christian name. I don’t know maybe it is an English thing, but as I’m a Jock like cricket we don’t understand these things. Lewis is great!
Rick (@)
5th January 2017, 21:54
@psynrg too bad it’s UK only, I have to make do with Dutch F1 covrage in HD for €15 a month.
tonyyeb (@tonyyeb)
5th January 2017, 15:54
Much preferred Ben Edwards presenting BTCC on ITV4 than now doing F1 for CH4. Crofty is pretty annoying, tries to makes things too sensationalised, like a talking tabloid. Sometimes commentators have to accept that at points during events it will be dull. Test Match Special presenters are experts at this!
Alan
4th June 2017, 14:32
Ben Edwards to me is always watching a different race to me as he seems hysterical on every movement of the cars
Simon
5th January 2017, 17:39
How about getting a better presenter than Steve Jones?
Alan
4th June 2017, 14:29
Also must get rid of the three stooges Coultard, Chandock, and the poisoned dwarf Eddie Jordan
DaveF1 (@davef1)
5th January 2017, 18:23
Though I watch Sky, I think some of their crew is pretty dire. Brundle seems to be the only impartial one and probably talks the most sense, his analysis is brilliant too. Ted is ok and Davidson is probably the only bearable pundit.
Hill and Herbert are terrible pundits, Hill always seems dull and uninterested and Herbert just comes across as a bit of a tryhard Eddie Jordan-esque goof. Sky certainly missed a trick in not getting Webber as from what I’ve seen, he’s pretty good. Kind of hoping they try and get Button. Crofty is by far the worst commentator too, excluding his insufferable bias towards Hamilton (yes I’m fully aware it’s probably the same for Alonso in Spain and Verstappen in Holland etc), he seems to confuse drivers so many times and tends to come up with utter rubbish. For example he’d start shouting about a potential overtake when the driver behind is 5 car lengths back.
Clive Allen (@clive-allen)
5th January 2017, 21:25
The internet is a marvellous invention… :D
FR
5th January 2017, 21:41
Crap quality free 144p live streams with constant disconnections here we come
Tristan
5th January 2017, 23:11
The longer FOM sit on their hands the more people will go looking for and learn of the high quality pirated streams which will just make it harder to capture the tech savvy audience when they do introduce their official stream.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
6th January 2017, 1:36
If picking 10 races out of the 20, based upon F1 Fanatic’s average Rate The Race scores and the rule that there can be no more than two consecutive races that is live or not live (ignoring other rules such as the one that Sky and Channel 4 take turns), our intrepid Channel F1 Fanatic Free TV station (hereafter shortened to F1FF) would have:
1 Australian Grand Prix March 24 – 26 Channel F1FF in all except b2) (7th highest Rate the Race mark; not used in b2) to allow Bahrain to break up the Bahrain-Russia-Spain-Monaco block)
2 Chinese Grand Prix April 7 – 9 Channel F1FF (3rd highest Rate the Race mark)
3 Bahrain Grand Prix April 14 – 16 Channel F1FF b2) (11th in Rate the Race. Only possible if willing to break Australia-China pairing to resolve Bahrain-Russia-Spain-Monaco dilemma)
4 Russian Grand Prix April 28 – 30 Sky (27th in Rate the Race mark)
5 Spanish Grand Prix May 12 – 14 Channel F1FF a) and b1) (21st in Rate the Race mark)
6 Monaco Grand Prix May 25 – 28 Channel F1FF b1) and b2) (17th in Rate the Race mark)
7 Canadian Grand Prix June 9 – 11 Channel F1FF (2nd highest Rate the Race mark)
8 Azerbaijani Grand Prix June 23 – 25 Sky (compelled due to higher Austria-Britain following duo, and in any case 28th in Rate the Race)
9 Austrian Grand Prix July 7 – 9 Channel F1FF in all except b1) (13th highest Rate the Race mark; in b1) is lost due to need to break Bahrain-Russia-Spain-Monaco group)
10 British Grand Prix July 14 – 16 Channel F1FF (6th highest Rate the Race mark)
11 Hungarian Grand Prix July 28 – 30 Sky (9th highest RTR but would cause triple if F1F had it, and neighbouring races are better-ranked)
12 Belgian Grand Prix August 25 – 27 Channel F1FF (4th highest Rate the Race mark)
13 Italian Grand Prix September 1 – 3 Sky (14th highest Rate the Race mark, dropped in all methods of resolving Bahrain-Russia-Spain-Monaco group)
14 Singapore Grand Prix September 15 – 17 Sky (compelled due to higher-ranked preceding Belgium-Italy)
15 Malaysian Grand Prix September 29 – October 1 Channel F1FF (10th highest Rate the Race mark)
16 Japanese Grand Prix October 6 – 8 Sky (18th in Rate the Race)
17 United States Grand Prix October 20 – 22 Channel F1FF (5th highest Rate the Race mark)
18 Mexican Grand Prix October 27 – 29 Sky (24th in Rate the Race)
19 Brazilian Grand Prix November 10 – 12 Channel F1FF (8th highest Rate the Race mark)
20 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix November 24 – 26 Sky (19th in Rate the Race)
The main problem with this system is that there is a barren patch of four races – Bahrain, Russia, Spain and Monaco all end up Sky once F1F’s 10 races are allocated, which cannot happen under the rule.
There are two ways of dividing up the triple, which I will assess for the distance from the theoretical optimum line-up (which would in this case feature races 2-11th in Rate the Race as the Nurburgring isn’t in use this year):
a) make Russia or Spain a Channel F1Fanatic Free race or
b) make any two of the four a Channel F1 Fanatic Free race.
If going for method a), then Spain (21st in Rate the Race) makes a rather better choice than Sochi (27th in Rate the Race – note there are only 28 circuits in the list!) There are no compelling reasons for Sochi to be selected over Spain. In this case, Italy would be the dropped race, as it has the lowest rating of the naturally-chosen ones. 7 places off optimum (due to exchanging Italy for Spain).
Method b) is more difficult. Instinctively, one would want the highest-two rated races to be selected here – Bahrain in 11th and Monaco in 17th. However, to choose Bahrain, it is necessary to drop either Australia (7th) or China (3rd)…
Method b1) Leaves Bahrain alone, selecting Monaco (17th) and the next-best option (Spain, in 21st). Italy (14th) and Austria (13th) would need to be dropped to make way. 11 places off optimum (4 lost when swapping Austria for Monaco and 7 lost when swapping Italy for Spain).
Method b2) Makes Bahrain (11th) a Channel F1 Fanatic Free race, as well as Monaco (17th). Australia (7th) and Italy (14th) would be dropped. 7 places dropped (4 when exchanging Australia for Bahrain and 3 when exchanging Italy for Monaco).
So I present two equally strong candidates for Channel F1 Free’s line-up. Note that consecutive races are indicated by / between them, and those with at least one Sky round between them are indicared by – between them. I leave you, my fellow readers, to decide which of them better represents what F1 Fanatic readers would make the best season of 10-race free F1 programming:
Selection a) – Australia/China, Spain, Canada, Austria/Britain, Belgium, Malaysia, USA, Brazil
Selection b2) – China/Bahrain, Monaco/Canada, Austria/Britain, Belgium, Malaysia, USA, Brazil
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
6th January 2017, 1:38
Also, apologies if the table is a complete mess – I had trouble formatting.
William (@william)
6th January 2017, 3:08
Slightly off topic, but here in Australia we have a similar arrangement where Fox Sports have all races live and Ten who has 10 live races.
For this year, Ten has chosen:
Australian Grand Prix (which has to be shown in full)
Russian Grand Prix
Monaco Grand Prix
European Grand Prix
British Grand Prix
Belgium Grand Prix
Singapore Grand Prix
Malaysian Grand Prix
Mexican Grand Prix
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
6th January 2017, 17:31
Considering the spread of the calendar and that for commercial reasons you take the most well known races whilst considering the time and the time clashes it’s good. I would rather have:
Aus
Bah
Mon
Can
Brit
Mal
Bel
Jap
Bra
Abu (last race)
At least 8 of these are a must.
davidhunter13 (@davidhunter13)
7th January 2017, 19:56
That’s a pretty dire selection for me personally. How can they not have the opener live..?! China too is usually a good race. Nope we get Bahrain, the third round, as our first live race….
They’re missing Canada, Italy, Japan and Brazil… a pretty terrible selection of races NOT to have live. Seems like Channel 4 got a pretty poor pick.
Alan
4th June 2017, 14:25
4? not even showing the Canadian highlights today didn’t pay their Satellite subscription again I suppose
Freddy Jones
23rd February 2017, 16:31
F1 sold its soul when they filled their pockets with the Sky money. F1 viewing will probably die in the UK so Silverstone will be doomed. Sky is mostly killing all TV sport because all have sold out to their money. Hopefully sometime soon space debris will knock out their satellite!!
Ramsman1975
5th March 2017, 16:16
Hahaha! Yes I’d love that!
Lynda Kelly
15th March 2017, 18:15
I”m gutted Canada’s only on Sky. I can’t afford Sky prices for what amount to 3 hours X 10 races and that’s it. I need a week pass not a day so I get quali and the race and I think it’s £10 or more a pop.
It’s already a rich person’s sport in that it costs hundreds to attend and now they put it out of reach altogether for regular folk to even WATCH.
I thought Channel 4 had a decade contract as well ?
Read an article last month about Google and other search engines also assisting Sky in shutting down the streams you can use. They’re patchy at best but I use them as it’s that or nothing for half the season.
Anyway, I’m not happy at ALL !!
Angry in Hampshire X
Alan
4th June 2017, 14:23
What happened to Channel 4 highlights of Canadian Grand Prix looks like somebody forgot to pay the satellite subscription!!
Gordon Tweddle
17th June 2017, 11:37
Will channel 4 still be doing the highlights beyond 2018 even though sky has the rights for showing the races ?