The BBC has revealed its coverage plans for all Formula 1 races in 2012, after Sly Sports announced the launch of their dedicated Formula 1 channel from March 2012.
BBC One will broadcast 10 races from the 2012 season live, including the British, Monaco and season-ending Brazilian grands prix. Of the other 10, there will be extended highlights programmes on BBC One, of either 90-minute or two-hour duration depending on race location.
Races in the Far Eastern time zone will have highlights broadcast on BBC One at 2pm, with those in the European time zone getting 90 minutes at 5.30pm.
The races that will be shown live on BBC One and BBC HD are: China (15 April), Spain (13 May), Monaco (27 May), Europe (24 June), Britain (8 July), Belgium (2 September), Singapore (23 September), Korea (14 October), Abu Dhabi (4 November) and Brazil (25 November).
The BBC’s coverage of all the live races will be as extensive as ever, with all the action on and off the track across TV, radio, online, red button and mobile.
There will be full live coverage of both qualifying and race on BBC One, BBC One HD and the BBC Sport website, plus a one-hour evening highlights programme on BBC Three and BBC HD.
For these races, all three practice sessions will be shown live on the red button and the website.
The F1 Forum will continue on the red button for about an hour of comment and analysis after the programme.
The presentation team will be at all the races, including those that are not being broadcast live on BBC television. Full details of the team will be revealed at a later date.
For those races in the Far East time zone which take place early in the morning in the UK, two hours of highlights will be shown at 2pm.
For races which are run at a time that is early afternoon in the UK, 90 minutes of highlights will be shown at 5.30pm. Schedules are subject to change.
The full narrative of the weekend, including live text and audio commentary, news, interviews, pictures and highlights of all sessions on track, will also be available on the BBC Sport website and there will be live coverage of both qualifying and the race on radio. All 20 grands prix will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 5 Live or 5 Live Sports Extra.
The BBC Sport website and red button will broadcast live coverage of every second of on-track action for all the races that are live on BBC One and will have highlights of the others.
In summary, BBC F1 coverage for 2012 will be as follows:
Extended highlights (90 mins) on BBC One and BBC One HD, 5pm for European time zone races and (120 mins) 2pm for early morning races.
Qualifying: Extended highlights (75 mins) BBC One and BBC One HD, Saturdays at 5.30pm for European time zone races and 1pm for early morning races (Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying and highlights will be on BBC Two and BBC HD).
Live BBC races – all live on-track sessions streamed live on Red Button and on the BBC Sport website. Interactive forum on Red Button for an hour after each live race.
S*y Sports will screen all races live, 10 of which will be exclusive to the satellite broadcaster, they are as follows (Live BBC coverage in bold) :
Australian GP – Sly
Malaysian GP – Sly
Chinese GP – BBC & Sly
Bahrain GP – Sly
Spanish GP – BBC & Sly
Monaco GP – BBC & Sly
Canadian GP – Sly
European GP – BBC & Sly
British GP – BBC & Sly
German GP – Sly
Hungarian GP – Sly
Belgian GP – BBC & Sly
Italian GP – Sly
Singapore GP – BBC & Sly
Japanese GP – Sly
Korean GP – BBC & Sly
Indian GP – Sly
Abu Dhabi GP – BBC & Sly
United States GP – Sly
Brazilian GP – BBC & Sly
