Lotus Elect For Online Unveiling Of 2013 Car

Lotus have elected to unveil their new 2013 challenger, the E21, live on their YouTube channel on January 28th. This date will make Lotus the first team to unveil their 2013 car ahead of the new season, with McLaren following several days later on January 31st.

After a sensationally competitive 2012 season, in which Kimi Raikkonen stormed to victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, including numerous podium finishes for both Raikkonen and Grosjean, the Enstone-based outfit are confident they can continue to fight at the sharp-end of the field. The team have retained the same driver line-up for the forthcoming season, with Iceman Kimi Raikkonen set to partner Frenchman Romain Grosjean once again.

The unveiling will begin at 19:15 UK time on the team’s YouTube channel, and will also be broadcast on Sky Sports News HD within the UK. Once pre-season testing gets underway the following week at Jerez in Spain, Lotus have confirmed that Romain Grosjean will get behind the wheel of the E21 for the opening two days, before relinquishing his seat to allow Kimi Raikkonen to drive the new machine for the first time.

Picture Copyright © Lotus F1 Team

Sky Sports F1 HD To Show GP2 & GP3 In 2012

Sky Sports have confirmed that their dedicated Formula 1 channel, Sky Sports F1 HD, will definitely be broadcasting the feeder series’ GP2 and GP3 throughout the coming 2012 season. 

With many current F1 drivers’ having graduated from GP2 such as Lewis Hamilton, Romain Grosjean, Sergio Perez, Pastor Maldonado and Charles Pic, GP2 and GP3 has become the number one source of attention for F1 teams’ hoping to find that next World Champion.

Last season both Romain Grosjean and Valtteri Bottas won the GP2 and GP3 Series’ Championship respectively, resulting in both graduating to Formula 1 for this coming season in one way or another. Frenchman Romain Grosjean has secured himself a drive with Lotus alongside Kimi Raikkonen, whereas the younger Finn of Valtteri Bottas has become the Williams test and reserve driver, a move which will allow him to take part in 15 Friday Practice sessions this season.

“We are delighted to be showing GP2 and GP3 live on Sky Sports F1 HD.” Said Sky Sports Executive Producer for F1, Martin Turner. “There are six former GP2 champions in Formula 1 this season, including Lewis Hamilton and last year’s winner Romain Grosjean. The series promises nail-biting and fascinating racing and we’ll track gifted drivers through the ranks as they aim for Formula 1.”

This season GP2 will visit new and exciting locations, as they leave their native European home and set out to visit tracks such as Malaysia’s Sepang circuit and the Singapore Street Circuit, as well as GP3 visiting Monaco for the first time.

The 2012 GP2 Series starts on March 23-25 as they visit Malaysia for the first time, whereas the GP3 Series begins on May 12-13 supporting the Spanish Grand Prix.

Sky Sports News Announce New F1 Plans

Sky Sports News have today announced their broadcasting plans for F1 in 2012, with the channel announcing they will broadcast on site for all 20 Grands Prix this season as well as the pre-season test sessions and car launches. 

The channel has announced that two reporters will be tasked with working alongside the various teams up and down the grid for the coming season, as well as being present at the pre-season test sessions which begin at Jerez on 7th February. 

The reporters (Rachel Brooks and Craig Slater) will apparently be broadcasting track side for up to six days each race weekend, with the aim of bringing a more detailed analysis and extensive coverage of each Grands Prix alongside the new dedicated Sky Sports F1 HD channel which launches in March. 

Coupled with the coverage which the BBC will be offering and the Sky Sports F1 HD channel, UK viewers will be spoilt for choice when the 2012 season begins in March at the Australian Grand Prix. 

 

Virgin Media To Broadcast Sky Sports F1 HD

It was announced today that the new dedicated F1 channel, Sky Sports F1 HD, will be broadcast on Virgin Media. The channel will be made free to existing Sky Sports package customers on Virgin TV, the same deal that exists for Sky Sports package subscribers on Sky TV. 

With Sky Sports and the BBC sharing the broadcasting for this coming seasons races, its was unknown whether the new dedicated channel was to be broadcast on other TV platforms such as Virgin Media and BT, with fears that subscribers to Virgin Media and BT Vision might well miss out on the new channel, with no option except to either switch to Sky TV or rely on BBC’s coverage of 10 races live and the rest being shown in a delayed highlights format.

Although there has yet to be word on whether BT customers will receive the channel, it is now officially confirmed that Sky Sports F1 HD will be available to existing Sky Sports subscribers on Virgin Media. This means Virgin TV customers won’t miss a single lap of the 2012 season, so long as they pay or are currently paying to receive the Sky Sports package consisting of channels already available on Virgin Media. 

The new Sky Sports F1 HD channel will launch on March 9th, one week before the season opening Australian Grand Prix.  

James Allen Becomes BBC Radio 5 Live Commentator

Ex-ITV commentator James Allen has been announced as the new BBC Radio 5 Live lead commentator, replacing David Croft who last year was announced as the commentator for the new dedicated F1 channel Sky Sports F1 HD alongside former BBC colleagues Martin Brundle and Anthony Davidson.

James Allen took over from Murray Walker as ITV commentator in 2002, alongside Martin Brundle and was immediately under the spotlight by critics, some believing he was trying to sound too much like Murray Walker and that his enthusiasm sometimes got the better of him, especially when Jenson Button won his first ever Grand Prix at the 2006 Hungarian Grand Prix.

However, regardless of what the critics have said about him, no-one can deny that James Allen’s enthusiasm for Formula 1 is unmatched by any of todays journalists and commentators. In 2009 he became the Formula One Management World Feed Interviewer when he was asked to do so for the 2009 British Grand Prix in place of Peter Windsor, and he asked questions for the post-qualifying and post-race TV interviews. 

James Allen will continue writing for his website and will also continue his contributions to Australia’s Ten Sport F1 coverage. With the BBC loosing the majority of its major talent to Sky Sports for 2012, the BBC couldn’t have picked a more enthusiastic commentator to head their BBC Radio 5 Live coverage.

Sky Set To Launch Sky Sports F1 HD Channel

It has been announced today that Sky will launch a Formula 1 standalone channel in March in preparation for the 2012 season in which Sky will broadcast all the Races, Qualifying sessions and Practice sessions as well as a weekly magazine show. The BBC will also continue their broadcasting of F1 throughout 2012 with delayed highlights of all the races as well as half of the seasons races live and in full.

Sky have also announced that there will be a huge amount of extra live content for each race weekend which will feature an on-board channel, behind the scenes with the pit reporters and the ability to follow race data.

This is all very reminiscent of the old Formula 1 Pay-Per-View channel, F1 Digital+, that was set up in 1996 and broadcast in the UK on Sky in 2002 before the channel closed after the 2002 season. The channel featured many of the extra ad-ons that Sky Sports F1 HD will feature next year including the ability to follow the pit lane reporters throughout the race and also view the on-board channel throughout the weekend.

These new additions to Sky will undoubtedly boost their Sky Sports subscriptions heading into the new F1 season as well as cementing Sky as the leading F1 broadcaster in the UK!