FOM Fail To Show Force India During Qualifying Broadcast

After qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, it became apparent that Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM Television company, who are in control of the F1 world TV feed, failed to show a full shot of a Force India car during the session. This has aroused suspicions, after Force India failed to make an appearance during FP2 on Friday.

With controversy surrounding the running of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Force India decided to pack up early on Friday and therefore not run during the second practice session, with the team wishing to leave the track in daylight hours. This came after four Force India members’ got caught up in protests on Wednesday night as they traveled from the circuit to their hotels in Manama.

During qualifying, the Force India of Paul di Resta was the first driver out on track in both Q1 and Q2, yet images of the Scot were never seen from the FOM. Paul di Resta even set the first timed lap of both Q1 and Q2, yet still the FOM failed to pick up on the teams actions on track. This has created suspicions as to whether F1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who owns the FOM (Formula One Management) purposefully instructed the TV Director to not show any of the Force India’s throughout qualifying, after they made international headlines after failing to appear in practice two through safety fears.

With many picking up on the absence of a Force India on their TV screens across the globe, Bernie Ecclestone has insisted it was not deliberate: “Nobody cares if someone is 9th or 11th,” he explained to Reuters. “Only the people that are watching a particular team. I spoke to our people and they were more or less concentrating on who was going to be on pole, rather than somebody going to be 10th.”

The team themselves have remained silent on the situation, with Paul di Resta declining to comment, stating that he had read various comments on Twitter. With a 57-lap race ahead of them tomorrow, one would imagine the cars’ would undeniably be seen during the TV coverage of the race.

In qualifying, the only shot of a Force India was whilst onboard with Mark Webber as the Red Bull flew past Paul di Resta in the dying seconds of the session. Whether this is pure payback from not running in FP2 on Friday or not, it will be interesting to see whether the Force India’s make it onto the TV during the race later today.

Picture Copyright © AFP

Codemasters Extends Partnership With Bernie Ecclestone

Whether you are a petrol-head who can’t get enough of Formula 1, or if you are someone who simply enjoys playing racing games, the Formula 1 games’ developed by Codemasters will understandably be the crown jewel of your gaming catalogue.

It has been confirmed today that Codemasters has extended their partnership with Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One World Championship Limited, thus meaning the legendary Codemasters F1 games will continue for a further multi-year deal. After the success of their first two installments (F1 2010 and F1 2011), Formula 1 fans can now rejoice with the knowledge that these games will continue for many years to come.

“Codemasters has created some of the best and most successful Formula One games to date.” Said F1 supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, “We and the teams work closely with them and look forward to creating more award winning games together in the future.”

“We got off to a strong start with Formula One but we harbor ambitions to do much more.” Explained Codemasters CEO, Rod Cousens, “Formula One is front of mind at Codemasters and we give it the focus and attention it deserves. We have established close links across the sport and they know that, in Codemasters, they have a great partner. We remain ambitious with our plans and want to take the series forward. We want to take it to new geographies, make it available on new platforms to new audiences. We are taking Formula One to a new online platform this spring and our portfolio will be extended with a Formula One experience that will address a younger video game audience later in 2012. Our teams are hard at it, creating world class Formula One games across multiple genres for players irrespective of location or gaming platform and now, for many years to come.”

Whether you enjoy jumping straight into a quick race as one of your favorite drivers’, or whether the spectacle of creating your own driver and competing in a career mode is your thing, tighten your seat-belts as it seems Codemasters have more to come from their award winning Formula 1 games.

2012 Pirelli Tyres Receive New Markings

The Pirelli tyres for the coming 2012 season have received new markings to help make it clearer to fans which type of tyres the drivers are using throughout the season, with a new range of wet tyres also unveiled.

The colors which depict the different types of tyre have been slightly tweaked, with the writing becoming more bolder with the bands near the lettering becoming slightly larger. There has also been a slight change to help fans differentiate between the white (medium) tyres and the silver (hard) tyres with the writing on the silver variant becoming more darker.

Pirelli have also changed the range of wet tyres that will be on offer to the F1 teams throughout the season, with the P-Zero range being replaced by the Cinturato range which Pirelli made famous in the 1950s. The colors of the wet tyres have also been changed, with the full wets now in blue with the intermediate tyres in green.

In 2012, Pirelli also hope to help make F1 more exciting, with a more aggressive approach from Pirelli in its tyres compounds. Pirelli will also allow the Formula One Management (FOM) more access more data, with the idea that the data will then be able to be adopted in an on-screen graphic which will be able to show the fans how old a particular tyre is.

Pirelli have also slightly changed the construction of the tyre, with the end result being a slightly squarer variant which is aimed at helping improve grip and handling for the 2012 season.

Pirelli enter their second year as sole tyre supplier for the F1 teams after replacing Bridgestone, who were the sole supplier after Michelin ended their involvement in F1 after the 2006 season.

Russian driver Vitaly Petrov was today hinted at potentially joining Pirelli as their test driver, however both Petrov and Pirelli denied these rumors.

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.