[Race] Japanese Grand Prix 2015: Weekend Thread

[Adam43]

That might be what would happen if the people suggesting it ran F1.

Alternatively they just showed were the action was. Perhaps because fans whinge when they only show the leader.

[Adam43]

Anyway that is not important.

Call this the pinnacle of motor racing. It's a joke. Again the fastest car and driver won and was not overtaken. This didn't used to happen until they changed the rules. Does the governing body realise what they've done allowing cars to compete in races.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Adam43

That might be what would happen if the people suggesting it ran F1.

Alternatively they just showed were the action was. Perhaps because fans whinge when they only show the leader.

It's come up because earlier this year Ferrari noted that there was very little coverage of their cars after a disagreement with BCE, and the same allegedly happened during one meeting with Force India. Yes, the teams are paranoid, however, although most of them are in F1 for the sport, they also need to have the publicity afforded to them by the TV cameras. They do notice when that is lacking.

[Adam43]

It was probably a load of rubbish then too.

[Akrapovic]

It wasn't rubbish when it was Force India. They were literally the only car on team during practice and the cameras refused to show them and we got pit lane activity. Then when a car did pit out, when it got overtaken by a FI, the cameras cut to pit lane again and then back when it was clear. I don't know about the Ferrari incident because I can't recall it. But Force India was 100% kept off the cameras. Race was Bahrain in their case.

[Adam43]

I do remember the Force India theory now.

[Adam43]

And here is the injustice from Lauda and Wolff's
http://m.autosport.com/news/report.p...of-tv-coverage

[mikuni]

It was quite clear the Mercedes were not being shown. Usually when a race leader pits it is shown, but in this case, even when there was no real action on track, it was not shown.

Even on the last lap they were reluctant to show the cars, and were instead strangely showing a Force India lapping by itself. I did actually wonder whether it was a genuine mistake, and even Niki Lauda said it could have been a mistake by an inexperienced director.

I have no idea what the reason was, but to suggest it is just a conspiracy theory is not accurate. There was definitely a lack of coverage of the Mercedes cars this weekend, the only question is why.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by mikuni

It was quite clear the Mercedes were not being shown. Usually when a race leader pits it is shown, but in this case, even when there was no real action on track, it was not shown.

Even on the last lap they were reluctant to show the cars, and were instead strangely showing a Force India lapping by itself. I did actually wonder whether it was a genuine mistake, and even Niki Lauda said it could have been a mistake by an inexperienced director.

I have no idea what the reason was, but to suggest it is just a conspiracy theory is not accurate. There was definitely a lack of coverage of the Mercedes cars this weekend, the only question is why.

Most of the action was much further down the field in the bottom 10 and maybe the TV race director thought showing Hamilton's loan Mercedes, wasn't going to make for particularly interesting viewing.

[mikuni]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Most of the action was much further down the field in the bottom 10 and maybe the TV race director thought showing Hamilton's loan Mercedes, wasn't going to make for particularly interesting viewing.

I'm not sure if you read what I wrote at all, but I was replying to this very perspective. Even when the Mercedes was worth showing, they barely did. Pit stops, over taking back markers, even on the final lap they usually show the leader, but in this case they were struggling to even do this.

I do see where you are coming from, showing Hamiltons car for the whole race would have been boring, but this isn't the issue.

For example, for the entire duration of the race (which was not that enthralling that they couldn't take a moment away from the action), they didn't show a replay of the open lap, second corner. This was a significant moment in the race. I wasn't that happy because in real time it looked like Lewis pushed Nico wide, but why would they go the whole race without showing the one move that actually decided the winner. It was just strange.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by mikuni

I'm not sure if you read what I wrote at all, but I was replying to this very perspective. Even when the Mercedes was worth showing, they barely did. Pit stops, over taking back markers, even on the final lap they usually show the leader, but in this case they were struggling to even do this.

I do see where you are coming from, showing Hamiltons car for the whole race would have been boring, but this isn't the issue.

For example, for the entire duration of the race (which was not that enthralling that they couldn't take a moment away from the action), they didn't show a replay of the open lap, second corner. This was a significant moment in the race. I wasn't that happy because in real time it looked like Lewis pushed Nico wide, but why would they go the whole race without showing the one move that actually decided the winner. It was just strange.

I read your post.

I watched the race live and they showed the replay and you can see it in the race highlights on BBC iplayer and there's an on board shot of Rosberg and Hamilton from Bottas's Williams.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...rix-highlights 08:58

[mikuni]

OK. I did watch the race on Sky, so perhaps it may have only been them that didn't show it, however I am sure it is a world feed, so the coverage is the same.

The start was replayed and they showed it from Bottas' car, which is from a distance and doesn't show the whole picture (I can't view the link you posted because it is blocked in NZ).

After the race Sky showed it from Lewis' car which gave a far more telling view of it, and Martin said to Lewis that he ran him off the road.. haha

But my point remains (as far as I'm concerned), that the Merc's were not broadcast as much during this race as I would have expected.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by mikuni

OK. I did watch the race on Sky, so perhaps it may have only been them that didn't show it, however I am sure it is a world feed, so the coverage is the same.

The start was replayed and they showed it from Bottas' car, which is from a distance and doesn't show the whole picture (I can't view the link you posted because it is blocked in NZ).

After the race Sky showed it from Lewis' car which gave a far more telling view of it, and Martin said to Lewis that he ran him off the road.. haha

But my point remains (as far as I'm concerned), that the Merc's were not broadcast as much during this race as I would have expected.

The highlights on BBC iplayer show the replay from track side, from above and from Bottas's car. It's pretty clear Hamilton pushed Rosberg wide.

[chillibowl]

they did do a pretty bad job of showing Nico and Lewis at the start.

im of mixed feelings. Nico had pole and the racing line/cleaner part of the track and still had a poor start. NR had already lost corners 1 and 2 by the time LH pushed him off.

just hard racing imo. then again we never got good views of it.

[Razzzor]

Yeah there must have been something up, throughout that last stint when we were watching nico/seb come up to the backmarkers, the cameras stayed glued to the backmarkers. I had to try and looking at the back of the screens everytime waiting for them to come into shot, which took a long time.

Even when Nico got in there, they weren't properly focusing on him. At once point seb was right up within a second of Nico, and they never even showed it at all. You could only but watching the live timing. By the time we finally got to see Nico get to Button, they kind of cut that out but you could briefly see Seb had dropped back 2.5s.

We probably had more McLaren screentime in this race than the rest of the year combined.

Why the hell would Mercedes want to supply RB? They'll probably get beaten with that chassis and Ricciardo in the car!

[steve_r]

At one point Vettel closed to within a second or so of Rosberg, but we did not see a thing. Bizarre. Yes, the battle for 12th was close and deserved some attention, but not over and above a potential scrap for 2nd.

[wolfhound]

A little more insight into the amount of broadcast time Mercedes got during the Japanese GP.
It adds up the total time Mercedes cars were to be seen clearly in the FOM broadcast at under 6 minutes.

https://f1broadcasting.wordpress.com...se-grand-prix/

[Adam43]

How much did the other teams get?l
The race was 88 minutes long. Does that mean just under nine minutes on average for each team? Or is it not that simple, are there times when two teams are counted at once, or none are counted?

[wolfhound]

Originally Posted by Adam43

How much did the other teams get?l
The race was 88 minutes long. Does that mean just under nine minutes on average for each team? Or is it not that simple, are there times when two teams are counted at once, or none are counted?

I don't know but usually the only time we see Manor is when they are being lapped. I can imagine that if 2 cars are battling for position then that would count for both teams but cannot say as I am only going on the data as presented and there was no mention of what other teams got during the GP.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by wolfhound

A little more insight into the amount of broadcast time Mercedes got during the Japanese GP.
It adds up the total time Mercedes cars were to be seen clearly in the FOM broadcast at under 6 minutes.

https://f1broadcasting.wordpress.com...se-grand-prix/

Out of 325 votes 59.38% thought Mercedes were blacklisted.

Interesting but I don't know, as a proportion, how representative 325 is of the F1 fanbase?

[Adam43]

They ask 325 people on the Internet. That's more than would make up a jury. Guilty.

[Adam43]

I hope we get more battles down the field shown rather than the run away leader.

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by Adam43

I hope we get more battles down the field shown rather than the run away leader.

Ecclestone's excuse is that he had given the director of Bernie Vision the instruction that they should give more airtime to battles throughout the field, and that he, BCE, thought that perhaps the director had swung too far the other way. Believe that as you wish!

I still think that it will be interesting to note just how much coverage will be given to Sauber and Force India in the coming weeks.