F1 TV Classic Race Highlights

[Nampahc Niloc]

I’ve been thinking about signing up for F1 TV. I really quite fancy the idea of rewatching entire old F1 seasons (starting with 96) from first to last race. YouTube is a bit hit and miss so I thought about checking out F1 TV, but was a bit disappointed to see that most of the races only have highlights.

Does anyone no how long the highlight packages are? Are they short 5 min rush throughs or is it most of the race?

[TheDeuce]

Typically 12-15 minutes for the highlights. They're pretty much as long as they need to be to cover the main aspects of the race.

They're steadily adding more races in full, and crucially have been pretty good at prioritising the good races - the ones that really deserve re-watching.

Def worth the money, it's a couple of quid a month for several hundred hours of archive F1 and when the races are live, the timing is useful too.

[Eric Mc]

There was plenty of F1 and Grand Prix racing going on before 1996.

[TheDeuce]

Eric Mc said:

There was plenty of F1 and Grand Prix racing going on before 1996.

That's not very useful for a chap that specifically has asked about 96 onward

[anonymous-user]

I've got the annual review tape/DVD going back to 1991.

[Eric Mc]

jsf said:

I've got the annual review tape/DVD going back to 1991.

I have the 1981 to 1984 official VHS tapes. I also taped most race highlights from 1983 to 2000 (the Schumacher era was the end for me).

There was also a series of film retrospectives for each season from 1969 to 1980 by a film company called Brunswick. They weren't based on the TV coverage but shot independently using their own film crews. They are a bit patchy in quality but if you want to see footage, for example, of the 1970 South African Grand Prix, there isn't much else available.

[sparta6]

Eric Mc said:

There was plenty of F1 and Grand Prix racing going on before 1996.

'96 was the start of something interesting in F1.
The fastest driver was jumping into an inferior car.
A genuine challenge and compelling viewing.

[Eric Mc]

It was an interesting and engrossing year - agreed. But for me it was probably "Peak F1" and within a few years as far as I'm concerned the sheer thrill had faded.

[Deesee]

For 1996 (since you asked),

F1TV, has highlights of all the races, full races for Spain, Portugal & Monaco

The full archive is being upload and digitised all the way back to 1951, so we will have full races for all seasons.

The Full races (at the moment) though the season pretty much go back to 2009.

For 2018/2019 you can also select dedicated cameras for the entire races, (onboards), and also switch in and out of them.

[TheDeuce]

Deesee said:

For 1996 (since you asked),

F1TV, has highlights of all the races, full races for Spain, Portugal & Monaco

The full archive is being upload and digitised all the way back to 1951, so we will have full races for all seasons.

The Full races (at the moment) though the season pretty much go back to 2009.

For 2018/2019 you can also select dedicated cameras for the entire races, (onboards), and also switch in and out of them.

And possible to watch with sound on but commentary off - which I know some people quite like.

Is it confirmed they're going to go all the way to back to 1951 eventually (as much as footage exists at least)? I thought there were some knotty licensing issues that made that awkward?

Overall indeed a good service and easily worth a couple of quid a month. Probably actually cheaper than the real estate occupied by the masses of VHS tapes required to hold a fraction of the content.

[Deesee]

TheDeuce said:

Deesee said:

For 1996 (since you asked),

F1TV, has highlights of all the races, full races for Spain, Portugal & Monaco

The full archive is being upload and digitised all the way back to 1951, so we will have full races for all seasons.

The Full races (at the moment) though the season pretty much go back to 2009.

For 2018/2019 you can also select dedicated cameras for the entire races, (onboards), and also switch in and out of them.

And possible to watch with sound on but commentary off - which I know some people quite like.

Is it confirmed they're going to go all the way to back to 1951 eventually (as much as footage exists at least)? I thought there were some knotty licensing issues that made that awkward?

Overall indeed a good service and easily worth a couple of quid a month. Probably actually cheaper than the real estate occupied by the masses of VHS tapes required to hold a fraction of the content.

There back to 1981 (for highlights so far), and have listed seasons back to the 50’s so I’m guessing they want to go back as far as they can.

[Nampahc Niloc]

Thanks guys. It’s good to know they’re working on getting full races on there. I am aware there are plenty of other seasons, but I was thinking of starting with 96 purely for nostalgia reasons. It’s the first season that really sticks in my memory (I was only 8 at the time and Hill winning probably helps), though I do have vague recollections before that.

[TheDeuce]

Nampahc Niloc said:

Thanks guys. It’s good to know they’re working on getting full races on there. I am aware there are plenty of other seasons, but I was thinking of starting with 96 purely for nostalgia reasons. It’s the first season that really sticks in my memory (I was only 8 at the time and Hill winning probably helps), though I do have vague recollections before that.

No problem. And just to round it off so you know what to expect...

Full races currently in the archive for these 5 years:

96 - Monaco, Spain, Portugal
97 - German, Hungarian, European
98 - Australian, Hungarian, Canadian, Belgian, Japanese
99 - Australian, French, British, Belgian, Italian, European, Malaysian, Japanese
2000 - Spanish, French, German, Belgian

And so on..

Every remaining GP in each of those seasons is represented by a decent 'in review' video which is enough to follow the overall stories and drama across each season, and of course the highlights of the race itself.

Edited by TheDeuce on Wednesday 22 January 10:53

[sgtBerbatov]

There's plenty on YouTube at the moment. Especially the review ones. I've watched the 1997, 1998, and 1999 ones.

Can't help thinking what an incredible season we could've had if Frentzen wasn't at Williams in 1997 and Hill remained. A three way title fight.

And I also can't help thinking what might have been if Frentzen wasn't so crash happy in 1999 and Hill just left when he wanted to.

[Eric Mc]

Deesee said:

There back to 1981 (for highlights so far), and have listed seasons back to the 50’s so I’m guessing they want to go back as far as they can.

1981 is the first season which was negotiated by Bernie "en bloc" through his FOCA organisation. Before then, there was no all encompassing deal.

As for going back as far as 1951, there was TV coverage of Grand Prix and other non-championship F1 races as far back as that (possibly even before then) but the problem is that until around the mid 1950s there was no easy way of recording TV broadcasts. Video tape wasn't really in use yet and the only way to record a TV image was to point a film camera at a TV monitor and film the TV image directly off the screen. That's how the BBC made a record of their TV coverage of the Coronation in 1953. Video recording of F1 races really doesn't start until the early to mid 1960s. But even then records weren't retained - video tape was re-used, for instance (the BBC were terrible for this).

Of course, there was film coverage of motor racing right back to the dawn of the sport so there is no reason why you could not put together a package covering Grand Prix races as far back as you like (1906 for formal Grand Prix events).

[Deesee]

Eric Mc said:

1981 is the first season which was negotiated by Bernie "en bloc" through his FOCA organisation. Before then, there was no all encompassing deal.

As for going back as far as 1951, there was TV coverage of Grand Prix and other non-championship F1 races as far back as that (possibly even before then) but the problem is that until around the mid 1950s there was no easy way of recording TV broadcasts. Video tape wasn't really in use yet and the only way to record a TV image was to point a film camera at a TV monitor and film the TV image directly off the screen. That's how the BBC made a record of their TV coverage of the Coronation in 1953. Video recording of F1 races really doesn't start until the early to mid 1960s. But even then records weren't retained - video tape was re-used, for instance (the BBC were terrible for this).

Of course, there was film coverage of motor racing right back to the dawn of the sport so there is no reason why you could not put together a package covering Grand Prix races as far back as you like (1906 for formal Grand Prix events).

Eric as ever spot on

I did read that the Dutch/Belgium broadcasters have quite the back catalogue, I really hope some of these are restored and available for digital broadcast.

[dobly]

Eric Mc said:

1981 is the first season which was negotiated by Bernie "en bloc" through his FOCA organisation. Before then, there was no all encompassing deal.

As for going back as far as 1951, there was TV coverage of Grand Prix and other non-championship F1 races as far back as that (possibly even before then) but the problem is that until around the mid 1950s there was no easy way of recording TV broadcasts. Video tape wasn't really in use yet and the only way to record a TV image was to point a film camera at a TV monitor and film the TV image directly off the screen. That's how the BBC made a record of their TV coverage of the Coronation in 1953. Video recording of F1 races really doesn't start until the early to mid 1960s. But even then records weren't retained - video tape was re-used, for instance (the BBC were terrible for this).

Of course, there was film coverage of motor racing right back to the dawn of the sport so there is no reason why you could not put together a package covering Grand Prix races as far back as you like (1906 for formal Grand Prix events).

My father in law designed and made the machine at the BBC that wiped the tapes for re-use.

[Eric Mc]

He should have been shot

[generationx]

The Doctor Who fan-boys will be baying for his blood. All nerdy ten of them.

[TheDeuce]

generationx said:

The Doctor Who fan-boys will be baying for his blood. All nerdy ten of them.

Only a doctor who fan would know that those were some of the saddest tape losses... Nerd

Actually they weren't generally wiped so much as lost. They were aware of the potential value of the series and there were efforts to sell the concept elsewhere. Back in those days they had a single master copy of the full edited show, so they simply mailed those copies to interested parties. Poor inventory management and tracking that didn't exist made that a risky way of doing things! A handful of original master copies have subsequently been rediscovered and sent back over the years.

All sounds a bit far fetched but the early BBC were pioneering the industry so there was a lot happening, it must have been a fairly frantic time and worrying very much about already transmitted programs probably wasn't high up on the agenda.