Formula 1 in 2018

They don’t have to - Sky don’t either - it’s required for broadcasters showing the race live, they have to join the world feed at that point and stay with it until the end of the podium ceremonies. The rules always used to be (and I think still apply) that they are only allowed to cut away for commercials and a strictly limited amount of cutaways to their own cameras (ie for driver interviews etc). Picture in picture (apart from commercials) was banned for a long time, I think ITV wanted to use it for driver interviews during the race but couldn’t.

They can also leave the world feed in the event of a red flag, so long as they rejoin in advance of the restart if there is one.

As well as being a great race, Canada 2011 was notable for the hours of content which Jake Humphries and Eddie Jordan had to adlib, without even a commercial break to drop to.

Seemed to be some dodgy mics.
None the less pretty good for their first live outing of the year. Did it appear to anyone that Steve was ready to warn viewers about the graphic injury shot they were ready to discuss before the director presumably told him they weren't showing it and talk about Hamilton instead?

I read at the time that the BBC had to ask permission to do that, because they were expected to stay with the world feed. Sky have done so more recently during red flag periods, it seems the rules have changed. It certainly used to be the case that during all red flag periods - even extended ones - coverage would stay with the world feed. In the ITV days they’d get a commercial break out of the way.


(On that same race in Canada in 2011 the BBC apparently also had to go to Bernie and ask permission to switch the race midway through to BBC 2 because it was overrunning that badly and there was a big two part drama due across the Sunday and Monday due to start at 9pm that they didn’t want to postopone. It also meant BBC HD changing it’s schedule so HD coverage of the race could continue.)

Couldn't they have done a Final Score and cut to a trail?

The race had been stopped midway through due to very bad weather. It was going to restart at some point. In the end it was almost two hours before it did.

I mean during Final Score if nothings happening and they've ran out of things to talk about in the studio they'll cut to a trail for other BBC Sport events happening soon and then back to the studio.

IIRC they weren't allowed to switch away from the world feed until the new start time was announced, which left David Coulthard & Martin Brundle to commentate for hours on things like DC's favourite species of bird, and the top speed of a floor cleaning machine being used to sweep up water. Once the rain abated and a restart time was announced, they handed back to Jake & co. in the paddock who then filled until a new "start -5m" time when MB/DC resumed their commentary.

The BBC One / Two switch was Brazil qualifying, which again was delayed due to biblical quantities of rain after they'd started.

I seem to remember DC's favourite species of bird becoming a running joke for a few races whenever a shot of local wildlife appeared on the world feed.

Indeed, but there was also one during the extended delay in the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix.

I don't think the new start time was the point they could cut away, but I've got the race so I'd have to check my recording. I think it was once the got permission, as I seem to remember it just getting delayed more and more with 'next decision' type captions appearing each time the restart was pushed back.

I don't remember that happening at all, but I'll bow down to those with better memories (or just say it was handled amazingly smoothly!). What day is it again?

Either way, it was a pretty spectacular effort from commentary and presentation to go for so long without being able to resort to prerecorded material (eh, Wimbledon).

A delve into the murky depths of the archived Sport thread has jogged a few memories - I think the rain was bad enough to knock out the BBC's unilateral feed, so they had to fall back to the world feed plus ISDN audio for a while, so going to anything else wouldn't even have been an option. The schedules had already been knocked about a bit that day due to the Queen's final being rained off till the Monday.