Though the F1 season had its inaugural race in Australia a couple of weekends ago, for many of us the calendar will truly begin when we get to see the first full race on the BBC with Suzie Perry, David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan presiding over the brilliantly mad cap proceedings. The BBC’s 2015 F1 coverage may have dipped its toe with the highlights from Oz, which saw Lewis Hamilton return to form with a dominating win as he defends his title, but the first live race coverage comes this weekend (race day on the 29th March 2015) with the Malaysia Grand Prix.
All of the nineteen races will be covered pretty extensively with ten going out live and the remaining ten getting extended highlights. The live races will be Malaysia, Bahrain, Canada, Great Britain, Hungary, Belgium Japan, Russia, Brazil and Abu Dhabi. We’re a little disappointed that Monte Carlo is only going to get highlights, but the up side is that both of the final two races will be live on the BBC.
If that isn’t enough, you’ll also be able to catch every practice, qualifying and race day live on BBC Radio 5 live, 5 live sports extra or the BBC Sport website, so you can keep up with all of the action as it develops throughout the season. Suzi Perry will also be hosting a new show in 2015 called F1 Rewind dotted throughout the season on BBC Two alongside F1 commentating legend Murray Walker who will be reliving the most classic Grands Prix races of the past.
Joining the Perry, Jordan and Coulthard triptych will be Ben Edwards in the lead commentator role once again, with reporters Lee McKenzie and Tom Clarkson providing coverage of all the news from the pit lane. The team is completed by three-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Allan McNish, who will be providing additional analysis on everything from race conditions to driver ups and downs and car developments.
On live Grand Prix weekends you’ll be able to control how you watch the races, with five different video options to choose from using the red button in addition to the standard network TV coverage. You’ll be able to flick between the pit-lane camera to see all of the tyre changes, driver tracker, a stream of on-board cameras from the field, TV pictures with Radio 5 live commentary and a timing screen to see where things stand whenever you need a quick update.
The coverage is part of the BBC deal with F1 racing that will see them through until 2018, and long may it continue. The full race calendar and 2015 coverage details are below, so make sure you pencil everything into your Filo-Fax for good measure.
2015 BBC F1 coverage schedule and live race times:
Australia: 15 March – Highlights
Malaysia: 29 March – Live at 08:00
China: 12 April – Highlights – Race time: 07:00
Bahrain: 19 April – Live at 16:00
Spain: 10 May – Highlights – Race time: 13:00
Monaco: 24 May – Highlights – Race time: 13:00
Canada: 7 June – Live at 19:00
Austria: 21 June – Highlights – Race time: 13:00
Great Britain: 5 July – Live at 13:00
Hungary: 26 July – Live at 13:00
Belgium: 23 August – Live at 13:00
Italy: 6 September – Highlights – Race time: 13:00
Singapore: 20 September – Highlights – Race time: 13:00
Japan: 27 September – Live at 06:00
Russia: 11 October – Live at 12:00
United States: 25 October – Highlights – Race time: 19:00
Mexico: 1 November – Highlights – Race time: 19:00
Brazil: 15 November – Live at 16:00
Abu Dhabi: 29 November – Live at 13:00
Extended highlights, which have an average run time of 90 minutes, will air at around 17:00 for European races, 14:00 for early morning races and 22:30 for American time zone races (USA and Mexico).
