Ben Holmes

No news yet. Unsurprisingly F1 want to be the one to announce. F1TV on Apple TV is still my best guess as Apple are not going to do their own coverage for $140m rights deal.

Regards F1 US rights it might be relevant that Eddie Cue from Apple is speaking at Autosport Business Exchange tonight on F1 related things. I think my instinct about an F1TV deal were spot on but I guess we’ll know soon enough.

I dunno. If this was a proper multi-year contract (as opposed to its one year with an optional 2 year extension say) wouldn’t they have been shouting about it? I get the feeling this is being spun. #f1

Betteridge’s Law in full effect there in the headline.

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In case you’re wondering

Just a reminder you could have read this on Reddit 6 days ago

Going to add one last thought - if Apple do buy it, and do their own wraparound coverage it means they want more than just the small US market. It means they want a global deal, and this is a first step.

F1 coverage is seriously expensive and technically challenging. It costs Sky millions to cover a race, and they recoup some by offering the coverage elewhere and sharing resources with Sky IT and DE. Will Apple really do their own version? Maybe the F1TV transfer to Apple TV makes the most sense.

Ok I’m hedging now. But what if Apple simply makes F1TV available on Apple TV for the same cost? Does that option make sense? Hard to say without knowing the US F1TV revenue.

This is the all important US market. It would be extremely risky for F1 to upset the (oh ho) apple cart for this deal. Not that such things haven’t been known to happen before. If it DOES go away, I would expect Apple to price F1 at the SAME COST as F1TV to avoid this. It’s the only other option.

Worth also saying that in many countries F1TV was not as established as it now is in the US when deals were done. And I know it’s been removed from some countries after deals were done. I just think the goodwill needed here to accept Apple will pull F1TV isn’t there and they will avoid it.

The question is will they charge extra for F1 and at what rate? Match F1TV? Will they do their own wraparound coverage or supplement the existing coverage?

ESPN take Sky’s coverage on many races which is longer and more comprehensive (but UK slanted).

These are the interesting questions.

People are acting as if Apple paying a modest increase in fees means F1 will ditch F1TV in the US. I doubt it.

Why do I think that? The premise is that Sky’s contract in the UK means no F1TV there (as with other countries) but Sky pay SO MUCH more than Apple will be paying. I just don’t see it.

Classic Bernie stitch-up

A tremendous amount of things have to happen to show the conclusion. We’ve seen last lap incidents be missed before. The entire focus at that point is elsewhere. This is live TV and it’s HARD. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Could they do better? Yes. But have a go before you pass judgement.

I will say this about the last lap of Singapore (as someone who’s been actively involved in F1 coverage): easy to armchair expert that one. Harder to spot and tell a story that fast, when you have lined up a sequence of events that lead to, err, showing the winner who we hardly saw all race.

This is because the sport is not run by younger people. We forget F1 bought in some smart people who did get it when Liberty took over. The media rights side of the business won that battle. DTS’ success has led to a lot of that power shift. Far too much of F1 now lives in the shadow of it.

Nando is 100% right about the coverage and 100% wrong about team radio given how much drivers use it just to game the racing and how much it adds to the coverage. I will say I think ends of races are the worst time for a lot of drama especially when you’ve essentially not shown the leaders all race.

That role is cemented by the fact that if you drank too much of the beer in there you wouldn’t make it anywhere else anyway 😂

It’s a deeply odd location but the beer is good and you can always find a space or even SIT DOWN in a location where that simply shouldn’t be possible. My go-to “let’s meet here before going somewhere nicer” because a group can actually fit in there.

The inevitability by which Monza led to this moment is staggering. Let them get on with it, and let the season balance out mistakes instead of constantly seeking arbitrary “fairness” in every instance. By any stretch this was just racing. They’re making it worse, not better.

Papaya Rules is the stupidest thing in F1. And now it’s been shown to be stupid can we please move on from it?

Star Bollocks

Whodathought the precedent McLaren set in Monza would turn around and bite them? I mean other than everyone.

Constantly amazed the standards people hold drivers to who are hurtling 3 abreast at 150mph into a corner. Shit happens. #f

So… basically RBR on bikes then?

The utter loathing I have for these “make you scroll through 7 adverts” nonsense one word answer articles. The answer is tin foil. Saved you a click.

PS - always use the Show Reader option on your iphone and skip the ads.

Literally all legacy media

Crossing everything for you mate 🤞

Sending good vibes