The Future of F1 Minute Video
Last week, for a period of five days, F1 Minute trialled a new service dubbed F1 Minute Video. The idea was to look into ways of building upon the current daily audio show format and to judge audience reaction.
The feedback received was overwhelmingly positive. Whether from comments here, or on other sites, it looks like the concept translated well. We had originally envisaged running the trial for more than a week, but we’ve halted the project temporarily in order to improve a number of areas.
Upscaling
The production workflow was always envisaged to be a high definition workflow. Original footage is filmed in HD, and the graphics are created for HD resolutions. Sadly high definition Formula 1 footage is few and far between at the moment, and upscaling existing SD footage is both time consuming and imperfect. We’re actively looking into solving this issue though and there will be more trials relating to this in the future.
Formatting
F1 Minute isn’t necessarily tied to a daily format, it was just the most obvious step up from the current daily format to investigate. We’re keen to see what else might work, and how we might handle events during the course of a race weekend. At the moment, the audio show runs five days a week during the off season, and seven days a week when races occur. That’s a lot of video editing to consider, when there’s only two people working on the project.
Sponsoring
The production time involved in creating the daily video was greater than we estimated. There are many ways to reduce the amount of work involved, some to the detriment of the project and some not so. Primarily though, if we want to ensure the show remains some form of regularity it will require additional financial input that we don’t yet have. Traditionally there are a number of solutions to this problem, from offering a subscription package to finding some form of show sponsorship. As far as we’re aware, there are no other services like this online or offline, and currently the content is produced to a broadcast standard. Whether or not there is enough demand for such a service is open to question.
This post was intended as a means of keeping everybody in the loop, and offer a chance to say thank you to everyone who took an interest in the first video trial. We’ve already learnt a lot, and we’ll need to learn a lot more, so we intend there to be more trials before the start of the 2010 season, albeit perhaps in a more ad-hoc fashion.
We’ll keep you posted.
Sauber Reorganise Directors for 2010 Season
Peter Sauber takes a less hands on role, and Kovi sends mixed signals.
This is F1 Minute for the 8th January 2010.
With Peter Sauber taking back control of his team from BMW, he has been spending some time sorting out who’s in charge of what. Sauber will be the president of the team, heading up the board of directors, and will also take the role of Team Principal. Apparently, though, he won’t be doing much in the way of operations, instead handing the day to day tasks to Monisha Kaltenborn as managing director. Monisha has been on the board since 2001 and she has been part of the legal team since before then, but will now take a more hands on role. It will be good to see a female getting involved at a top level of F1.
Quickly to finish, Heikki Kovalainen has been talking to Autosport during a seat fitting for his new Lotus team, and says being at McLaren taught him a lot and he is a much better driver in every area since his days at Renault, but at the same time he’s always been a good driver. Mixed signals.
That will do for now, have a great weekend and join me on Monday for another F1 Minute.
Lotus Ready to Test for the Mid-Field
Mike Gascoyne is hoping to beat a couple of existing teams.
Welcome to F1 Minute, it’s the 7th January 2010.
Autosport is reporting that Lotus are pretty sure they will be on track at the second pre-season test in Jerez in the middle of February, and they’ll take part in the following Barcelona test as well – the last outing before the season gets underway in Bahrain. CTO Mike Gascoyne is happy with how their plans are shaping up, particularly as they are doing better than anticipated, he says: “Being a week ahead of schedule is pretty good considering it is modern F1. To get an entry on September 12 and to be there in good shape is not a bad effort.”
He is sure that picking up experienced drivers like Kovalainen and Trulli will propel Lotus to the mid-field, saying: “…with eight cars going out in Q1, you’ve only got to pick up one or two stragglers to get both cars into Q2 – and immediately you are a midfield team.”
That’s all for now, I’ll be back tomorrow with another F1 Minute.
Sauber Confirm Launch Date for New Car
Sauber plan their launch, whilst Bernie welcomes Briatore.
Today is the 6th January 2010 and this is F1 Minute.
Good news to start with, the ex-BMW team Sauber have confirmed the launch of their 2010 car – it will take place at Valencia on the 31st January, which is the day before the first test of the year. They are the first team to announce a launch date, I hope we’ll hear more from the others now.
Back to the unpleasant Briatore business unfortunately, the Italian has suggested that he will be taking legal action against the Piquet father and son duo, saying “The bad that has been done to me won’t be forgotten in one day.” He also has another go at Max Mosley while he’s at it. Meanwhile, Bernie Ecclestone would be ready to welcome Flav back to the paddock with open arms, saying: “He was a great character in F1 but I am not sure if that’s what he wants to do now. I think he will move on from that.
That’s all for today, please join me tomorrow for another F1 Minute.
News in Brief for 2009-02-27
- USF1 officially announced, with very little in the way of details. Seems to be a fan friendly, approachable team though. No drivers yet. #
- Force India sneakily ran their new car at Silverstone ahead of the Jerez launch and test. No word on how successful the shakedown was. #
- The BBC confirmed many details of their ‘09 F1 plans, with mobile and internet coverage boosted considerably. Most exciting news? The Chain. #
- Bridgestone revealed their solution to the white stripe problem – no grooves on slicks so instead, they put a green stripe on each sidewall. #
- Sam Michael believes that the “only-just-legal” diffuser they & Toyota are running will be copied up and down the grid by the Australian GP. #
News in Brief for 2009-02-24
- Force India are set to launch their new car – the VJM02 – on 1st March. The launch will be in Jerez ahead of the test. # [link]
News in Brief for 2009-02-23
- After it was revealed that Nick Fry turned down a £100 million rescue deal from Bernie, Honda now say they have no serious offers. # [link]
News in Brief for 2009-02-20
- Danica Patrick says she is flattered by the USF1 link but as yet the team haven’t contacted her or vice versa. She’s moderately interested. # [link]
- Ecclestone has said that Richard Branson is exactly the kind of person he wants in F1, and he has been in contact directly to sort the deal. # [link]
News in Brief for 2009-02-19
- FOTA have scheduled a press event for March 5th to announce their vision of F1’s future, after months of meetings and some market research. # [link]
- After the excitement of yesterday, Honda have reminded us that if negotiations fail, there is still a chance the team could be shut down. # [link]
