F1 Onboard Video: Does anyone else feel unsatisfied with what we see?

Another gripe at the lack on onboard footage after Monza

This is going to come across as a bit of a moan and a rant but it’s something I feel passionately about and am sure other F1 fans will feel the same...

The Italian Grand Prix featured plenty of crucial moments that have had us debating since the chequered flag dropped on Sunday afternoon. For instance, there was the Webber/Massa clash, the Schumacher/Hamilton blocks, the Alonso/Vettel lead change, and of course, the substantial crash at the first corner on lap 1.

Although FOM can’t replay every incident, from every point of view during the race itself, it seems a real loss to F1 fans that we can not enjoy analysing these incidents after the race has finished in full.

Schumacher vs Hamilton

One of the most talked about battles during the Grand Prix was between Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton, who was stuck behind the German for most of the first half race. Lewis looked to get side by side with Michael entering the super fast Curva Grande, but Schumacher shut the door incredibly late, forcing Hamilton onto the grass. It was a heart in mouth moment and it appeared Schumacher had gone over the limit of what was fair defending.

For the sake of endless debate, seeing the moment onboard from both cars would have helped us establish whether Hamilton was indeed side by side enough with Schumacher, and whether Schumacher was entitled to come to the inside that late into the overtaking move.

The only onboard we got in the UK from the BBC coverage was from Jenson Button’s view who was following the pair close behind. Although it’s a great replay, it’s not fully satisfactory in our quest to find out more on what happened.

Through absolutely pure luck this morning, I saw a tweet with a link to a youtube video of the incident, onboard from Lewis Hamilton’s point of view. GALORE! But a) it was only pot luck that I managed to see this on twitter, and 2) the video is on youtube so it’s likely to be taken off eventually anyway! I’ve embedded it below for you to enjoy but do not hold your breath on it still being here in the near future.

UPDATE: The video was removed in the time it took me to write the article - ridiculous!

It seems the footage is from the German Sky Sports coverage. So where does the buck lie with UK viewers not being able to access the same video content? Is it the BBC not paying FOM enough money to access as many onboard video feeds as some of the other broadcasters? Or does the problem lie with FOM? When many UK F1 fans have to start paying Sky Sports for coverage next year, I sincerely hope we get the same content that other countries do!

Alonso vs Vettel

The change for the lead was another breath taking moment during the Italian Grand Prix. Sebastian Vettel overtook Fernando Alonso around the outside of Curva Grande and even dipped two wheels onto the grass in doing so. After the race, Vettel was unhappy with Alonso’s aggression during the move and actually made a complaint to the stewards about it.

We saw the move from Vettel’s onboard camera and can see it was a real yahoo moment for the German driver. But I personally haven’t been able to track down a replay from Alonso’s camera, which would massively help us see just how aggressive he was driving, or if he was simply surprised by Sebastian’s arrival around the outside? It’d have been great to analyse it in full for ourselves...

Start Crash

We haven’t seen many first lap accidents in 2011 now that DRS and higher tyre degradation means passing during the races is much more possible, but in Monza we saw a big accident at the first chicane.

Liuzzi in the HRT got a tank slapper after putting two wheels onto the grass on the run down to turn 1. In trying to avoid the cars braking in front of him, he slid onto the grass and became completely out of control. The result was wiping into the side of Vitaly Petrov’s Renault which in turn ended Rosberg’s race also.

During the coverage, there was a replay from Vitaly’s onboard camera which was pretty good, but where were the other views? In NASCAR, during their caution periods (our safety car periods), they pretty much replay the latest accident from every point of view from those involved. It allows the fans to build up a spectacular picture of just how the craziness unfolded and fills the caution period time very nicely.

An onboard from Liuzzi’s perspective would have been incredible – so does FOM constantly record the footage from each cars camera, or is it dependant on who they are following at the time? In this day and age I seriously cannot accept that they do not have access to video from every cars onboard camera through the entire Grand Prix.

In conclusion...

So it did in fact turn out to be a real moan at the lack of onboard replays in Formula 1 still. Ideally the content would be available from F1’s official website for us to watch after the race, but they will probably say that broadcasters pay a hefty sum of money so that they can air most of the action themselves. If that is the case, just how much does the BBC have to pay FOM to gain access to the extra footage we really want to see?

Posted by James Wilson. - Follow him on twitter @enterf1.

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