More coverage of backmarkers, please...

[Peter]

Dear BBC cameramen, i'd like to see more of the backmarker action please. For all of 2011 so far, never has the camera laid eyes on the backamrkers battling with each other. Many times have the Virgins and HRT's been scrapping in the races, but I only hear of it in the post race comments, in text. I mean, in 2010, they did only 2 times from what I remember, Senna fighting Di Grassi at Turkey, and at Valencia, Glock chasing and colliding with Senna. This year, the back has far more action to deliver, but we don't get to see it.

So please, BBC camera director, less of Vettel rocketing off in the distance, and more of the race at the back.

[Horns]

Don't the BBC just get the FOM feed?

[Phoenix]

Does the back have far more action to deliver? Definately not this year. And I think we shouldn't complain anyway; 20 years ago backmarkers often didn't have a single shot, at times not even when they span off or collided (at least from the old races I got to see on YouTube or by other means).

[shinji]

Don't the BBC just get the FOM feed?

Yes they do.

[Barbazza]

Does the back have far more action to deliver? Definately not this year. And I think we shouldn't complain anyway; 20 years ago backmarkers often didn't have a single shot, at times not even when they span off or collided (at least from the old races I got to see on YouTube or by other means).

Absolutely true, having seen a fair few 80s races recently. Many was the time that there's be a Eurobrun or Osella parked by the side of the track as the leading Williams or McLaren (usually) whizzed past with me mouthing 'wha? how?' (See, in good training for F1 rejects even then)

I sometimes have to remind myself that Osella even competed in 1988 as I don't remember many shots of the car at all, and even in the books I have there's barely a picture!

[mario]

Does the back have far more action to deliver? Definately not this year. And I think we shouldn't complain anyway; 20 years ago backmarkers often didn't have a single shot, at times not even when they span off or collided (at least from the old races I got to see on YouTube or by other means).

This year, on the whole, no - there were a few brief shots of Team Lotus, Virgin Racing and HRT fighting in the opening laps in the past race or two, but on the whole the performance differential between all three of those teams is much more marked than it was last year, so they tend to drift apart pretty quickly. In fact, on the whole the best fights have been in the mid field, from about 8th to 14th, because the drivers and teams in that part of the field are probably the most evenly matched in terms of pace, tyre management and development.

Generally, Team Lotus have been some way ahead of Virgin Racing, with one car often finishing a lap ahead of them, and Virgin Racing in turn have finished a lap or more up on HRT in more than one race (in Valencia, for example, both HRT's were three laps down on the leader, and a lap behind both Glock and D'Ambrosio).
Excluding the fluke result in Canada, HRT have otherwise been solidly last in the races so far, being the last cars running in the races they have finished (I specified cars still running because technically Maldonado was classified in 18th place in Monaco, having completed over 90% of the race distance). Whilst their qualifying performance is not all that bad, their race pace hasn't been all that great - perhaps their complaints of overheating tyres in Valencia is perhaps a more common complaint than we first thought?

[RainierSassetti]

Being a follower since the early 2000's I remember seeing a lot of the Soopah Agoouri, Minardis, Spykers, Kolles-Jordan, when there was no action in the front. (I loved Taku overtaking FA on the Quebec wall, good memories..)
But then again, there was little to no midfield action and this was not an attrition-free era yet...

[Peter]

Another thing is the absolute lack of any coverage of them, like onboard camera shots, or even following them while on a lap, in practice or qualifying. What probably upsets me the most is that in Q1, they still only take up the frontrunning people who are certainly going to make it through, but not the Lotii who can probably Q2, or the qualifying battle between HRT and Virgin. They can't even get 20 minutes under the spotlight I mean, doesn't this have an effect on sponsorship, meaning, they will have more trouble getting sponsored due to lack of TV coverage?

[DanielPT]

Another thing is the absolute lack of any coverage of them, like onboard camera shots, or even following them while on a lap, in practice or qualifying. What probably upsets me the most is that in Q1, they still only take up the frontrunning people who are certainly going to make it through, but not the Lotii who can probably Q2, or the qualifying battle between HRT and Virgin. They can't even get 20 minutes under the spotlight I mean, doesn't this have an effect on sponsorship, meaning, they will have more trouble getting sponsored due to lack of TV coverage?

Maybe they don't have onboard cameras in order to gain that final tenth...

[Shadaza]

Another thing is the absolute lack of any coverage of them, like onboard camera shots, or even following them while on a lap, in practice or qualifying. What probably upsets me the most is that in Q1, they still only take up the frontrunning people who are certainly going to make it through, but not the Lotii who can probably Q2, or the qualifying battle between HRT and Virgin. They can't even get 20 minutes under the spotlight I mean, doesn't this have an effect on sponsorship, meaning, they will have more trouble getting sponsored due to lack of TV coverage?

I agree with this, more on board shots with the back three teams in Q1 would be a treat.
The lack of coverage reminds me of the mere glimpses of the Mastercard Lola in Australian qualifying in 97, where a whole youtube video was dedicated to out of focus of centre shots of the Lola in it's only "competetive" appearance.

[fjackdaw]

Dear BBC cameramen, i'd like to see more of the backmarker action please. For all of 2011 so far, never has the camera laid eyes on the backamrkers battling with each other. Many times have the Virgins and HRT's been scrapping in the races, but I only hear of it in the post race comments, in text. I mean, in 2010, they did only 2 times from what I remember, Senna fighting Di Grassi at Turkey, and at Valencia, Glock chasing and colliding with Senna. This year, the back has far more action to deliver, but we don't get to see it.

So please, BBC camera director, less of Vettel rocketing off in the distance, and more of the race at the back.

It's not the BBC and it's not the cameramen. The camera operators point the camera at whoever's on their section of track.

I think it's definitely better than it used to be when they used local directors. More often than not the local directors would just show lap after lap of either the lead car, the Ferraris/Schumacher, or - if it was the French GP - the lead Renault. They're not perfect now, but they will tend to show the action, wherever it is, and not slavishly follow the leader out on his own.

[Rocks with Salt]

I think it's become more tradition than anything else to exclude the backmarkers... I have noticed HRT gets a little bit of spotlight whenever one of the leaders is "held up" by them, but other than that the amount of camera time they receive now is much more favorable to just ten-twenty years ago (If YouTube coverage is to be believed).

[Horns]

Its a tricky one, because the action is so unpredictable. If something dramatic happened up front, and the director missed it because he was following Karthikeyan's ponderous progress around the track, there'd likely be at least a small uproar.

[mario]

Its a tricky one, because the action is so unpredictable. If something dramatic happened up front, and the director missed it because he was following Karthikeyan's ponderous progress around the track, there'd likely be at least a small uproar.

Exactly - and, cynically speaking, showing footage of which teams will garner more attention - the high profile teams and drivers at the front of the grid, with major commercial sponsorship, or the small teams at the back with limited popular support, few sponsors and relatively anonymous drivers?
Of course, those small teams at the back are less well known and somewhat anonymous because of the lack of coverage by FOM, so it is a something of a vicious circle, but as things stand, I expect that showing somebody like Vettel dominating is likely to bring in a large German audience (and remember that Germany is one of FOM's most profitable markets), whereas showing, say, Liuzzi trundling around at the back of the field on his own (the tail end is reasonably spread out these days) is unlikely to be a major selling point.

If anything, the problem has been exacerbated by the rapidly degrading tyres, which has seen increased competition at the front of the field - although the fights lower down the field might be just as engrossing, or perhaps even more so, most viewers would probably be more interested in seeing a scrap over the lead, or at least a podium position, rather than, say, a fight over 10th and 11th place. For the teams fighting over that last point, it may be as significant as a win for a larger team - sometimes even more important, given how hard they're now having to fight for points - but to the viewing public, it just doesn't feel quite as important.

[David AGS]

I have seen some (not much!) onboards of the HRT this season, like showing comparisons of the HRT compared to a Red Bull etc.

But they obviously used to showmore when 1 lap quali was around. The main quali coverage from the 'new teams' is normally when there first out in quali

[Shadaza]

But they obviously used to showmore when 1 lap quali was around. The main quali coverage from the 'new teams' is normally when there first out in quali

I miss one lap quali so much, BRING it back! Would love to see Hispania and Virgin do their runs and it then for it to start chucking it down with rain

[Peter]

Yes, one lap qualifying, though inconvenient and impractical, was more interesting. The backmarkers had their chances to have the spotlight, which was nice.

FOM should at least direct Q1 mainly to the backmarkers, I mean, who the hell cares about what Vettel is doing in Q1, he's certainly going through, so he is irrelevant. I've only seen an onboard of HRT 5 times in total, all those times not very long. Can someone write a letter?