Major players from the BBC's slimmed-down F1 broadcasts for the 2012 season have insisted that the broadcasts will retain their past quality, despite losing exclusive rights to the sport to satellite broadcaster Sky Sports.
The 2012 season will mark the first time that UK audiences will not be able to follow every F1 race live on free-to-air TV, after the BBC controversially chose to split the rights with Sky.From 2012, Sky Sports will show all 20 race weekends live on a new dedicated F1 channel, featuring a number of ex-BBC stars such as David Croft and Martin Brundle.
In comparison, the BBC will show just ten races live throughout the season, with the remaining races broadcast as delayed highlights packages.
The new deal has caused an eruption of anger from UK F1 fans, while the level of defections from BBC to Sky have led to suggestions that the quality of the BBC's award-winning coverage will dip.
But speaking at this week's Autosport International show, BBC F1 presenter Jake Humphrey insisted that the Beeb will aim to continue to make the best show they can, arguing that the highlights shows will still be a viable way to watch the races.
"I know people are not over the moon about suddenly having every race live on [Sky] but it was either the deal that we have or no F1 at all, so I am grateful that we will still get the chance to be at every race," he bellowed, possibly while holding an iPad.
He added: "There are quite a few early morning races where we'll have a re-run at 1400 and it will be two hours long and so we'll pretty quickly get into the racing.
"We'll do maybe a few interviews with the top guys before the start, but post race we've got the time to make sure that we...have the time to create a really, really nice package for the viewers who are watching."
He also said that the BBC's popular post-race F1 Forum show would continue to be made for every race, even races the BBC will not show live.
"We will still do exactly what we do now," he added, "We will try and offer as much as possible. I think it will be different, but it will still be really strong output."
He went on: "We have got a race-winning technical director [Gary Anderson], and we've never had that before...we've got a race-winning grand prix driver in the shape of David Coulthard; and a race-winning team owner in Eddie Jordan.
"I also think that Ben Edwards is the best motor racing commentator in the country, and I'm so pleased that we have now got him on the BBC."
Edwards himself, who has joined the BBC team for 2012 as a replacement for former lead commentator Brundle, said that he appreciated that fans were unhappy with the split deal, but said that it had been the best option for the sport in the UK.
"The big costs to show Formula 1 are in the rights fees. The production costs are much smaller. For it to be on the BBC, this deal had to happen," he insisted.
"I know that not everybody is happy about that, understandably, but it is the commercial reality of how the world works. All races will still be on the BBC. Not all of them will be live, but they will all be there."
The BBC's first live race in 2012 will be the Chinese Grand Prix on April 15th.
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