Exactly

 

I don't care how boring the racing is - I just watch the beeb for Suzi Perry...

 

Am I right in thinking that the BBC's contract expires at the end of the year to show F1 coverage?

 

No I think the new half-deal was much longer than that.

What I don't understand is why the Beeb, having reneged on their deal and reduced their coverage, are now increasing their coverage with the practice sessions. Back when they had exclusive rights, the practice sessions were on the red button if you were lucky.

 

Because it is cheaper TV?

 

Just looked into this. And it looks like the BBC and Sky signed a 7 year shared deal starting from 2012, so after this season we have 5 move years of half races. I guess it's better than nothing.

 

The Mercedes F1 engines technical director is a neighbour of mine.

They had the new engine running before christmas in 2011. That's a lot of available testing time.

 

Schumacher drives the Nordschleife:

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/motorsport/gallery/108412.html

 

I started a thread about this a few weeks back I will update it with this cheers

Has anyone noticed that the FIA are now stating that there will be NO tyre changes afterall, except to 'bond' the tyres better so they don't fray and shred as they have ... no performance changes are allowed.

 

They've already changed the tyres this year, but I guess that's compounds rather than the construction. It makes sense: if they changed the tyres to suit Red Bull and Vettel wins by 2 points again, everybody's going to say Pirelli fixed the championship. And they wouldn't be wrong.