TV coverage of F1 at the moment is much better than it has ever been in my opinion, but it still needs improvement.

In the past we were at the mercy of local directors at each GP who invariably concentrated on the drivers from their particular country. While this is somewhat understandable, it was mightily frustrating if there was more interesting action happening elsewhere on track.

Now, each broadcaster is provided with a common feed from Bernie’s FOM which in my view at least means we usually get to see what we should be seeing although invariably we do miss the odd accident or whatever.

The frustrating thing now however is that we all know the race is covered by dozens of cameras yet during the race we are normally only ever treated to replays from the view we saw in the first place.  Often this is of little use in helping to settle any arguments on who was at fault in an accident or whether a penalty was deserved, with last week’s Japanese GP being a case in point.

All cars have cameras fitted to them so it should be possible to see an incident from literally any driver’s point of view - and I’m sure this is one of the options the stewards view when dishing out penalties yet we rarely see these on TV.

Take the start at Fuji for example, watching this onboard footage from Massa and the overhead shot in slow motion shows things in another light for me :

YouTube Preview Image

Firstly, I didn’t realise just how close Lewis Hamilton came to taking out his teammate as he switched to the inside of Kimi.  It also shows he actually came back onto track just in the lead but had less momentum than Kubica and Alonso which ultimately allowed them to pass him.

Then later in the lap he again runs wide, something never mentioned on TV as far as I’m aware, which dropped him well down the order and was no doubt the confirmation the team needed that his tyres were shot and he would have to pit for a new set.

Now, obviously we can’t see every shot as it happens live - nor can we expect the director to always choose the best camera angle for every incident given just how fast these things occur but surely it can’t be that hard to pick and choose different angles for replays?

Even if for some reason it is hard, then these other angles should at least be available for the highlights show which happens hours later.

I’m not blaming ITV here, I know that they can only show the footage which they are given, but FOM really need to get their finger out to improve things - and the switch to the BBC next year seems the perfect opportunity to do it.