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Friday 27 March will see the start of the 2009 Formula 1 (F1) Championship and also marks the return of the world's premier motorsport championship to ´óÏó´«Ã½ Television, after an absence of 12 years.

The new-look coverage promises to be the most comprehensive in the history of the sport, with all on-track sessions brought live through TV, Radio, Red Button, broadband and of course ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer for any of those missed moments.

F1 fans will be able to customise their viewing experience through ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport's multiplatform offering with options such as: split-screen action, live leaderboard, in-car cameras, choice of commentary, live online streaming, live text, interactive forums, circuit guides and blogs.

TV

´óÏó´«Ã½ TV highlights include:

• All 17 races live on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One
• Every qualifying session live on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One (Brazil on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two)
• All races and qualifying sessions that finish before 1000 to have full repeat on terrestrial TV later in the day
• One-hour evening highlights programme on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Three (1900 for all races except Brazil)

´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport's Jake Humphrey will anchor the coverage, with David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan providing expert race insight and analysis. The presentation team will be on location at every race coming live from the Paddock or trackside. Award-winning commentator Martin Brundle and Jonathan Legard will call the race, while Lee McKenzie and Ted Kravitz will bring all of the interviews and action from the pits.

For those viewers who miss the live coverage of the race, there will be another chance to watch the all of the action from start to finish. All races and qualifying sessions that finish before 10am will play out in full later in the day, on terrestrial TV. If viewers would rather tune in for the key parts of the action, they can wait until the evening for a one-hour highlights programme on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Three (1900 for all races except Brazil).

Red Button

Standing alongside the terrestrial coverage will be an all encompassing Red Button service. Through the Red Button viewers will be able to access:

• All on-track sessions live, including practice, qualifying and race
• Choice of three different streams on race day:
  • The main network feed with a choice of commentary from network and 5 Live
  • Split screen comprising: main network feed, in-car camera and leaderboard
  • Rolling highlights
• An additional one-hour, post-race, interactive analysis programme with Jake Humphrey, David Coulthard and Eddie Jordan

Every session on the track will be broadcast live on the Red Button. There will be a choice of commentary between main TV network and Radio 5 Live; a split-screen option that will incorporate the main network feed, in-car camera, and a latest leaderboard; and a rolling highlights feed.

As well as the comprehensive on-track coverage, there will be an additional one-hour post-race analysis programme, immediately after the network programme goes off-air, on the Red Button. This will gives viewers the opportunity to share their views on the race's main talking points and to ask questions of the presentation team, Humphrey, Coulthard and Jordan.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport website

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport website already has a comprehensive Formula 1 offering, but the site will be relaunched in March to include the following:

Extensive live coverage of every on-track session to include:

• Multiple live video streaming, which will mirror the video and audio streams available on the Red Button
• An extra high-quality video stream – for the first time you will be able to watch near-televisual quality video of all the action; extending the high quality iPlayer experience to live F1 coverage
• Latest leaderboard
• Live text commentary
• Votes – fans have their say on the big talking points
• Extensive post-race video highlights

In addition the site will include:

• Latest results and standings
• F1 Mole, a diary-type blog featuring the latest gossip and inside stories
• Murray Walker's video race review following every race of the season
• Regular Murray Walker Q&A
• Interactive circuit guides including commentated laps with associated telemetry, embedded video footage, imagery and data
• Driver and team guides: including video, biogs and Q&As
• News stories: all the big stories from the world of F1
• Blogs from our F1 experts Jonathan Legard and Andrew Benson, as well as ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport presenter Jake Humphrey, who will share his own personal experiences of F1
• Video and text columns from Martin Brundle and Red Bull driver Mark Webber

´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport online will include live streaming of all on-track sessions as well as video highlights from all of the key events. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ is also delighted to welcome back Murray Walker to F1 as part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport website team. Walker will be a regular presence on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport website, offering his expert insight and passionate perspective on the Grand Prix action and interacting with F1 fans online.

´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer

Formula 1 fans will be able to view any action they may have missed through the ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer.

All Grands Prix will be available for downloading up to seven days after broadcast. Once the footage has been downloaded, it will be available for viewing for up to 30 days.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Mobile

The ´óÏó´«Ã½ mobile offering will include:

• Latest news, results and standings
• Live text coverage of all race sessions
• Video highlights*
  *Only available via some mobile operators (tbc)

SB4/DL