Australian Formula 1 fans have been left shortchanged with no coverage of pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Three days of testing commenced last night; however local fans were left unable to follow along despite the eight hours of track action being broadcast.
United Kingdom broadcaster Sky Sports carried the full day with coverage featuring an array of commentators, experts and pundits.
Fox Sports, as the primary rights holder for Formula 1 in Australia, carries the Sky Sports coverage during the regular season.
That sees all sessions broadcast live on both Foxtel and the Kayo Sports streaming service. Pre-season testing, however, was shown on neither.
Formula 1 offers its own service, F1TV, the Pro version of which does afford fans the ability to subscribe and watch full coverage from Bahrain.
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However, that service is blocked in Australia, with only a limited offering of the basic F1TV service available.
It’s a missed opportunity for both F1 and Fox Sports as interest in Formula 1 is surging, driven at least partly by the Drive to Survive series on Netflix – the new season of which premieres this evening.
It also comes in the face of a sellout crowd in Melbourne, with race day tickets completely exhausted well over a month out from the event.
Speedcafe.com contacted Fox Sports for comment but no response was received by the time of publication.
UPDATE: A Fox Sports spokesperson has told Speedcafe.com since publication: “Unfortunately no programming from F1 was made available for this as we also don’t normally broadcast F1 testing as part of our deal.”
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