A glance at the official Formula One season review video’s box gives the impression much has changed for the 2017 edition.
The new logo is the most obvious change. Another is the title, where instead of another of the woeful recent efforts (“They Tried Their Best”, “It Was Fair”) we have a simple description of what’s on the disc.
But the changes stop there. Pop the review on and we’re back to the same old logo and the same old format, comfortable and familiar as a well-worn pair of slippers.
This is far from a bad thing. The key points of the 20-race championship are largely covered. Naturally the championship is the main focus but many of the important midfield moments feature too.
It’s a pity room wasn’t found in its near-five-hour running time for more of Carlos Sainz Jnr’s superb drive in China, particularly his heroic lap one effort on slick tyres. Surely a few more of the tedious celebrity namechecks could have made their way to the cutting room floor.
For the most part it isn’t the case that the race weekend highlights are short on track action. But there’s a lot of other stuff which feels if not entirely superfluous – like the various new fan initiatives brought in during 2017 – then more suited to a ‘DVD extra’ than the main review. A few more technical features would have been appreciated too.
Naturally the footage is tip-top quality and includes a smattering of unusual angles to hold your interest through the otherwise familiar material. More highlights are crammed into the onboard lap extras. There is, however, little striking new stuff. It’s a by-the-numbers effort which will satisfy anyone who enjoyed recent reviews.
But do these reviews have a future as Formula One Management goes to increasing lengths to satisfy the public’s appetite for online video? A large amount of the material here can already be watched on YouTube for free.
For Formula One fans looking for a neatly-packaged summary of everything they watched in the previous 12 months, this does the job. But perhaps the time has come for FOM to breathe new life into this increasingly stale format.
F1 Fanatic rating
Buy The Official Review of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship (Blu-ray)
Buy The Official Review of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship (DVD)
Read all the official Formula One season video reviews.
The Official Review of the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship
Publisher: Duke Video
Published: 2017
Duration: 286 minutes
Price: £24.99 (Blu-ray), £19.99 (DVD)
F1 Fanatic earns a commission on products sold via the links to our affiliate partners above, however you are not charged any extra. See here for more information.
Reviews
- “Never look back”: Warwick’s autobiography reviewed
- “F1 Manager 24” reviewed – Does Create-a-Team make for a must-buy?
- Netflix reveal new details and November launch date for six-part Senna series
- “Formula 1 car-by-car 2000-09” by Peter Higham reviewed
- “F1 24” reviewed: Does revolutionised handling make or break new F1 game?
Captain Pie (@captainpie)
14th January 2018, 12:02
Physical media is a dying form, hopefully as liberty continue down the road of fan engagement this will be part of a subscription service.
There is so little value add from these season reviews nowadays because they don’t add anything new, and it is easy to find articles and videos from the actual event. And because it is by the management they don’t like criticising themselves!
Damon (@damon)
14th January 2018, 13:03
“[…] nowadays […] it is easy to find articles and videos from the actual event.”
Indeed. But 10 years from now many of the YouTube videos and such, internet articles and even entire websites will have long been gone, and it will not be easy to obtain a full, comprehensive record of a past season.
joe pineapples
14th January 2018, 13:22
Exactly, plus not everyone currently has the bandwidth to be downloading bluray sized media.
BasCB (@bascb)
14th January 2018, 14:34
some good points made there, @damon, and while you say physical media is a dying form @captainpie, i disagree with that.
There are many many people who will still buy something physical – you can put it on your table, point to it in your cabinet, feel it, weigh it and appreciate it. Sure, for viewing digital might be easier but apart from the issues Damon already highlights, it is far less satisfying to “own” and give people digital content than it is to hand them a package they can unwrap and then be happy about for years.
Manox (@marussi)
14th January 2018, 18:47
i buy alot of movies every year, feels great to have a collection and just to pop a sucker in when i feel for it.
netflix and such are great things but older movies are hard to find and my pirate days are over ^^
glynh (@glynh)
14th January 2018, 23:13
I don’t think physical media will ever die because for things they care about (not just random films) most people prefer guaranteed ownership over the unpredictability of streaming services.
You can see it in the way that ebook sales have stalled for example.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
15th January 2018, 10:33
@damon This is the kind of thinking that led to the Y2K bug though
Damon (@damon)
15th January 2018, 12:45
@davidnotcoulthard I see your are new to the Internet :)
You do know that it takes maintenance to keep a website/domain online? They require being paid for or running a server on your own. If this stops, all the content vanishes in thin air.
You don’t have any 10 year old bookmarks in your internet browser, do you?
Well, I do, and many of them do not work anymore.
Many old articles are not available on the websites they were published, or the websites themselves are no longer there. 10 year old YouTube videos in my ‘favourites’ folder – many have been deleted or disappeared with the uploaders deleted accounts. That’s how it is.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
15th January 2018, 14:01
@damon Not something I’ll disagree with (having not long ago found mate 1.16 gtk2 package builds of a certain OS missing with no archived version anywhere :( ). Still, a lot of info available today will remain on the internet .
That said I totally misread your comment thinking you were predicting youtube’s demise within 10 years (which I’m not saying is impossible…just not very probable).
I was trying to say a lot of 10-year-old content is still on the internet, despite a lot also being already long gone (a good number of which already being copied, verbatim or otherwise, to another site).
Without going to e.g. archive.org a lot of the content that existed in 2006 can still be found today (though of course, not all) – though I’d say you are right at least in that if a specific thing is not there anymore, there is absolutely no guarantee it’ll be in archive.org either.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
15th January 2018, 18:40
Physical media was a dying form but it has started to come back – in general (paper books and vinyl music) if not necessarily in Blu-Ray. However, online consumption (except in ebooks) is also rising, making F1’s continued refusal to include a streaming or digital download option look distinctly dated.
Damon (@damon)
14th January 2018, 13:13
I can’t stop myself from ranting about the new logo. Terrible. It looks like sth random and meaningless.
And I still see it as a headless cat/dog seen from the side…
Shark Fins Rule
14th January 2018, 18:55
I totally agree, the new logo is utter crap.
Strontium (@strontium)
15th January 2018, 1:01
@damon I completely agree, it looks so bad, in fact it looks worse every time I see it. Some things grow on me after a bit but this definitely isn’t one
It looks even worse because of how out of place it is, given 2017 took place with the old logo. It’s 2017 merchandise with 2018 branding, they might as well have put a halo on the cover images too
Mark
14th January 2018, 13:28
Seeing the Official World Feed is now 4K, surely an UltraHD Blu-Ray would have been a good idea?
joe pineapples
14th January 2018, 20:02
Was thinking the same.
Steven (@modtl)
14th January 2018, 14:39
Does Channel 4’s Ben Edwards still provide the voice over for the action?
Jere (@jerejj)
14th January 2018, 15:09
@modtl Yes.
swh1386 (@swh1386)
14th January 2018, 14:57
As someone who now buys and streams all TV and Film online (iTunes, Netflix, Youtube, etc) instead of DVD, I haven’t bought the DVD review for a good few years now. They’re missing a huge marketplace by being DVD (and blu ray) only. Couple with that the high price and the fact that official (albeit short) race highlights and much more great content are available for free on youtube, giving me no reason to buy this these days!
Jere (@jerejj)
14th January 2018, 15:18
I have all the official season reviews from 2005 onwards (2005-2010 on DVD and Blu-Ray for the rest). Regarding the most recent addition to the collection: Overall, I find it a good review. The only things I wish would’ve been included are the Hulkenberg-Magnussen incident and verbal spat in the interview pen from Hungary and the Mclaren/Toro Rosso engine swap confirmation that took place during the Singapore GP weekend. Not a single footage clip nor even a mention at the very least regarding either one.
Steven Robertson (@emu55)
14th January 2018, 15:26
For it to be a comprehensive archive, it should also have all the qualifying and race sessions as they were broadcast included.
Simon (@weeniebeenie)
14th January 2018, 18:23
It’s not an archive, it’s a review. If they released all of the sessions in full it’d be a 50-disc set.
Neil (@neilosjames)
14th January 2018, 19:37
I look at these and wish I had a terrible memory so I could appreciate them more, but they’re so shallow and surface-skimming that even the ones from 20 years ago don’t stray far from the stuff I easily remember.
Used to collect them just for the sake of it, but haven’t got one since 2009 when I finally realised all I was doing was buying shelf decorations…
Strontium (@strontium)
15th January 2018, 1:07
@neilosjames 2009 is the only one I have. I bought it a few years after it came out, once it was much cheaper, to see if it was actually worth it.
Strontium (@strontium)
15th January 2018, 1:10
My screen jumped about and I pressed post before I had finished my comment!
I decided that they’re not worth it for that reason. They’re not very in depth at all. It’s not worth it for a bit of extra footage
Thecollaroyboys (@thecollaroyboys)
14th January 2018, 20:45
I’ve got one on the way but it’s as much to complete my collection (2000-2017) as anything else.
What irks me in the “formula” is the extended cutaways to crew reactions while they could be showing on track action. I know it’s all about personalising the event and showing emotion but watching Horner’s tapping foot or a grimacing celeb in the pits is just getting a bit tired.
And I do like DVDs as streaming services don’t always deliver what you want. Try getting Episodes or Silicon Valley complete seasons in Australia (or a reliable internet connection).
Serg (@)
14th January 2018, 21:35
Am I the only one bothered by the gigantic “TM” sign?
f1bobby
14th January 2018, 21:45
“They did their best”
Scalextric (@scalextric)
14th January 2018, 22:00
Can’t we make up a naff title? Caption contest style.
4 for 44
Silver success
Oops, they did it again
The longest season
glynh (@glynh)
14th January 2018, 23:16
What a year
They drove hard
Race 4 victory
I was really disappointed when it didn’t have a rubbish title this year.
roodda (@roodda)
14th January 2018, 22:10
How many drivers were “waiting in the wings” this time? Ben Edwards used that ad nauseam in the mid 2000s reviews.
f1bobby
15th January 2018, 8:11
Lol
Jonesracing82
15th January 2018, 0:28
It’s a bit hard to be able to provide new material on these reviews when everything is so well covered these days.
Super Nashwan (@squeakywheel)
16th January 2018, 11:58
I had all the reviews on tape, then DVD, then Blu Ray, from 1990 to about 2012. Someone had a good day at the charity shop when they appeared! I do miss the nineties ones when they would experiment with different narrators, gave them a bit more character and each year it’s own identity. The editing is pretty perfunctory. Editing and camerawork has always been an area, on the live coverage and the reviews, where I would like to see more invested to really enhance the experience. Although the live coverage angles seem to have been improved under the new regime.
And, as bad as they were, I will miss those “he drove a car” titles!