“Once Again!” (2006 F1 season review DVD)

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The official FOCA season review DVD for 2006 boasts nearly four hours of coverage, and is an obvious choice of Xmas present for any F1 fan.

But many of the recent official season reviews of late have been more ‘miss’ than ‘hit’. Does the 2006 review do justice to a complex and controversial season?

Since 2003 every F1 season review has been available on DVD and, year by year, better use is being made of the format.

But while the reviews have become better technically – with more footage, extra clips and so on – the fundamentals are still not right.

That much is clear from the box. What the hell kind of title is ?â?ó?óÔÇÜ?¼?àÔÇ£Once again?â?ó?óÔÇÜ?¼?é?Ø? It screams, ?â?ó?óÔÇÜ?¼?àÔÇ£Nothing exciting happened, just the same as last year.?â?ó?óÔÇÜ?¼?é?Ø Which is manifestly untrue.

While we’re on criticisms, let’s rattle off some of the usual mistakes that never get fixed. Cheesy music ruins much of the in-race coverage, and many of the political and technical developments during the year are ignored.

Ben Edwards is a fine commentator, but the script is rubbish.

There are plenty of features besides the racing but most of them would be better as ‘extras’ kept out of the flow of the review. Some, particularly the piece on Honda pit stops and the interview with Chris Dyer (Michael Schumacher’s race engineer) are not especially interesting.

OK so what do they do well? They definitely get a thumbs-up for covering a very controversial season in as even-handed a way as possible.

The footage as ever is brilliant and includes all the angles and on-board cameras that most TV broadcasts don’t or can’t have access to.

For example, ITV viewers never got to see the contact between Michael Schumacher and Nick Heidfeld at the Hungaroring – but it’s here on the DVD. There’s also plenty of team radio. But oddly, the audio track is clearly out of sequence with the images on several on-board shots.

It’s a decent review but it still falls far short of what they could achieve with the material they’ve got. Once again.

Best bit: The awesome on-board footage of Fernando Alonso’s exceptional first lap at Hungary.

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Tags: f1 / formula one / grand prix / motor sport

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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6 comments on ““Once Again!” (2006 F1 season review DVD)”

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