2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix TV Times

2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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F1 Fanatic Live will be running during the entire Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend. Look out for the live page on the site during every session and follow all the action with your fellow F1 Fanatics.

Here are the details of Sky and Channel 4’s coverage of the 2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in the UK:

Friday 25 November 2016

SessionChannelCoverage startsSession startsSession ends
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix first practice liveChannel 408:5509:0010:30
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix first practice liveSky Sports F108:4509:0010:30
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix second practice liveChannel 412:5513:0014:30
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix second practice liveSky Sports F112:4513:0014:30

Saturday 26 November 2016

SessionChannelCoverage startsSession startsSession ends
GP3 Abu Dhabi race one liveSky Sports F108:2008:2509:10
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix third practice liveChannel 409:5510:0011:00
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix third practice liveSky Sports F109:4510:0011:00
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying liveChannel 412:1013:00
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying liveSky Sports F112:0013:00
GP2 Abu Dhabi feature race liveSky Sports F114:3514:4015:45

Sunday 27 November 2016

SessionChannelCoverage startsSession starts
GP3 Abu Dhabi race two liveSky Sports F108:5509:00
GP2 Abu Dhabi sprint race liveSky Sports F110:1510:20
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix liveChannel 412:0013:00
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix liveSky Sports F111:3013:00

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RaceFans readers in the USA, Mexico, France, Belgium and many other countries can watch all sessions live on F1 TV Pro.

As well as access to the live world feed you can watch onboard cameras and hear live team radio from all 20 drivers. And when you buy using the link below you also make a contribution to RaceFans! Find out more and sign up here:

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For details of coverage in your area see these links or share information in the comments:

Find times for every F1 session this year and all the 2016 race dates with the F1 Fanatic Google Calendar.

2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Author information

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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12 comments on “2016 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix TV Times”

  1. I was wondering how many of us still sit down to watch every race live? Seeing as we are ‘F1 Fanatics’ I imagine quite a lot, but I for one rarely if ever watch the races live. Is this a blasphemous statement on here?!

    My first baby came along a week before Melbourne this year which explains this year away… but I was the same for a number of years before the babe came along. I simply use this page of info so I can see if Channel 4 is broadcasting live and what time I should record quali and the race. Note: I have watched every race since 1993 (apart from Imola 94 (yep) and Monza 95).

    1. @unicron2002
      For the last two seasons I’ve only watched a few races live, before that I hadn’t missed a live race since the 80’s, but I couldn’t justify the expense of SKY Sports just to watch F1, and once I was only watching delayed highlights for some races, the desire to watch others live diminished significantly.
      I still try to watch some races, such as Spa, Monza and Interlargos, if they’re being shown live, but don’t bother so much about others, and watch the recording instead.

      A combination of pay TV, some utterly terrible circuits, rubbish tires and DRS has killed off a lot of the passion I once had.

    2. I’ve got a family with three young kids so despite being an F1 fan, I rarely watch the races live. My kids and wife aren’t interested in it and if I’m honest, my interest is seriously waning. I find the pre-race and post-race analysis far more interesting than the actual racing. Thankfully, the race is available with Sky commentary in various places online so I can catch up afterwards. The Channel 4 highlights coverage is appalling.

      1. @joshgeake, I think the channel 4 highlights is acceptable. It is totally free unlike Sky. The BBC highlights were better though. If you record the live race when it is on channel 4, their coverage is better then. In my view, it is Sky that is appalling. It’s expensive pay TV and you still get loads of adverts. I find it hopeless that on their practice sessions, they start 10 minutes earlier than channel 4 only to have adverts about 5 minutes in before the practice even starts. at least on channel 4, it starts 5 minutes before the practice and you get to watch some of the actual practice before having to wait for adverts to pass on Sky. On sky, it just seems they spent far too much time telling you what is coming up after the break, having breaks and then after the break they tell you what is coming up again. they don’t spend enough time actually doing what they say they will be. Channel 4 seem to make better use of their time. I don’t that often watch their highlights so maybe they are bad sometimes. I also find the commentators useless on Sky during practice sessions. They are way better on channel 4. They talk about what is happening on screen instead of speaking off topic nonsense or having awkward moments of silence. It is amazing how much better sky are when you compare their race coverage to the practice. I find there race coverage much more tolerable. It’s mainly Crofty and Kravitz that drive me mad but they seem to be more focused during the race.
        On channel 4 during the practice sessions, they sound far more interested in what is going on and stay on topic.

        Anyway, I would be interested to know the reasons you don’t like channel 4 coverage. As I said, I don’t know that much about their highlights but I think there live coverage is actually better than Sky. Especially the pre and post race coverage. I find that painful to watch on Sky a lot of the time.

        1. I watched the Brazil race live on an online stream of the Sky coverage and found the commentary so vague and oftem missing what I was seeing with my own eyes.
          Watched the Ch4 highlights the next day and found it massively better.

          It would be interesting to know if Ch4 commentated ‘as live’ or if they commentated over the edited highlights after the real event with the benefit of hindsight?

          1. @eurobrun
            It is certainly live commentary. They couldn’t commentate knowing the result as it just wouldn’t feel right for the viewers. You can tell that whenever it is showed live on channel 4, Ben Edwards does this particular voice and gives you and idea of where drivers are as if there are about to be adverts, but that part is for the highlights later on. When it is the full coverage, he just carries on. I just can’t stand Kravitz or Crofty most of the time on Sky. They talk off topic rubbish far too much of the time and it just doesn’t seem a very professional way to be presenting on an expensive pay channel, especially if you want to know what it going on. (which most do) While I appreciate Kravitz is very knowledgeable about F1, too much of his live stuff feels so unorganized and uncomfortable to watch and listen to. He takes way to long to get to the point of everything. If he’s trying to describe what something is and how it works, he often waists up to a minute describing what it isn’t and how it doesn’t work. It’s really tedious. He used to be on the BBC and was far less irritating then.

            In my view, Sky is a huge disappointment for such an expensive channel. All I want is to watch the practice sessions, qualifying and the race but in order to do that to watch all of these every time, I would have to pay £10.99 every week it was on. I find the £6.99 24 hour offer really silly. I mean 24 hours of 6 different channels. Just who would stay up for 24 hours and watch 6 different channels? That would even struggle just to get qualifying and the race included.

            As Sky are the only Channel in the UK to do live coverage of F1 from 2019 onwards for 5 years or so, they seriously need to improve their coverage in my view. As well as their prices. Yes, they will get more viewers then but many people who are used to free to air will not want to pay. So F1 will lose loads of viewed from that point. I just hope that Channel 4 or maybe even ITV will do some highlights of each race at leased.

        2. Why do I think the channel 4 coverage is poor? Firstly, when I tune in at 11pm for highlights, they insist on serving up 30 minutes of dross (that nobody wants to watch) before showing any actual racing. Then there’s the adverts, the painful amount of adverts. Thankfully, the internet and streaming etc will tear apart this business model that serves no benefit to the viewers (Sky included).

          1. Ah yes, I supose it may be better if they just showed the race for the highlights. But I certainly wouldn’t want to miss the part before the race on the live coverge. I wouldn’t say nobdy wants t watch it though. There may have been some important news that people had missed that day that they could mention beforethe highlights of the race. I would prefer it if it was just the race in the highlights but I see nothing wrong with showing the other parrts. The BBC highlights were very similar back when they did the job Channel 4 are now doing.
            About the adverts, I find them much less tedious somehow on Channel 4. It is more understandable that they need them as it is a totally free channel. Whereas sky is an expensive pay channel that still has loads of ads. I really expected less on a channel like sky. I really miss having F1 on the BBC.

    3. I still watch them all but since last season I started doing others things while having it on in the background or just don’t fight anymore when I’m starting to fall asleep.

      I’ve always soaked up every practice, qualifying and warm-up but not anymore. For practice, I usually read the combined results on Saturday and for qualifying, I turn in 10 minutes before the end. There’s pretty much a 99% chance that nothing unexpected happened till then.

      I don’t know if it’s me or what racing in general has become but I’m just not that interested anymore. Haven’t seen a single DTM or WTCC race this season as they have gotten really boring, too. I do watch every Formula E quali and race, tough. Fantastic series.

    4. I haven’t watched a race live for many years now. I record and watch them afterwards. Many reasons why but mainly I want to have time to watch it and the possibility to paus, rewind and fast forward. I do watch all free practices as well.
      The only problem with this is the risk of spoilers and I can’t follow f1fanatic. But to be able to rewind, take a look at a situation again is so addictive that when I watch live sports I can get so frustrated not to be able to rewind. Especially when the producer misses the situation and doesn’t do a replay.

      Also I have a collection of all the races from 2002 and forward and since 2011 with free practice and qualifications as well. Often when the commentators make a remark about a race I make a mental note about it and often later in the week I rewatch the race.
      And after the season has ended and the new season is getting closer I usually watch a season that I like. And since the recordings is digital and stored on my NAS and using PLEX it takes seconds to start playing any race. Oh, how much I DON’T miss VHS.

      1. Tomas, generally if you can record a program then your technology should allow you to pause/rewind live TV. Just make sure you’re not recording too many other channels at the same time.

  2. Would like to watch them live but with two kids and a wife that “can’t stand the noise” I don’t get the chance.

    Still… after about two years of trying I have both my kids half interested. Sure they only know the drivers as HAM, (“the cheater”), MAX and BOTtom and they find qualy more interesting than the race but its progress :D

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