Bluray review: FIA Formula One World Championship 2019 Official Review
:
Positives
Negatives
I can’t believe the last time I last did a review post of Duke Video’s annual F1 season review video was back in 2012. Since 2011, these season review videos have also been available in Blu-ray disc format (although not 1080p HD).
Each year the length of the content varies, although there is usually at least 4.5hrs across 2 discs. The menu system is very basic – you can play the whole season, selected races or on-camera videos for each race and the 2nd disc has an extra features section which includes a collection of short videos.
The 2019 season review includes selected qualifying & race highlights, driver onboard race cam (1 driver for each race) and the special features are 5 short videos:
- Lewis’ Monaco win
- Jody Scheckter
- Mexico breakfast with Esteban Ocon
- Lewis Hamilton interview
- Niki Lauda tribute video
Again, all these short videos are actually available on the official F1 Youtube channel.
In previous years videos (especially in the old VHS and DVD days), the season video would open with an explanation of new regulations, introduce the driver lineups for the new season and review winter testing form – that’s now completely missing.
If you have a decent internet connection, it’s now quite hard to recommend the 2019 season video (other than maybe as a gift) as there is really nothing exclusive in the Blu-ray you won’t see that wasn’t posted up by FIA within 24hrs of the each 2019 race (it even includes the Sky F1 broadcast commentary). F1’s official YouTube channel in 2020 has provided pre-race, qualifying Q1-Q2-Q3 and race highlights in quick time, so it remains to be see if the 2020 season review to be released later this year will similarly just be a compilation of already available videocasts.
