Hey - just want to clarify a little. Even though SPEED is available in HD, the F1 races are _not_ broadcast in HD. The rights F1 gave out to ITV was a 16:9, and the world feed is 579 line PAL, not 720/1080.
There is hope however now that the BBC is back in the picture. The move away from ITV was a good one in my opinion. Many times ITV operations would show the boring parts of the race while some major action was happening elsewhere. BBC will also have uninterrupted coverage of the F1 race. Unlikely we will get that full feed through SPEED of Fox, but it will exist.
The track cameras film at 1080p, not sure if all of them do, but their links back to the sat trucks ARE 1080p HD. What we actually get is a downconvert due to contracts with F1.
In short - I'm not too upset that SPEED isn't available in HD. The quality is better, but the feed from BBC/ITV wasn't ever full on HD.
It will very much depend if BBC Sports can negotiate with F1 (soon) and get a full HD feed from each race. There is a good chance that will happen this year since BBC will have it's new FTA HD sat going up, and of course the UK star Lewis Hamilton is attempting to retain the title. There will probably be a good bit of UK pressure on BBC Sports to get it in HD.
So then it will be up to SPEED/FOX/DISH to get the right stuff coming in from BBC Sports.
I do find it odd that one of the most technologically advanced racing sports in the world isn't available in the BEST picture quality.
FYI - You will definately want to check the BBC Sports website coverage during a race, it's sure to be good.
