Steve Rider urges BBC to show other motorsport as its Formula 1 coverage reduces

Rider, who has fronted F1 broadcasts for both the BBC and ITV in the past, will form part of Sky's line-up when its contract to broadcast all grands prix live in the UK commences this year.

He believes that it is time for the BBC to support top domestic and international championships, such as world rallying and British Formula 3, to make up for losing its deal to show full live coverage of the F1 season to Sky this year.

"The BBC had a great structure for showing motorsport in the 1980s, back when I started to get really heavily involved," said Rider on the main stage at AUTOSPORT International, "and right through to the 1990s it had a great portfolio.

"In that time we had British Touring Cars, British rallying, the World Rally Championship, Formula 3, all supporting the F1 coverage as that was the pinnacle.

"I remember when BBC lost F1 to ITV at the end of 1996. Myself and Mark Wilkin, who was the brilliant producer of the F1, tried to convince them to make a strong commitment to sportscars, touring cars, rallying... But their opinion was 'We're out of F1, we have no enthusiasm for other motorsport'. There's now a chance to do what they didn't do then and replace the gap left by F1.

"People talk about the damage done by the current BBC/Sky situation, but to me the real damage is being done by keeping British motorsport off domestic television. You have BTCC on ITV and that's fantastic. But there needs to be more.

"Through the BBC showing F3 in the 1980s, viewers saw Ayrton Senna for the first time; Damon Hill, David Coulthard, Mika Hakkinen... I'd love to see them making that commitment again. The WRC, British rallying, F3 all are desperate for terrestrial coverage."

Rider also believes that the BBC's scaling back of its F1 programme - only 10 of this year's races will be screened live with a full highlights package shown from the other events - will lead to an eventual complete pull-out in the not too distant future.

"I think an irrevocable step has been taken. I'm not a cheerleader for Sky. Their involvement in F1 was inevitable. I think their long-term domination of F1 is also inevitable, whether it's four or five years away.

"For reasons that haven't been fully explained by the BBC, and that probably didn't need to happen, we now have this halfway deal in which Sky have been given the opportunity to dominate the sport.

"BBC have been given a chance to take a step backward, and another and another and another and eventually they'll disappear from the sport entirely. That's the situation we're in now."