Bernie Ecclestone has denied claims that the BBC will show full race reruns hours after the live event next season, insisting that 75-minute highlights will be made available of the races it will not show live.

Last week reports suggested that fans who had been left outraged that Sky will broadcast every race live from next season while the BBC will show only half live could be offered an olive branch in the form of races being shown in full on the free-to-air channel three hours after the race finishes.

McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh had added further fuel to the speculation by confirming that he had been “assured” by Ecclestone that races not live on the BBC would be show in full later the same day.

But, speaking to the Independent, Ecclestone has confirmed that this will not be the case, saying: “The BBC will broadcast 75 minutes of every race.”

That remark is likely to infuriate fans in the United Kingdom, who will hope that growing pressure on Sky and the BBC will force the broadcasters into changing the details of the agreement.

Last week MP Don Foster wrote a letter to the BBC’s director general Mark Thompson questioning the intentions of the deal, while it was also revealed that senior BBC officials will face a grilling at the Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport select committee next month.

Ecclestone then hit back at Foster over the weekend, claiming the Sky deal was inevitable because the BBC could “guarantee nothing” and adding that Foster “clearly does not understand the situation.”

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