What Sky Sports F1 has screened since 2012

This is something I’ve been meaning to upload for a little while, but have not ever got round to completing. What you find below is a list of programmes that Sky Sports F1 have screened since the channel launched at the beginning of 2012.

Deliberately, the list excludes any race weekend programming that is live, and also anything that is less than 15 minutes in length. I won’t claim that the list is complete, but I thought it’d be useful to compile as, despite running this blog for two years, I’ve never listed the programming that Sky screened in 2012 or 2013 which may be of interest to others.

Documentaries
Starting with documentaries, and across the three years on Sky Sports F1, the channel has screened in the region of 35 hours of content. The longest, weekly series is actually from 2012, that being Britain’s Next F1 Star. It mystified me back then why this wasn’t promoted as much as it should, but in any event a follow-up series was never commissioned. Sky need long running, weekly series in my opinion aside from the race weekend content.

If Sky really do have the keys to Biggin Hill now and can roam freely, they have to make it an absolute priority to get some six or eight part series’ together. ‘Senna Week‘ was great for the channel, but it doesn’t change the fact that the channel has been sparse outside of that. The amount of hours for F1 Legends has dropped considerably from 2012, which to some degree surprises me, but the title somewhat restricts who they can ask, although there should be plenty of scope for spin off’s so they can get other people in to interview. I’m interested to see what Tales from the Vault brings, I hope that turns out to be a weekly series.

– F1 Legends (2012-present – 18 episodes)
– A Winning Partnership (2014 – 1 episode)
– Horse Power (2014 – 1 episode)
– Memories of Senna (2014 – 1 episode)
– Prost on Senna (2014 – 1 episode)
– Remembering Ratzenberger (2014 – 1 episode)
– Senna: The Driving Force (2014 – 1 episode)
– The Last Team Mate (2014 – 1 episode)
– Architects of F1 (2013 – 3 episodes)
– British Grand Prix: Home Advantage (2013 – 1 episode)
– Lotus: Chapman’s Winning Formula (2013 – 1 episode)
– Monaco: The Greatest Race of All (2013 – 1 episode)
– The Lost Generation (2013 – 3 episodes)
– Britain’s Next F1 Star (2012 – 6 episodes)

Classic Shows
The Season Reviews in 2012 went from I think 1981 all the way through to present day, which was stopped at the end of that year as in came the classic races. The classics were around in 2012, but only for Monaco and Britain, with the format covering the entire season for 2013. I’m not convinced that the change of scheduling for 2014 has worked, but it probably doesn’t help that the same 100 races are on a cycle. The GP Uncovered strand covered the 1950s and 1960s, whilst GP Heroes and GP Review this year are covering the 1970s, all three shows from various archives.

– Classic F1 (2012-present)
– GP Heroes (2014-present)
– GP Review (2014-present)
– GP Uncovered (2013)
– Season Reviews (2012)

Race related programming
Aside from live content, The F1 Show is the main piece of programming that the channel broadcasts, every Friday. Since 2013, Midweek Report presented by Anna Woolhouse has also aired on the channel. Outside of that, the other programming does not fill up many hours on the channel, and aside from Ted’s Notebook and the Best Bits programme (essentially a replacement of Fast Track), none of it is regular programming on the channel.

Testing is the other notable mention for 2013, as the channel screened that live and in 3D, but the channel dropped the live aspect for the 2014 winter testing season.

– The F1 Show (2012-present)
– Christmas Team Reviews (2012-present)
– F1 Car Launches (2012-present)
– Journalists’ Specials (2013-present)
– Midweek Report (2013-present)
– Ted’s Notebook (2013-present)
– Testing Roundup (2013-present)
– Best Bits (2014-present)
– Live Testing (2013)
– Weekend in Stills (2012-13)
– Fast Track (2012-13)
– Live IndyCar Series (2012)
* several races displaced from other Sky channels
– Weekend in Words (2012)

Other
– AUTOSPORT Awards (2013)
– Historic Monaco Grand Prix (2014)
– Motor Sport Hall of Fame (2014)

Sky were also meant to have filmed a season long series with Max Chilton in 2013, however as of writing this has yet to make air, so I’m unsure if it was axed halfway through the season. Even if I’m not a fan of Chilton, I would be disappointed if it had been dropped as that would have easily been a six or eight part series.

Personally I do wish Sky screened more documentaries, the above shows that there has not been an increase in original content since 2012. However, one assumes that showing the Classic F1 races and acquiring footage from various archives does not come for free… you also have to wonder whether there is demand for more documentaries, I don’t know the answer to that, but Sky won’t commission a programme if there is no demand for it.

Drop a line in the comments if you think anything is missing, I don’t think the list is complete, but the above is to the best of my knowledge, and based on my blog posts so far!