Fans of Formula 1 watching the sport via F1’s over-the-top platform will receive a richer offering this season.
The platform has grown since it first launched in May 2018, both in terms of size and content. Now, F1 TV Pro subscribers will receive a bespoke pre-race build-up for the first time, fronted by Will Buxton.
Buxton, who joined F1 after covering the sport with NBC from 2013 to 2017, will continue to present F1 TV’s Tech Talk output as well as their post-race programming.
In addition, F1 says that they are improving their Pit Lane Channel this season, with a co-commentator joining Alex Jacques at every race this season.
The Pit Lane Channel will also feature new camera angles from the pit wall and pit box, as well as exclusive interviews from the paddock.
The premium-tier service is available in eleven additional countries for 2020, taking the tally to 77. For fans in the US, the service is available on Roku for the first time.
However, UK fans are still unable to access F1 TV Pro, meaning fans who want to watch F1 live will need to subscribe to Sky Sports F1 in some form.
Testing gets the full World Feed treatment
As part of the announcement, F1 also confirmed that subscribers to their over-the-top platform will receive an improved live timing experience.
The improved experience for fans was clear from the first seconds of testing, with a more detailed view of lap times for each driver.
From a graphics perspective on-screen, testing now feels like an extension to a race weekend: the timing wall, split times, on-board angles, and team radio all on offer as proceedings opened in Barcelona.
In fact, it was the second day of testing when coverage came into its element: revealing the ‘Dual Axis Steering’ (DAS) device on the new Mercedes W11, only noticeable via on-board camera angles.
Mercedes would have successfully hidden the device until Australia just two years ago, something that is now impossible thanks to the level of coverage F1 is giving testing.
Mercedes' My-steer-ious wheel 🧐@SportmphMark explains the importance behind the Silver Arrows' latest innovation 👀⬇️#F1#F1Testing
You can criticise live coverage of testing all you want, but on days like today, it proved its use to both fans and journalists, giving F1 publicity that it would have not received in previous years.
As was the case twelve months ago, personnel from Sky and F1 formed the hybrid team for testing, with nine people live on-air during the first day of running.
Alex Jacques, Jolyon Palmer, Rosanna Tennant, and Tom Clarkson represented F1’s in-house digital output, with David Croft, Rachel Brookes, Natalie Pinkham, and Ted Kravitz joining from Sky, Kravitz back for testing after his absence last year.
Laura Winter was the ninth person on-screen during day one, Winter joining the F1 team during ten race weekends in 2020, whilst Will Buxton also featured during the second day.
Briatore to feature on Beyond the Grid
Clarkson’s stint in the commentary box saw him confirm Flavio Briatore as one of the guests on F1’s official Behind the Grid podcast this year.
Now in its third season, the first episode of 2020 lands on Wednesday 11th March prior to the Australian Grand Prix.
Elsewhere, German Formula 1 broadcaster RTL has announced that they are producing their coverage of the Vietnam Grand Prix from their base in Cologne because of the “incalculable spread of coronavirus,” with none of their personnel set to travel to Hanoi.
“We have a high level of responsibility for our employees. When reporting from Hanoi, the risks to their health appear to be too great after careful examination,” RTL’s sports director Manfred Loppe explained.
“We came to this decision after querying numerous information points and, bottom line, none from our point of view have received a reliable assessment of the situation on site.”
Motorsport Broadcasting has reached out to UK broadcasters to confirm their current stance on the Hanoi event, which takes place across the weekend of 3rd to 5th April.
Formula 1 springs back into life with two pre-season tests, both of which take place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
Last year, F1 experimented by airing the first test live via their over-the-top platform, with Sky Sports also covering the afternoon sessions live.
Thanks to the positive response, F1 are taking testing further than ever before this year, with every minute airing live via Sky Sports for fans in the UK and Italy, as well as F1 TV Pro for the territories the over-the-top service is available in.
11 new countries get their hands on F1 TV Pro for the first time this season, including South Africa. However, the UK remains absent from the list.
As well as opening up garages during testing, F1 promises an improved live timing feed for testing which will presumably feed through to the on-screen graphics set.
In addition to the on-track action, a one-hour wrap-up show called The Story so Far will air following the first five days. As of writing, there is no word on who will be covering testing, but F1 says it will be a hybrid of Sky and F1 talent on hand to call the action.
For F1 TV Access subscribers (which UK fans can subscribe to), F1 has confirmed that exclusive content from Will Buxton and Jolyon Palmer will feature during the testing period, as well as lunch time press conferences for fans to watch.
In total, 53 hours of live action is set to air over the six days of testing, more than enough to whet the appetite ahead of the season opening Australian Grand Prix in March.
F1 Testing – Barcelona (Sky Sports F1)
11/02 – 17:30 to 18:15 – Ferrari Car Launch
13/02 – 13:30 to 14:00 – McLaren Car Launch
19/02 – 07:55 to 18:00 – Day 1
=> 07:55 – Morning Session
=> 12:00 – Break
=> 13:00 – Afternoon Session
=> 17:00 – The Story so Far
20/02 – 08:00 to 18:00 – Day 2
=> 08:00 – Morning Session
=> 12:00 – Break
=> 13:00 – Afternoon Session
=> 17:00 – The Story so Far
21/02 – 08:00 to 18:00 – Day 3
=> 08:00 – Morning Session
=> 12:00 – Break
=> 13:00 – Afternoon Session
=> 17:00 – The Story so Far
26/02 – 08:00 to 18:00 – Day 4
=> 08:00 – Morning Session
=> 12:00 – Break
=> 13:00 – Afternoon Session
=> 17:00 – The Story so Far
27/02 – 08:00 to 18:00 – Day 5
=> 08:00 – Morning Session
=> 12:00 – Break
=> 13:00 – Afternoon Session
=> 17:00 – The Story so Far
28/02 – 08:00 to 17:00 – Day 6
=> 08:00 – Morning Session
=> 12:00 – Break
=> 13:00 – Afternoon Session
As always, schedules are subject to change, and this article will be updated if needed.
Update on February 6th – F1 has today issued a press release confirming testing details, which is now included in the main body above.
What do the last names Verstappen and Yoong have in common? Yes, both were Minardi drivers in Formula 1. But both also competed in the inaugural season of A1 Grand Prix, and that is where the latest instalment of flashback takes Motorsport Broadcasting to.
A1 Grand Prix launched 15 years ago to much fanfare, with a glitzy season opener at Brands Hatch. Just four years later, financial issues confined the World Cup of Motorsport to history. Although the series itself ended into 2009, it took until 2015 for the company itself to be dissolved.
But, memories of the series remain scattered across the web. Unfortunately, this is not in one centralised place, and given that A1 Grand Prix has long gone, the chances of that happening at all is unlikely. One can dream, however…
In terms of its position and scheduling, A1 Grand Prix was the Formula E of 2000’s, although the latter has outlived the former. Life for Sky Sports in the UK before Formula 1 consisted of A1 Grand Prix and IndyCar, amongst other forms of motor sport.
Initially, Sky gave A1 lots of attention, so much so that the first ever race day from Brands bumped the football Super Sunday off Sky Sports 1!
Once the initial attention drifted, the series settled down, and flashback takes us to the Eastern Creek Raceway in Australia, which played host to the fourth round of the season.
Date: Sunday 6th November 2005
Channel: Sky Sports 3
Time: 02:00 to 05:30
02:30 – Sprint Race
04:00 – Feature Race
Presenter: Georgie Thompson (Sky)
Reporter: Lee McKenzie (A1)
Reporter: Gareth Jones (A1)
Commentator: Ben Edwards (A1)
Commentator: John Watson (A1)
Analyst: Andy Priaulx (Sky)
Analyst: Keith Huewen (Sky)
A1’s race day offering consisted of two races: a 30-minute sprint race and a 60-minute feature race. Both had lap counters, although as we discover in Australia, both end up going to time for differing reasons.
Back in the day, most sports that Sky covered live had the luxury of wrap-around studio coverage from their base in Osterley, jumping in and out of the World Feed along the way. For Eastern Creek, the 30-minute build-up to the sprint race consisted of just that.
Sky’s own colour consisted of Georgie Thompson, Andy Priaulx and Keith Huewen. An initial discussion around qualifying, which saw France’s Nicolas Lapierre qualify on pole, at the start of the programme shows how A1 tried to stand out. Qualifying for each event consisted of four segments, with the best two lap times for each country forming the grid.
Thompson reminds viewers that it takes three Boeing 747 jets to get the 50 cars over to Eastern Creek from Europe, a big achievement for a young series.
From that point onwards, we are in and out of the A1 feed, with Lee McKenzie interviewing a young Lapierre, and Ben Edwards giving viewers an excellent virtual guide of the circuit, the graphics looking decent for 2005! The overriding feeling is that Eastern Creek is an old school track and rough round the edges. A1 loved virtual graphics, with the 24-car grid also covered in virtual form later in both build-ups.
Ad-breaks are an unavoidable part of Sky’s pre- and post-race offering, but the races themselves air uninterrupted on the pay TV outlet. Sky miss some World Feed segments as a result, such as pre-race interviews with New Zealand and Australia, however this does not detract from the programme.
On-board with Italy’s Enrico Toccacelo as he tries to get past Canada’s Sean McIntosh during the sprint race.
There is some repetition in the sprint race build-up (not convinced viewers needed to hear from Lapierre, or see the virtual grid graphics, twice), however there were a good sample of grid interviews, with McKenzie chatting to Canadian driver Sean McIntosh as well as Great Britain’s team principal John Surtees.
Both grids were quiet compared to Formula 1 or Formula E, but also the Eastern Creek Raceway had a vast amount of space, so perhaps is not the best comparator. The main thing here is that the attendance looks really healthy for A1’s first appearance down under.
After the national anthems, it is race time!
Sprint race
The A1 Grand Prix liveries look so distinctive and awesome, certainly the chances of wrongly identifying a car is slim.
The opening laps of the sprint race give us a chance to analyse the graphics package on offer, which reminds me of not only F1’s ‘slant’ package from 2010 onwards, but also the classic 1994 to 2003 graphics set due to the black and yellow colour combination for the numbering. The package follows the ‘keep it simple, stupid’ principles, making it straightforward for viewers to follow.
As an example, all A1 cars have a power boost system, which drivers can use four times in the sprint race and eight times in the feature race, giving a tactical element to the racing. No fancy graphics used, just a simple number, which the television feed highlights when a driver activates it.
The timing wall cycles through five cars at once, however there is no sign of Team Radio, a sign of the era more than anything else. From a camera angle perspective, the director opted to use the heli-cam at the rolling sprint race start, with sporadic on-boards used throughout helping to show the ragged nature of the machinery.
As usual, Edwards and Watson are a joy to listen to, the two covering movements further down the field, even when not aired on the World Feed.
Wonderful topography of this Eastern Creek Raceway where they’re up and down, they’ve got off camber corners to deal with. It’s a little bit like Oulton Park in the UK or Mid Ohio in the United States, there’s a lot of thinking to be done, it’s quite technical in places.
Overtaking is obviously not easy, there are a few opportunities that we’ve seen though. – A1 commentator Ben Edwards talking about the circuit
Separate incidents involving Czech Republic’s Tomas Enge and Germany’s Adrian Sutil prompt two Safety Cars during the race, but it is a dull affair outside of that, with France winning the time limited race over Portugal and Brazil, continuing their dominance of the series so far.
Break between Races
Reaction to the sprint race is thin on the ground from Sky, with some brief analysis from Huewen and Priaulx in the studio, followed by the press conference, before moving on to a variety of segments.
Having an hour between the races gave broadcasters enough breathing room in one sense, but not in another. Sky have around 40 minutes to play with (excluding commercials) between the end of the sprint race and the start of the feature race, which is not much. However, for a new series it makes sense, I can see the logic in not wanting to drag proceedings on for too long.
Cutting to the studio immediately after the sprint race meant that Sky lost some of the track atmosphere, but avoided them having to brutally crash in and out of the World Feed, reminiscent of ITV’s Formula E studio coverage.
Sky added their own flavour in the form of a segment with Thompson and France’s Alexandre Premat, the two sitting underneath the Eifel Tower to reflect on Premat’s domination in the Portuguese round. The segment was more of a quick-fire Q&A, with no flashy music, doing the job nicely in introducing fans to the characters.
Multiple segments from the World Feed followed, which Sky played out ‘as live.’ The first covered the battle between Australia and New Zealand, with Gareth Jones narrating (a story A1 hyped up throughout the broadcast), and a second looking at what the drivers have been doing in the run up to the weekend.
Next up, McKenzie is in pit lane chatting to Japan’s Hayanari Shimoda after the sprint race, before another A1 piece, this time with the drivers out surfing on Bondi Beach. If anything, this part of the programme is VT heavy, however Sky are reliant on whatever content A1 are sending to them from Australia. Of course, the Sky Pad did not exist back then…
After an ad-break, we head into the feature race build-up, following a similar structure to the sprint race, with McKenzie and Jones chatting to the likes of Ireland’s Michael Devaney and New Zealand’s Jonny Reid on the grid.
The only difference this time round is that it is A1 Grand Prix’s founder Sheikh Maktoum who gives the starting command, which was always a nice touch. “Gentlemen, for the pride of your nations, start your engines!”
Feature race
The TV direction and commentary at the start was subpar, not helped by an unusual choice of camera angle, which failed to spot Portugal’s Alvaro Parente jumping the start. France lost the lead to them as a result, whilst Ireland took a trip through the gravel trap.
The pre-race tactics that the commentary team discussed quickly come to fruition, as Britain’s Robbie Kerr used power boost to get past Brazil on lap two.
The A1 Grand Prix field hurdles towards turn one on lap two, with Portugal leading the way. Behind, Brazil activates power boost as they try to fend off Great Britain.
The feature race features a mandatory pit stop, with A1 opting to display the whole pit lane time on the screen, not just the stationary time.
South Africa was the first country to crash out on lap five. Portugal’s lead was short-lived because of the jump start, although their jump start is not obvious from the replays, so I do have some sympathy with Edwards and Watson here. Like in race one, the Safety Car found itself in the lead most of the time.
The first caution period comes because of a collision at turn two (the main trouble spot) between Mexico and Russia, during which most of the field opt to pit. The exception is 25-year-old Basil Shaaban who now finds himself leading for Lebanon!
Shaaban tumbles down the field once the Safety Car pits, but Watson quite rightly calls his performance “outstanding,” as the Lebanese driver held his own. The on-board angles are again awesome, and a real plus point for the television offering, showing how difficult the cars are to control.
Czech Republic and Austria are the next pair to collide into one another, resulting in the second Safety Car period. France leaves the rest of the field trailing on the restart, as Ireland re-overtakes New Zealand.
Some of the direction and camera work is sub-standard, but in the context of this being A1’s fourth race weekend, it is solid in my view for what is a very hectic race.
A huge accident for Japan’s Shimoda at turn one brings out the final Safety Car of the race. The violent nature of the accident separated the car into two, however Shimoda escaped relatively unscathed. A1 officials pause before showing the replay, but when they do show it, it is clear just how big the accident is, the Lola chassis doing its job.
On-board with New Zealand’s Jonny Reid during the feature race.
As in race one, the race switches to time format. Nothing can stop France from continuing their clean sweep of the weekend! Kerr holds on for second place for Great Britain, defending from Switzerland and Netherlands behind.
A little like Formula E has tried to do, A1 Grand Prix helped fill the void doing the traditional motor racing off-season, arguably better than Formula E has ever accomplished in that respect.
Yes, the electric series has outlived A1, but the latter was a genuine winter championship. The first season of the World Cup of Motorsport ran from September to April, with six race weekends between November and February, more than Formula E has ever had in the equivalent period.
The highlight of A1 for me? Seeing Jos Verstappen for Netherlands win the Durban feature race during season one by overtaking Switzerland’s Neel Jani on the very last lap. There is not much better than this moment, with Ben Edwards on commentary declaring “The Netherlands have taken the lead,” is there?
A1 may not have lasted long, but for those that followed it race in and out, it certainly is much missed.
Viewers watching Channel 4’s Formula 1 coverage in 2020 will receive more of the action than last year, Motorsport Broadcasting can exclusively reveal.
As part of a new arrangement with Sky Sports, Channel 4 aired Formula 1 in highlights form in 2019, with the British Grand Prix also airing live. Both parties agreed to extend the partnership last Autumn, taking the agreement through to the end of 2022.
The highlights deal allowed Channel 4 to cover 50 percent of the race during their edit, a decrease on the amount stipulated in the 2012 to 2018 broadcasting contract between Formula 1, Sky, and their free-to-air partner at that time.
However, Motorsport Broadcasting can confirm that Channel 4 and Sky have loosened at least two elements of the free-to-air contract for 2020.
This season, fans watching via Channel 4 will now see 70 percent of the racing action, increasing the race edit from 45 minutes to around 60 minutes (depending on race). The change brings Channel 4’s 2020 agreement closer to the 2012 to 2018 contract – at least in terms of the race edit.
The extension means that Channel 4’s race day show, produced by Whisper, will be 150 minutes in length for 2020 instead of 120 minutes, a similar amount compared with 2016 to 2018 for Channel 4 (including commercials).
In addition, Motorsport Broadcasting understands that both qualifying and the race day show can now begin two and a half hours after the chequered flag has fallen instead of three hours. Highlights for most European races will therefore air from 18:30 to 21:00, instead of 19:00 to 21:00 as they did last year.
The two races likely to prove troublesome this year are the United States and Mexican Grand Prix, which both begin at 19:10 UK time. Expect highlights to change to 22:30 to 01:00 this season, unless Sky gives Channel 4 any additional leeway on this front.
As of writing, there is no confirmation on the status of the additional restrictions that Sky imposed on Channel 4 prior to the 2019 season, such as the restriction of Channel 4 personnel on the grid or within the interview pen.
Overall, this is good news for fans watching Formula 1 via free-to-air television, and another sign that the relationship between Sky and Channel 4 is strong.
Both broadcasters expected to retain current line-ups
Although neither broadcaster has yet to confirm their on-air team, Motorsport Broadcasting expects both to field a similar line-up, with no upheaval like last year.
Ben Edwards is expected to return as Channel 4’s lead commentator, joined by personalities such as David Coulthard and Billy Monger throughout the course of the season.
Barring a change of direction, Sky are retaining Ted Kravitz for 2020, although the number of races Kravitz will be with Sky for is unclear. The likes of David Croft, Martin Brundle and Simon Lazenby are staying part of Sky’s line-up.
Meanwhile, newly announced W Series lead commentator Alex Jacques returns as commentator for Formula Two, Formula Three and Formula 1’s Pit Lane Channel this year.
Testing begins on Wednesday 19th February, with the season itself getting underway in Melbourne on Sunday 15th March, both of which are airing live on Sky Sports.
A correction was made to this article on January 19th. Although the United States Grand Prix begins an hour later local time, timezone differences / daylight savings mean that there is no difference to the UK race time and Channel 4’s highlights should therefore start half an hour earlier. My apologies for this error.
As always following the Formula 1 season finale, Motorsport Broadcasting asks readers for their opinion on all things broadcasting, and 2019 was no different.
Thanks to all of you who commented on the article after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December. There were a range of opinions on offer, varying from Channel 4’s Formula 1 coverage through to podcasting.
With the Formula 1 television model in the UK changing from the start of the 2019 season, fans sought to find new ways to consume their favourite sport. Matthew Restaino was one of several readers who looked outside of the traditional box.
I’ve started consuming F1 in different ways. I subscribe to at least four F1 podcasts: Box of Neutrals, Missed Apex, Back of the Grid and For F1’s Sake, and listen on a weekly basis. I also watch the six minute YouTube packages of qualifying and the races plus the little best on board videos.
Matthew was not the only commenter who has ventured into the podcast space, with davidd93 referencing Whisper’s On the Marbles podcast and the WTF1 podcast, both of which he enjoyed. Davidd93 also makes the prediction that Lando Norris is going to shine on social media moving forward, taking the opportunity to praise McLaren’s YouTube output.
Other championships also benefited from the change of F1 broadcasting arrangements, as rosswilliamquinn explained.
I watched the whole W Series and Formula E because it was accessible to me, despite not being too big a fan of Vernon Kay, I tolerated him.
Whilst readers gave Channel 4 and Sky’s F1 coverage both praise and criticism, they were less kind when it came to Formula 1’s race direction.
Some of the direction has been abominable. That’s not the fault of the broadcaster but the stories have sometimes been missed to see Lewis driving in clean air. – rosswilliamquinn
There has been actioned missed (sometimes until a couple of days after the race), which is really baffling and frustrating at times, it happened too often. The race director seemed to have a vendetta against [Carlos] Sainz this year, saw little of him but he was such a standout performer this year. – davidd93
The directing was nothing short of appalling this year. Twice – at Silverstone and Monza – the director cut to the crowd whilst we were in the middle of something happening. To be fair to him, Crofty managed to smooth over the Silverstone one very well. – Rhys Benjamin
A sub-plot to the poor direction was the fact that Sky’s commentary now feels and very much acts like the official F1 commentary feed, a view echoed by Rhys Benjamin, who recalls the days when the UK commentary team would actively criticise the race direction, something that rarely happens nowadays.
Elsewhere in the FOM spectrum, the F1 Insights graphics divided opinion. Thomas Pitts saw the additions as “positives” overall, an opinion not shared by Rhys Benjamin.
The general verdict from readers was that Channel 4’s coverage had declined in quality, but given the change of broadcasting arrangements, this was also seen as not a surprise.
The Channel 4 coverage has come across very much as being run because the rules of the game say it must be run. We know the coverage, bar Silverstone, has all been pre-recorded. Exciting moments have been lost and the highlights transition between sections of the races hasn’t always been coherent and clear. [..] Yes, I accept that because it’s highlights there will be stuff to cut out, but there was so much cut from Brazil it was ridiculous. – seanbarlow
The C4 coverage has not been as good this year, but I’m confident this is to do with the restrictions placed on them by Sky, so not their fault. Really like their coverage though taking the restrictions into account. – davidd93
Over on Sky, Thomas Pittsbelieves that their wrap-around coverage has improved, but did mention the lack of promotion for the remainder of the channel’s offering, a recurring theme through several comments.
Inevitably following the events of early-2019, readers made comment on Ted Kravitz and Karun Chandhok. The general impression was that readers were thankful that Kravitz remained with Sky, if only in a reduced capacity, and that Chandhok was a needed boost to Sky’s team.
Ted not being there for every round was a disappointment but better than the alternative or having no Ted at all. Karun, while ok, doesn’t seem to have the depth of knowledge that Ted does. – Thomas Pitts
Karun Chandhok has been a good addition to Sky’s broadcasting team, it’s nice to get a new face to ‘mix it up’ as it was starting to get quite stale on Sky in recent years. [..] Even if a race is boring the Notebook never is. I’m so glad Ted Kravitz was part of Sky’s coverage in 2019, if we had lost him it would have been so much worse. – Alessio Dimaria
Other comments on the Sky front included a note from seanbarlow lamenting the lack of promotion for the pre-season Now TV offer (F1 Season Pass), with Sean and Alessio Dimaria also believing Sky would benefit from trimming their pre-race build-up, now 100 minutes long end-to-end.
There were 19 thoughts in total, so the above only represents a snapshot of what readers were talking about during December on Motorsport Broadcasting.
Motorsport Broadcasting 