The military precision involved in bringing F1 broadcasts to life

 It’s Friday morning, three minutes into the planning meeting for the final round of the championship. The Sky Sports F1 production team are briefing their colleagues on the day’s programme – but a momentary distraction causes a brief pause.

“Can you note that down?” asks Simon Lazenby – a presenter who has been with the
Sky team since it started broadcasting F1 in 2012 – as he turns to GP Racing. “Terrible production,” he jokes, and leans back in his chair, satisfied to have provoked a burst of laughter in the room. The first, but by no means the last, joke directed at an outsider allowed
into Sky’s field operations centre in the TV compound area of the Abu Dhabi circuit.

On-site producer Tommy Herz and his colleague Jess Medland, who is in the meeting remotely from the London base, are going over a 21-page second-by-second practice day coverage plan – copies of which have been handed out to everyone by Sky’s director of F1 Billy McGinty.

It resembles to some extent the engineering briefing set-up of an actual F1 team. There’s
many monitors feeding back the picture from
the track – F2 practice has just got under
way – and various timing screens. A proper intercom system is in place, connecting those
at the track with the UK staff, who are also
seen on one of the screens. The biggest difference from an engineering debrief is just that it’s a bit more relaxed.

“It’s not as structured as it would be in an F1 team,” explains  Anthony Davidson, one of the many Sky presenters to have seen the sport from both sides, as driver and pundit. “For them,
it’s down to the second – if the meeting is to start at 12:00, that’s when it starts, not a second later, and everybody waits for their turn. Here anybody can open
their mic and talk, even if it’s just for a joke.
It was funny when Bernie [Collins, former Aston Martin strategist] joined us this year, she’d shush anyone who spoke out of turn.”

In addition to McGinty, Herz, Lazenby and Davidson, the on-site meeting also includes all the other key figures in the weekend’s coverage – commentary duo David Croft and Martin Brundle, reporter Rachel Brookes, presenters Ted Kravitz and Naomi Schiff, coordinator Emma Chapman, website correspondent Sam Johnston, and Damon Hill, one of the several world champions among the Sky crew. In total, including also Sky Italy and Sky Germany staff, the broadcaster brings 55 people to races.

Billy McGinty

Sky’s director of F1 McGinty oversees work at the track

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“We’re a big team. We have the content editorial team, the team of producers of different levels. There is also technical and engineering staff to set all the systems up. And my role is to oversee everything. And then, remotely, from London Sky studios, we have 20 people, again, a mix of content and editorial and technical and production.

“In terms of equipment, like the teams we have kits, transferred in exactly the same way: the technical, engineering, sound and vision equipment via air freights, together with F1 teams’ equipment; and we also have five sets of sea freights with tables, chairs, etc – again, exactly like teams.

“We operate with three cameras each weekend. There is the fourth one for SkyPad, but it is operated from London, remotely. All the crews have designated tasks during the weekend, depending on the programming. On Thursday,
during the media day, there’s content creation and content gathering – so, for example, in Abu Dhabi we had interviews with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, we’ve done a piece about Max, fronted by Damon.

"You have to be aware of agendas within the paddock, and people want to talk to you sometimes when they have something to say. Sometimes they’re doing it to plant seeds"
Simon Lazenby

“Friday, once we get into a live show, each camera is assigned to a certain role. We know when we need two cameras with Simon, one with Ted, or with Martin on track, on Saturday and Sunday there will be a cameraman with Rachel in the
TV pen, and so on.”

The meeting pivots to a discussion of the latest news. The big story of the Abu Dhabi build-up is the Daily Mail’s reporting that Lewis Hamilton had spoken to Red Bull before signing his new Mercedes deal.

Croft, Brundle, Hill and Kravitz all offer insights – it’s clear the Sky pundits know what happened, how and when – Herz reaches out to Red Bull to see if Christian Horner could join Simon, Naomi and Damon in the paddock after FP1 for a chat that would at least partially address the Hamilton rumour. Minutes later that chat is confirmed. It’ll be Simon who asks Horner the relevant question – despite already knowing the details – and it will be Horner confirming to viewers that, yes, it was Hamilton’s father Anthony who had contacted him about a potential move.

Simon Lazenby

Lazenby relishes breaking live news

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“I love telling stories live as they’re happening. And that’s the best part of my job, that we really are live all the time. If there’s a breaking news story or something controversial has happened, you’re there right at the heart of the story. And when there is a story, you’ve just got to be honest, and go directly and ask a question. I don’t believe in anything else. There’s no point in hiding from it, no point in sugar-coating everything. If you can, you get in there and you
want to draw the answer.

“You’ve also got to be aware of the context of why people are doing it. Christian and Toto [Wolff] like to wind each other up, and he goes out to get under his skin and vice versa. That’s just the paddock, right? You have to be aware of agendas within the paddock, and people want to talk to you sometimes when they have something to say. Sometimes they’re doing it to plant seeds. There’s a lot of gamesmanship up and down this paddock. The longer you spend here the longer you get to know the personalities, it’s all part of F1, and why we love it.”

It’s a lot of time and effort spent on a move that didn’t and won’t happen – but as we know now, it’s not like the prospect of Hamilton leaving Mercedes was total fantasy...

Saturday.

Eight minutes before qualifying gets going, Rachel Brookes has taken her spot in what’s called the TV pen and is preparing for one of the more frenzied parts of her weekend. The TV pen is where the drivers head minutes after getting out of their cars. Rachel and her counterparts from a couple of dozen broadcasters worldwide are here to take in those drivers’ frustrations, celebrations and all the other various emotional reactions.

Brookes is sharing her spot with colleague Mara Sangiorgio from Sky Italy. Though there’s another half an hour or so until even the first driver gets here, they’re already getting stuck into work. In Rachel’s hands is a large notebook, with detailed driver stats and the in-session notes she’s making.

After all, the initial questions she will later ask are key to the driver reactions Sky will be airing. And in that lies perhaps the most stressful task – finding that tricky balance between maintaining the cordial relationship with drivers you’re talking to all season but still pressing on them and trying to get their real emotions out when that’s required.

Rachel Brookes

Brookes has to make sure she's prepared for all eventualities when asking drivers questions in the pen

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“Everyone’s making fun of my notebook because it’s really big. But I’ve got every qualifying and race result for the last 12 years in there, and all my notes. For each session, be it qualifying or a race, I have a double-page spread and a box for every driver so that everything that happens during the session goes in that box, so when they walk towards me in the pen – and sometimes I have no idea who’s coming – I just can look at the box with their name and I’ve got all the talking points.

“It is difficult. In one ear I hear what they tell me, and in my other, I have a commentary of the race still going on – to know what’s happening, because I know I’d need that later – and also our internal radio. That’s one of the tough bits.

“As well as switching your mind between drivers, especially if you’ve been waiting for someone for a while – you look at your notes, you have your questions ready in your head – suddenly there’s someone else coming towards you. But the drivers, they’re all very good, they understand that you need to just gather your thoughts for a second, they know you’ve got a job to do.”

"With a bit of blind guidance from me, trying to steer them where to look, that works. And we ended up finding something"
Anthony Davidson

A different Sky set-up is nearby – the SkyPad, operated this weekend by Davidson. As it becomes clear Hamilton isn’t making it out of Q2, Ant is in a spirited discussion with London. Together they try to figure out where the Mercedes man’s qualifying went wrong – and, a couple of minutes later, the footage is cued up and Davidson is ready to go on air to explain how Hamilton came to miss Q3, before Q3 has actually started.

About 10 minutes later, Hamilton is with Rachel. By then she had already spoken with Alex Albon and Lance Stroll, the latter sticking around for a bit next to the Sky crew to watch the broadcast. Having spoken to Mara, Hamilton also stops in his tracks to watch qualifying and, once it’s clear it’s another Verstappen pole, he joins Rachel to tell Sky viewers of how he “struggled with the balance”.

Another half an hour of work follows as the top-10 qualifiers trickle in. First it’s Nico Hulkenberg and George Russell, holding up the process with a series of overly polite ‘after you’s as they hash out who does their Sky interview first. Then it’s Yuki Tsunoda, and Fernando Alonso. Once Tsunoda is done, Alonso waits for Brookes’s colleagues to reset the camera angle – with a grin on his face, since it’s the usual procedure after any interview with the diminutive Japanese.

At that same time, Anthony is comparing the laps of Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, getting into the tiniest details – which includes zooming in on the steering wheel dashes to see which gears they’re using through corners. If needs must, this will make up his live analysis on air.

But there are other things to discuss – Ant is told that Oscar Piastri has been summoned to the stewards for potentially impeding Pierre Gasly, and shortly thereafter steward Garry Connelly makes his way over to discuss it, view it again through Sky’s multi-function monitor, and take in an outside opinion. Connelly stays with Davidson until he’s seen the incident multiple times and heard Ant’s take, then heads back to the stewards’ office where the drivers involved are due to appear shortly. Even before they do, viewers will have already seen a detailed review of the footage.

Anthony Davidson

Davidson's analysis on the SkyPad is a key asset of the broadcaster's coverage

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“There are many clips I look at that we don’t end up using, because you never know where the story is gonna go. Quite often, it’s a moving target. With Lewis, I knew something was wrong. You start looking at the time difference with George [Russell], and you think, ‘No, that can’t be right.’ So I got the team back in London to start looking through the onboards of Lewis.

“The problem there is they’re not trained racing drivers. But with a bit of blind guidance from me, trying to steer them where to look, that works. And we ended up finding something. Lewis had traffic on the first run in Q2, and then, on the second run, he was just fighting the car, with very small moments on the rear stepping out – and I was able to show people back at home, that this is the moment where he’s fighting the car and, when he says there’s something wrong, this is what he’s talking about.

“And it’s nice to know that our job is appreciated in the paddock as well. Sometimes even stewards come and ask to look at clips. I guess it’s a bit of a comfort blanket for other people up and down the paddock to know that we have this technology here. And with a simple request back to London, we can get a clip in, and I can analyse it in detail, using all the tools. Nobody else can do that in the paddock in terms of broadcasting.

“And in this case, it was nice to give that extra bit on Piastri and Gasly to people back at home watching the show. Because they’d have never seen
that footage until probably next morning – but here they have it straight away with someone analysing it for them.”

Back in 2019, Ferrari famously tried to use Karun Chandhok’s SkyPad analysis not only as a comfort blanket but also as a piece of “new evidence” as it tried to
fight Sebastian Vettel’s Canadian Grand Prix penalty.

Sunday.

Just a few minutes after the final
race of the season has wrapped up, post-race show hosts Naomi Schiff, Simon Lazenby and Damon Hill leave pitlane and take up their
spot close to the race control building. The three people in the shot are supported by around a dozen behind the scenes – two camera people
to provide both close-ups and wide shots,
two lighting technicians, sound engineers, and one extra person with a screen mounted on a stand, attached to which is a board with the
race results.

Schiff and team have to balance talking to paddock personalities with timing the next segment

Photo by: James Sutton / Motorsport Images

Tommy and Billy are here, too, to steer the broadcast and assist with anything
that may be required. The post-race paddock
is organised chaos, after all, and the Sky crew are repeatedly buzzed, left and right, by mechanics pushing huge trolleys loaded to the brim with tyres, and colleagues from other channels,
and various VIPs.

“20 seconds. 15 seconds. Ten seconds… Five…”

Damon and Naomi are back on air, giving their views on Sergio Perez’s penalty for clashing with Lando Norris. As they talk, they’re fed a countdown – again, second-by-second – until the moment Oscar Piastri is ready to enter the frame. An interview with the Australian had been arranged by Tommy with McLaren’s press department and, as he gets his own microphone, he goes over his rookie season.

"People probably hardly realise how organised it is and how many people are behind it"
Naomi Schiff

“Two more minutes,” says the voice on the chat. Next, one minute. And here’s Lazenby, rerouting the conversation into some banter about Oscar’s jokey social media squabble with Chandhok after Australia’s defeat of India in the Cricket World Cup to wrap the interview up.

Naomi Schiff

“It can be very confusing, when someone is talking in your ear all the time. Now I’ve got used to it, and it’s something that became somewhat of a skill. Not like for Crofty, because if you tell him he’s got 30 seconds to say something, he’ll hit it – but yes, if they say ‘40 seconds’, I know what I need to do and when I need to wrap up. But it does throw you off sometimes.

“We have a lot of voices in our ears. First of all, the presenters around me, you’ve got the countdown, and then you’ve got your director, and every now and again, you have the producer at the same time. People probably hardly realise how organised it is and how many people are behind it.

“When we’re live, we’ve got sound engineers in front of us, we’ve got someone who’s holding the monitor, so we can see exactly what’s on screen – often, we’ll ask the drivers to comment on the picture we have live on TV – and then, of course, there are cameramen and assistants. Because if we start walking around the paddock, for example, the cameras have to
walk backwards – and you need someone to assist because the cameramen don’t see where they’re going. So it’s a big organisation. And it’s a lot of people that make the show happen.”

Transitions are meticulously planned, to make them appear effortless to the viewer

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After an ad break (with a countdown to its end of course) Lazenby greets the audience again with a scripted-in-advance wrap-up of the season results. He reads it off his phone while the broadcast is showing the championship table, then the hosts move on to the race’s other events.

One of its biggest flashpoints was the battle between Hamilton and Alonso – and Rachel has already spoken to the former, the interview cued up and aired, before it switches to the SkyPad where Davidson is ready with his analysis. Then it’s time to air the interview with Alonso, which allows for the segue into talking about his season as a whole.

Two more guest spots finish the programme. First, it’s championship boss Stefano Domenicali – and, while he’s talking, next guest Christian Horner has made his way over here, too, accompanied by Red Bull press officer Paul Smith. Croft and Brundle, having already arrived from the commentary booth, and Brookes, done with her TV pen duties, keep Horner busy chatting while the Domenicali interview finishes up.

One of the cameras picks up Horner for a close-up. These are precious moments for a broadcaster – two major personalities live on air at the same time. And once Horner gets the signal from Tommy, he enters the frame of the interview and then he and Domenicali hug it out.

“Lovely work,” sounds off the voice from London. “Lovely work.”  

Damon Hill

“The most interesting thing for me in this job is the fact that I’ve learned so much from doing this, that I wish I’d known when I was racing. When you’re racing, you have a very tunnel-vision state of mind. You’re not interested in what everyone else is doing, you have a direction and you kind of pursue that. Whereas this, you have to have a really wide-angle view of the whole of the industry, the sport or wherever you want to call it.

“And I was completely shocked. I sort of felt, when I was a racing driver, that people were observing me very closely. And I’ve seen drivers respond to being photographed when they’re having lunch and stuff like that. They feel like animals in a zoo. And it’s not a nice feeling. ‘Why are you filming me having a cup of tea?’

“But when you’re on the outside, you have a different perspective. You are trying to give the viewers, the fans, as much information about F1, so
that they can get into it. You’re basically reporting for them, because they can’t have the privilege we have, the privilege of being here. I hope they like it!”

The season’s coverage is almost ‘wrapped’. The entire crew goes out onto the start-finish straight – which is at Sky’s full disposal one hour after the end of the race – to film the season-closing segment and say their goodbyes to the audience after the long campaign. It won’t be long until they’re all together again for the 2024 pre-season in Bahrain…

Hill has seen how it works on both sides of the fence

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