Yesterday (Friday 2^nd March), myself and a hand full of F1 bloggers were treated to a behind the scenes look at the Sky Sports F1 studio. After meeting their ‘talent’ as they call them the week before this time we were given the chance to put our questions to the people who make the broadcasts happen and those who are working on some groundbreaking technology to evolve the way we watch the race weekends.

Before we got to the new F1 channel, we met with the head of Sky Sports News, Andy Cairns, who talked to us about their role as the new season gets under way in two weeks time. Andy told us that as with most sports covered by Sky, a reporter will be reporting from the venue, seven days before the race.

Andy was also keen to hear our view on what we’d like to see when the interview the drivers. The unanimous feeling was that we’d like to see more with the drivers away from the circuit, where they are less likely to be ‘towing the corporate line’ and being more themselves.

After our chat, Andy took us down to the Sky Sports News studio to see the bulletins going out live.

Next on the agenda was a fascinating chat with Darren Long, Director of operations for Sky Sports. His is basically the man that nothing happens there without his approval. This included the state of the art building we were sat in. Opened last summer, the new building, home of Sky Sports news and Sky Sports F1 is the first in the world to be film free. All the archive is digital, cutting the editing time from a few days to twelve hours for a four minute piece.

Darren swiftly turned his attentions to talking F1 (something everyone there is more than keen to do). He began telling us of the journey from July last year, when the deal was announced, to where they are now. Everyone was also keen to say what a good job thee BBC had done in the previous three years and Andy was no different. What he and the team wanted was to take it to the next level, this include three separate, 18 tonne mobile studio’s that will be shipped to sixteen of the twenty races, effectively working as a relay team throughout the year.

Following on from Darren was Owen Williams, head of projects for Sky Sports Media network. Owens responsibility is to oversee the online content as well as the red button features. On top of what we’ve already seen, like the F1 microsite and previews running on the F1 channel, the biggest innovation to look out for from Owen and his team is on the red button. As Owen puts it “you can be the race director” and he’s not joking! With 4 onboard camera options, a dedicated pit lane camera, an aggregated tweet portal, showing tweets from Sky Sports, the teams and the fans along with driver tracker to name but a few. All red button feeds will be broadcast in HD apart from the onboard shots, as these cameras are standard def.

We then had a presentation from Caroline, Mclintosh, head of sports marketing. Caroline, showed us through the various campaigns they had run on billboards, magazine and on TV. The one question I wanted to ask was ‘how difficult was it to get a Sky Sports F1 advert into the BBC F1 season preview magazine? Despite everyone telling us that Sky and the Beeb were working in partnership, the wry smile on Caroline’s face as I asked that question spoke a thousand words. Her answer was that it was due to a ‘miscommunication’ but not one they were too upset about I imagine.

Last to talk to us on our whirlwind tour was Paul Fuller, Sky Sports creative Director. Paul is a massive F1 fan. He said, “I’ve worked at Sky Sports for twenty years and I’ve been trying to get F1 for eighteen of them”. Among Paul’s presentation was several short videos and screen shots of how the graphic will look on screen, how the grid will be presented etc. As some have expected would happen, we will have football style player introductions as the walk toward to the camera, stop and fold their arms. Jenson’s is one to look out for as he tries to keep a straight face as Georgie Thompson tries to put him off, off screen.

By now, after reading trough 800 words or so, you’ll be wondering when I’m going to get to the really good stuff. Well, wait no more. After lunch, it was off to the new magazine studio to see the latest gadgets in action.

First up, Georgie was on hand to demonstrate the huge touch screen in the studio. From this, the presenters have access to bio’s of all the driver’s and team’s with instant related video content. Also there is in-depth digital recreations of the circuits and the surrounding areas which really gives you more of a sense scale. Up-to-date weather forecasts (I guess the teams will tap into that), and archive footage.

The most impressive use of this technology will be used by Antony Davidson on race days. During playback of passing moves over racing incidents, from the screen Antony will be able to pause, rewind move frame by frame, highlight, magnify, add direction markers…..I think you get the picture there!

The last piece of kit they had to showcase to us was the Virtual 3D car. Unlike most CGI technology, this doesn’t use a blue/green screed to project the image on to, it appears on screen right in front of the presenters. Sky have been working with all the teams to get a detailed 3D model of all the 2012 cars. One of the main uses of this will be to show the difference of the updates the teams add the their cars as the season progresses.

Just before leaving, we were all treated to a go with the 3D car to get first hand experience on what Ted Kraviz will be doing on the Friday evening magazine show. If Ted makes it look easy, that’s because he is a true professional. I and everyone else who attended yesterday can testify how hard it is.

This was a fantastic insight into how what we will see on our screens is made. I for one didn’t realise exactly how much work and how many people go into making it work. Sky’s tagline is ‘believe in better’ and that is something everyone who works there believes. If you have Sky (I still don’t) You will see F1 in a fantastic new light.

Images and video clip of me with the 3D car to follow next week.

There are very few things in life that will force me out of my bed in the middle of the night. My daughter is regularly one of those things, the great quake of ’08 is another and anything F1 related is sure to get me to set my alarm for an ungodly hour. As I’m sure many of you know through my countless excited tweets that I set off from Sheffield at 3.45am to spend the morning with the Sky Sports F1 team for a Q&A.

With just three short weeks before the launch of the UKs first dedicated F1 channel, we were invited to the Grovesnor House Hotel to find out what is in store for F1 fans on Sky Sports in 2012. On hand to answer our questions were, David Croft, Martin Brundle, Anthony Davidson, Ted Kraviz, Damon Hill, Natalie Pinkham alongside sky’s presenters, Simon Lazenby and Georgie Thompson.

Whether you like it or not, the only way to watch all the races live in 2012 is on Sky, so what will you get for your £30 a month? The answer is a hell of a lot. After being treated to a behind the scenes look at what Sky have in store for us this coming season, I’m certain we will get value for money after F1 has had ‘the treatment’ from Sky Sports.

Martin Brundle talked about some of the technical features that were scheduled this year, including two days filming with Ferrari which will be shown in 5 parts, the first of which will be on the Friday of the Australian Grand Prix. Martin went on to explain that the production budget for the Sky F1 channel was triple that of the BBCs budget last year. The first of Martins technical pieces will be shown on the weekly F1 magazine shown hosted by Georgie Thomson and Ted Kraviz which will be aired every Friday. When asked about the show, Ted assured us that “It’s a good show”.

With all three practice sessions now getting full programme formatting, as opposed to the (very good) red button coverage from the BBC. Sky will offer the same level of interviews and features we have become accustomed to in the qualifying and race shows of late.

After (a very quick) hour with the team, we were ushered next door where, Sky Sports’ executive producer, Martin Turner. was waiting. Sky’s latest addition to their F1 coverage, Dolby surround sound 5.1. We were shown footage from last year’s Australian GP with David Croft’s and Martin Brundle’s sound test. The footage started in normal surround sound, which did sound very good. Half way through however, they switched to Dolby 5.1. The difference was staggering, we were told in the Q&A that the sound from onboard cameras was quite brilliant and it didn’t disappoint! The one thing that was more impressive than the 5.1 sound was the eagerly anticipated partnership of Croft and Brundle. To say that it was entertaining would be a massive understatement. Crofty, When describing the advantage of the soft Pirelli’s over the hard compound said, “It’s like throwing the Christians to the lions and giving them spoons”.

If you are like me and you have to see every race live. Sky’s F1 coverage won’t disappoint. I asked Martin Turner if he felt under any pressure to win the hearts and minds of F1 fans given the initial negative response to them becoming the UK broadcaster? “I feel under pressure every time I produce a programme.

“We will show F1 from the inside looking out, instead of the outside looking in”.

Martin was keen to elaborate on what he called ‘the treatment’,  “The race is only part of the story” talking on the vast array of team and driver features planned over the race weekend,” We’ll give it [F1], we care about it”.

Thank you to James Mortley from Sky sports for inviting me today, images to follow tomorrow.

This morning, I had a very pleasant surprise waiting for me in my inbox. It was am email from Sky Sports, inviting me to meet their 2012 team in London next Monday.

Normally these type of events are reserved for main stream media outlets but Sky are allocating time for me and my fellow blogger’s to come along and  put our questions to the team.

In attendance will be the commentary team of David Croft and Martin Bundle. Also we will have the chance to talk to the 1996 World Champion, Damon Hill, who is signed up to Sky Sports as a pundit for 10 races this year.

As a F1 blogger/writer, access like this is very hard to come by and I want to open it up to all the readers of this site by asking you to submit questions for Martin, David and Damon in the comment box below. I will pick one question to ask on the day.

Throughout the event I will be tweeting live to keep you up-to-date with everything the team have to say.

Don’t forget to follow me @marshallgp and leave your questions for the team below.

Over the years, F1 has been afflicted by some ugly looking F1 cars. The March 711,  Ligier JS5 and Mansell’s McLaren MP4-10 to name a few.

During this time, we have seen many ‘fads’, the must have look. From the ridiculously high winged cars of the  60s and the oversized airbox/engine covers in the 70s. More recently, and worse for me was the winglet/chimney/flute cars of the mid 00s. The clean lines that I grew up with disappeared to be replaced by what I can only describe as a tin that has been attacked by a can opener.

With the 2009 regulations outlawing such aerodynamic devices, I was once again looking forward to seeing good looking F1 cars gracing the world’s finest tracks (and Valencia). How wrong I was, the ’09 cars, despite benefitting from clean lines, looked somewhat unbalanced with their wide, bulky front wing and tall skinny rear wings. Making the whole grid, once again looking like it had been hit by the ugly stick! I was happy         to see over the last two years that the unbalanced issue became less of a… well issue.

With restrictions on the design of today’s cars so strict, only the regulations themselves can dictate how aesthetically pleasing they are. The FIA had been looking into the safety of the drivers in a T-bone collision in the wake of Mark Webber’s aerobatics at the European GP in 2010. Last year, the FIA announced that in an attempt to stop cars taking off in such a manner, the maximum height of the rear wing would be limited to 55cm, a good 10cm les than the 2011 regulations. However, instead of seeing a return to the sloping noses of 2009, we seem to be getting ready to embrace the ‘step’ or ‘platypus’ nose in 2012. Caterham, being the first to unveil their 2012 challenger have borne the brunt of the fans displeasure to this latest nose job faux par.

In the quest for every last tenth of performance from the car, the teams can’t give too much thought to how it will look. I can only hope that the FIA ban high noses altogether when the turbo era returns in 2014 to give the cars a real 80s retro feel.

Saturday (7^th) saw my long awaited trip to Donington arrive. People arrived from far and wide to be there for the day, from as far north as Bolton and from as far south as Kent!

My car, comprising of myself, my dad and uncle made good time down the M1 from Sheffield and was happy to see a few familiar face waiting to greet me upon arrival at the Collection. Fellow Williams fans Andres and Paul were among the first to arrive as we waited in the cold for the cafe to open at half nine. By the time the cafe opened, there was already a good crowd of F1 fans amassed outside and when the Collection opened at 10am we were 35/40 strong.

After paying our very reasonably priced £6 to enter, my assembled band of F1 fanatics streamed through to take in the largest collection of F1 machinery anywhere in the world. The first room came as a little bit of a surprise to some, as we were greeted by the sight of The Wheatcroft Collection. This was the late, Tom Wheatcroft’s personal collection of WW2 vehicles, including a very big and impressive half track troop carrier.

Jackie Stewarts Tyrrell Ford

F1 heaven was only a few feet away as the first sight in the following room was a display of Mantras and Tyrrells driven by Jackie Stewart. As you turn to face the rest of the room, you are immediately hit by a pair of Wolfs in the centre of the room from the mid seventies, complete with some of the widest rear tyres ever fitted to a F1 car. Other highlight’s of this area was the Gold Leaf liveried, Jim Clark Lotus and a March that was run by Williams in 1977.

Talking of Williams, the next room held the most interest for me as half of it was taken up with cars from Sir Frank’s team. All the way down the left hand side of the room were some of the most successful cars from the teams glory years including the FW07, Mansell’s FW14B that took him to the title and the following year’s FW15. For most however, the star of this area was the stunning Jordan 191. The inconic first car produced by Eddie Jordan’s fledgling team.

If you thought that I, and Donington have forgot about the McLaren fans, don’t worry as the next room was dedicated to the MP4 generation. Some of the highlights in this area include a very rare orange test liveried Mika Hakkinen MP4-26 and an even rarer, Nigel Mansell 1995 MP4-10 that he  raced for only two races that year.

There was some notable omissions for the McLaren room, due to us arriving the week before the Autosport show. This included senna’s MP4-4 and MP4-8 that had beed recalled to McLaren HQ to be prepared for the show.

Finishing off the collection was a sea of British Racing Green in the shape of Vanwalls. For me seeing these pioneering cars of the early days of the world championship really brings home how far the cars, sport and technology has come.

Jordan 191

With the first part of the day over it was time for a quick pitstop, refuel and to challenge the old grey matter with a quiz and caption competition. At the end of the lunch break, Quiz master, Paul Havell put the contestants out of their misery with the all important answers. After all the scores were in, Dan Gough was crowned quiz champion, winning a fantastic prize from Retro F1. While the quiz answers were being read out, Craig and Leanne from Octane Photograpic (our photographers for the day and who kindly donate the prize) were trawling through the caption competition entries. After much deliberation, Nigel, Keren and Rachael were awarded the A3 print of Sebastian Vettel for first prize. (See the end of this post for the quiz questions and caption competition).

Pit Wall

It was a short hop in the cars round to the pits where we re-assembled to begin the track walk. Accompanied by circuit administrator, Jennifer Darby, we set off down the pit lane, making sure we didn’t pick up any penalties for speeding! For the more adventurous members of the group, the start/finish line, lights gantry attracted them like  flies to light in the night, giving them a great view down to Redgate. After negotiating Redgate and standing at Hollywood looking down through the Craner Curves towards the old hair pin, I decided to walk the outside line taken by Senna on his epic first lap there during the 1993 European GP. That is one of the most special laps in F1 history, made even better given the on-track vantage point we had. Looking down the hill, you get a real sense of how much the track tightens into the old hairpin and how easy it is to go flying across the in-field  through Craner.

Lookind down from Hollywood, down through the Craner Curves and the Old Hairpin

After exiting the Old Haipin, the next point of interest wasn’t on the track itself, but an old bridge pillar made famous by Nigel Mansell in 1993 after knocking himself out after going off in a 1993 touring car race. As we started to climb again, we get to the back of the circuit and after a couple of right handers we were on the Dunlop Bridgeless back straight where we were met by a very strong head wind!

Melbourne Hair pin

Undeterred, we battled our way down the back straight, through the Chicane to make our way down to the Melbourne Hairpin. This was another special part of the track for me as it was the point where Senna took the lead from Prost, fighting back from 6^th off the line to lead at the end of the first lap. All that was left was to negotiate Goddards and our ‘flying lap’ of Donington was done in the very pedestrian time of around 50 minutes.

The group gathered around DCs Red Bull

That brought an end to the day’s proceedings, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who attended, I was blown away by the great response I had. Looking back at the day, I realise that I spent that much time talking about F1 that I didn’t really spend that much time looking at the cars! Special thank yous must go to Craig and Leanne from Octane Photographic and Retro F1 for supplying the prizes for the day and to Paul Havell for being the quiz master.

Spurred on by the success of this first trip, I’ll be looking into further excursions in the further so keep an eye on here and on twitter for details of my next outing.

The Quiz

1-       Kimi Raikkonen, Robert Kubica and Michael Schumacher were all the same age when they won their first GP, How old were they?

2-       In what position did Jenson Button qualify in his 1^st race in 2000?

3-       What was Fernando Alonso’s best result for Minardi?

4-       How many times did Graham Hill win Monaco?

5-       Who won the inaugural Bahrain GP in 2004?

6-       Rubens Barricello made his F1 debut in which race?

7-       Which F1 driver holds the record for the biggest gap between 1^st win and 2^nd win, 5years 7 months and 18 days?

8-       Who won the last GP on the Nordscheilfe circuit

9-       Who was the last driver to race a V12 engined car in a GP?

10-   Prior to Nico Hulkenberg’s 2010 pole in Brazil who took the last Williams-Cosworth pole position?

11-   Who was the last driver to win a race on Goodyear tyres?

12-   How many wins did Michael Schumacher score in his 1^st season with Ferrari?

13-   Who won the last U.S. GP?

14-   On which circuit would you find the “Degnar curve”?

15-   Which team failed to qualify either of their cars for the 1983 Monaco GP?

The Caption Competition

The winning Cation was "Can the driver of the Infinity please come to the carpark and turn off the alarm"

In a strange twist of fate, my Christmas post also has turned out to be the 100^th article that I have written for my site. I took the plunge to write my own blog back in June and I’ve been amazed not only by the amount of people who have read it, but also the doors it has opened for me in such a short period of time.

I would like to wish everyone who has taken the time to read this site a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. Special thanks must go to everyone who has contributed articles over the past 7 months, their help with the discussions was invaluable.

As 2011 draws to a close, all F1 fans thought are now firmly on the new car launches, winter testing and the start of the 2012 season.

The 2012 season will see no less than 6 world champions lining up on the grid with the return of Kimi Räikkönen after his 2 year sabbatical in the world rally championship in what promises to be a very competitive year.

I’m sure you’re all aware of my outing to Donington Park on the 7^th January to see the Grand Prix Collection. This is going to be an excellent way to get your F1 fix during the close season with the largest private collection of F1 machinery anywhere in the world to see at close quarter. In addition to seeing the collection, we will also have access to the track where we will be able to do our own track walk and retrace the steps of Ayrton Senna’s most famous lap as he went from 6^th to 1^st on lap 1 of the European Grand Prix in 1993.

Also on the day there will be a couple of competitions in the form of a quiz and caption competition with prizes courtesy of Retro Formula 1 and Octane Photographic. The winner of the quiz will receive a T-shirt from Retro F1 purveyors of retro team wear from yesteryear and the winner of the caption competition receiving an A3 size print of world champion, Sebastian Vettel, taken at Monza this year by Octane Photographic.

There is still time to book your place, it is still 2 weeks until the day so if you are interested, please use the comment box below to show your interest, not forgetting to leave your email address.

Once again, I hope you all have a great festive holiday, here’s looking forward to another excitement filled F1 season.

Out TV screens our inundated by talent shows of one sort or another. Dancing, singing and  ice skating are all catered for but what if all the current F1 grid and hopeful young drivers were to get feedback from team bosses live on TV? What would they be looking for? What is the driver X Factor?

The answer is simple in one respect and more complex on the other. Each team boss knows exactly what they want in an ideal world but in this world of strained budgets not everyone can go for their ideal targets.

McLaren team principle, Martin Whitmarsh consistently talks of the aim to have the strongest available driving line up for the team, something that has never been a problem for the Working based team. Their ethos over what makes a good driver hasn’t changed since Ron Dennis took over the company in the early 80’s with iconic names like Lauda, Prost, Senna, Häkkinen, Hamilton and Button easily roll of the tongue.

Other teams, such as the factory outfits of Mercedes and Ferrari, also enjoy deep pockets when it comes to driver selection. Both of which have enjoyed the services of 7 time world champion, Michael Schumacher.

Drivers rarely change, their styles are their own and that contributes to their individual ‘X Factor’. Teams on the other hand, don’t always look for the same thing year on year, take Lotus Renault for example. Three years ago when they were a factory team, they had the services of the then, youngest double world champion, Fernando Alonso as their golden boy. In the wake of the crashgate scandal, the team was sold to Genni Captal where the lure of drivers with a budget became irresistible for the team which now had a huge debt to pay back. Russia was the promised land of investment in the form of Vitaly Petrov, armed with car and drinks companies money. Perov’s cash ensured he kept his seat for two seasons, he was improving all the time and became the first Russian to score a podium finish with a third place finish in Australia this season. Lotus, as they are now known as, have set themselves the ambitious target of being title contenders within three years. To aid this ambition, both of last year’s driver’s have been shown the door, taking with them up to ten sponsors. In place of Petrov and Senna, the team have brought in Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean, a move that “shows the teams intentions” according to team boss, Eric Boullier.

With some team’s deciding they need a different X Factor for 2012, we see an unprecedented number of experienced driver’s searching for a seat. No less than 10 drivers who raced in 2012 are still without a confirmed drive for 2012, with only Williams and HRT with a vacant seat.

Williams themselves have compromised their driver requirements in recent years. Like McLaren, you can recall the big name drivers from 1977 right through to the end of the BMW partnership in 2005. Since then, the Grove based squad firstly employed Japanese driver, Kazuki Nakajima who came along with a subsidised engine supply from Toyota. For 2011, they have again looked to a driver to help balance the books in the form of 2010 GP2 champion, Pastor Maldoado. ‘The Animal’ comes with considerable backing from his native Venezuela.

As I said at the beginning of this article, in an ideal world all the team bosses would be looking for the same thing and not compromising anything to bring in the top talent. With so many drivers trying to land or regain a seat in Formula 1 this winter, only a dramatic upturn in sponsorship levels further down the grid can make this a reality. Will this happen? Not any time soon.

I think it’s fair to say that Formula 1 will never win a Nobel Peace Prize. It is difficult to remember a time when one team wasn’t warring with another over the legality of their cars, or the teams versus Bernie over a greater share of the revenues.

When Tony Fernandez and Danny Bahr kissed and made up after the Lotus vs Lotus High Court battle, the world of F1 seemed to at peace with its self, sadly not so. Bubbling away under the surface, the facade of unity that is The Formula One Teams Association,(FOTA) was slowly crumbling into chaos over the Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA). Accusations have regularly been aimed at Red Bull in particular towards the end of the season that they had broken this key agreement in reducing the costs of F1.

Now, Ferrari, Red Bull, Sauber and HRT have all resigned from the organisation, leaving its future in severe doubt.

Interestingly, two distinct battle lines are developing in this row Between the Red Bull/Ferrari influenced teams and the Mercedes/McLaren influenced teams. Hot on the heels of Ferrari tending their resignation, Sauber soon followed suit, who are a Ferrari customer team, using their engines, gear boxes, KERS and have given a seat to Ferrari junior driver, Sergio Perez. It can only be a matter of time before Torro Rosso join the growing list of teams leaving FOTA. Like sister team RBR, they are owned by Red Bull and are also a Ferrari customer for their engines. This would leave Caterham as the last team with strong Red Bull links in FOTA. The team formally known as Team Lotus will use Red Bull, KERS and gear boxes in 2012.

On the other side of the battle line, you have Mercedes and McLaren, who seem to be doing the most to keep FOTA together, pushing forward the new agreement despite of the high-profile exits. McLaren may exert influence over Force India and Marussia through the technical partnerships they have in place, as do Mercedes through their engine supply to McLaren and Force India.

This leaves the newly re-named Lotus team and Williams, both of which are struggling to find budgets in the short-term and are likely to stick with FOTA if it survives at all.