Sky Sports’ winning Formula for GPs is a triumph of technical wizardry in motorsport
F1's OTHER team reveal the staggering secrets of how they they are geared up for even the challenge of Monaco's streets
THESE are the incredible statistics behind the OTHER team in Formula One.
Sky Sports F1 fly more staff and equipment to each Grand Prix than some of the race teams.
Their unrivalled TV coverage means having up to 85 people on location and 23 tonnes of technical kit flown in on seven aircraft containers.
The company has 14 presenters, 21 production and 50 technical staff broadcasting to the UK, Italy and Germany.
And each crew member piles up a staggering 120,255 of air miles during the season.
More than 60 Formula One Management wireless cameras – each costing upwards of £50,000 – beam pictures into executive producer Martin Turner’s purpose-built control rooms via 28 individual video signals, 77 licensed radio frequencies and three miles of fibre cables and then onto 62 TV monitors with 32 recording and eight instant replay channels, supplemented by a media server boasting 500 terrabites of digital storage.
Sky allowed Sunsport exclusive behind-the-scenes access at the last Grand Prix in Monaco to see how they produce three full international programmes every day of the race weekend as part of their award-winning multi-million pound F1 coverage.
From seeing how commentators David Croft and Martin Brundle squeeze into the wardrobe-size commentary box, to how the unique £100,000 F1 SkyPad touchscreen analyser is set up.
Turner explained: “Being a street circuit, Monaco is the most challenging Grand Prix for us during the season.
“It takes two and a half days to build, install and test our equipment, but just four hours to pack it all up.”
Sky broadcast 14 hours of live F1 coverage to the UK alone from every one of this season’s 21 Grands Prix.
The company has eight cameras, while the separate FOM cameras are flown all around the world.
There are usually around 25 trackside cameras, plus a £100,000 pit lane Spider-cam, while every car will carry at least one on-board camera.
Turner, the brains behind the F1 SkyPad, added: “The SkyPad touchscreen’s resolution is eight times that of a normal one to cope with sunlight.
“Lewis Hamilton and a number of drivers have used it and it’s one of the most important components of our kit because it is unique.”