Formula 1 TV coverage; can it be improved?

[Rodak]

I’ve been watching older races from the F1TV archives and one thing that has really stood out is that TV coverage back in the day, IMHO, was better than what we now have.

Watching the Mexico GP the cameras were almost always focused in so closely only half the car was visible, then the cars were held full frame as they accelerated away removing visual references of speed. The awesome cornering speed of these cars, which has to be seen in person to be believed, is hidden as all we see is a constant full size car. The constant switching of views destroys any continuity of the car on the circuit, and the very close up shots of Toto et al right in the middle of action just seems a waste.

The in car shots are not as good as older stuff, and the helmet cam is a joke. F1 could do way better. I could go on but I’m curious to hear other viewpoints and suggestions.

[organic]

They maximize the visibility of sponsors over making the sport look good for the fans IMO

[Dunlay]

Look at this fan capture of Albert park corners 11 and 12. You can feel the speed and car control of drivers. We never see shots like this on F1 coverage.

[Rodak]

Yes, exactly what I was posting about. Nice video; unless you've actually been to a race you have no idea how fast these cars are.

[PapayaFan481]

Absolutely agree that the pointless cutting to shots of team personnel, or even the crowd, in the middle of the action is annoying.

I think better camera angles could be used.

Absolutely disagree about helmet cam though, I think they're great at giving us a real driver's eye view of things.

[bananapeel23]

I’ve been watching older races from the F1TV archives and one thing that has really stood out is that TV coverage back in the day, IMHO, was better than what we now have.

Watching the Mexico GP the cameras were almost always focused in so closely only half the car was visible, then the cars were held full frame as they accelerated away removing visual references of speed. The awesome cornering speed of these cars, which has to be seen in person to be believed, is hidden as all we see is a constant full size car. The constant switching of views destroys any continuity of the car on the circuit, and the very close up shots of Toto et al right in the middle of action just seems a waste.

The in car shots are not as good as older stuff, and the helmet cam is a joke. F1 could do way better. I could go on but I’m curious to hear other viewpoints and suggestions.

Personally I think the gyro cam is a huge step in the right direction. It gives a good sense of speed and shows you how on-edge the cars are. From what I can remember it will be a standard feature on all cars in 2025.

[tok-tokkie]

I had not appreciated how poor it is until this thread came up.
I absolutely agree that using current technology to fill the screen with just part of the car & keep it "static" really isolates us from the real action taking place.
I now think back to the days of Murray Walker & how much better we were connected to the actual dynamics of what was taking place.

[Tvetovnato]

I am a big proponent of being able to select which onboard camera you want to see.

The front wing camera for me can be saved for some flexiwing analysis by someone after the race, but using that camera for a Q3 lap is useless. You can’t see what is going on with the car. And last week was even worse when they used the rearward camera for a quali lap by either Max or Leclerc or someone. Useless.

[Farnborough]

For both coverage and outright pace of racing, changes, pitstops etc etc this era is hard to beat



For me it absolutely highlights what is missing from current design rules and racing.

[Rodak]

For me this is one of the great onboards, Michael Schumacher at the 1992 Italian GP. Mesmerizing coverage with no comments necessary, especially from over the top excited announcers..... Imagine this with current video resolution.

[BanMeToo]

The gyro cam sucks. Its only saving grace is high FOV. But what is all the fake tilting about?

All they need to do is slightly increase the FOV of the T cam and shoulder cam (and yes stop zooming in the trackside cameras so much)

[Juzh]

The gyro cam sucks. Its only saving grace is high FOV. But what is all the fake tilting about?

All they need to do is slightly increase the FOV of the T cam and shoulder cam (and yes stop zooming in the trackside cameras so much)

Agree 1000%. Preferably scrap the shoulder cam because 80% of the time it's almost completely blocked by halo anyway.

The new "gyro" cam is a bunch of crap. It's not a real gyro cam anyway, they only used the real gyro from motogp for a couple of trials and then got rid of it in favour of this abomination we have now. Apparently the real one couldn't cope with how violent f1 cars are, which is understandable, but instead of working on a solution they decided on just faking the whole thing. It's especially egregious on tracks which are known to be perfectly flat, yet the new "gyro" cam is tilting like it's completely drunk.

Helmet cam should be used sporadically as a gimmick, but they insist on using it half the time, just to make people vomit.

[ali623]

The gyro cam sucks. Its only saving grace is high FOV. But what is all the fake tilting about?

All they need to do is slightly increase the FOV of the T cam and shoulder cam (and yes stop zooming in the trackside cameras so much)

Agree 1000%. Preferably scrap the shoulder cam because 80% of the time it's almost completely blocked by halo anyway.

The new "gyro" cam is a bunch of crap. It's not a real gyro cam anyway, they only used the real gyro from motogp for a couple of trials and then got rid of it in favour of this abomination we have now. Apparently the real one couldn't cope with how violent f1 cars are, which is understandable, but instead of working on a solution they decided on just faking the whole thing. It's especially egregious on tracks which are known to be perfectly flat, yet the new "gyro" cam is tilting like it's completely drunk.

Helmet cam should be used sporadically as a gimmick, but they insist on using it half the time, just to make people vomit.

It's annoying becasue the 'shoulder cam' was in my opinion one of the better representations of the driver's view pre-halo:

Completely agree on the gyro cam and helmet cam. The gyro cam, on top of being unrealisitic and gimmicky, also made me feel motion sick when they had it on Norris'(?) car in Zandvoort.

[Mandrake]

We should make a petition. Higher FOV for Onboard cams. Much less zoom on the cars. Occasional helmet / front wing / rear wing cam

[PapayaFan481]

I like the 360 camera in principle, but I wish there was a way of it not being quite so "fisheyed"