F1 TV pro, discussions with the stands, documentaries: the new motor sports features from Canal+

This Monday, Canal+ presented its coverage of motor sports in 2024. For its twelfth F1 season, it will offer the entire pre-season test live for the first time, from February 21 to 23. Three eight-hour days from Bahrain, also the location of the first of the 24 Grands Prix of the season, on Saturday March 2. The second, in Saudi Arabia, also scheduled for a Saturday, will be broadcast unencrypted on Canal+ (the other three races with free access have not yet been chosen).

“With the arrival of Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari in 2025, we will be able to start telling the story”

Thomas Sénécal, sports director of Canal+

Even if the F1 audience showed a slight decline in 2023 (1.13 million viewers on average compared to 1.22 million in 2022), sports director Thomas Sénécal is satisfied: “We had a season with the same winner in 18 Grands Prix (Max Verstappen) but despite everything, a lot of spectacle… And we don’t forget that we had an average of 600,000 viewers in 2019. Finally, the satisfaction of our subscribers, which counts a lot, has further progressed. What we offer before, during and after the Grands Prix – our reports, our insides, our documentaries and our digital offer – is therefore convincing. And with the arrival of Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari in 2025, we will be able to start telling the story this year, with all the related questions linked to this transfer! »

During the live broadcast, viewers will not be disorientated with Margot Laffite and Laurent Dupin giving the presentation and Julien Fébreau providing commentary. The latter will always be accompanied primarily by his historical consultant since 2013 Jacques Villeneuve, by Romain Grosjean for four to six races during the year (including the American GPs), and by Franck Montagny for a few others.

Conversations with the pit wall during the race

To offer even more immersion, Canal+ above all announced the arrival of conversations with the pit wall during the race. Julien Fébreau will thus be able to directly question the team bosses willing to respond to him. A system already used by Sky Sports in the United Kingdom but also by TF1, around twenty years ago. “At the time, it was not filmed and less fluid,” recalls Laurent Dupin, the editor-in-chief of F1 for Canal+. This time, our interlocutors will be filmed by an on-board camera and will not have to change their headset to answer us. The priority will be to target the three French people, Frédéric Vasseur (Ferrari), Laurent Mekies (Visa Cash App RB, ex-Alpha Tauri) and Bruno Famin (Alpine) and French-speaking managers like Mike Krack (Aston Martin)… We do not do not refrain from exchanging with others but it will be more complicated since it will be necessary to manage the translation while not losing track of what is happening on the track. »

From March 14, the “F1 TV Pro” application will be accessible via MyCanal for subscribers to the Canal+ Sport, Pack Sport, Friends and Family and Intégrale offers. Awaited for several months by fans of the discipline, this new feature will provide access to more camera feeds, numerous archives but also the possibility of watching the race without commentary.

The documentary on Alain Prost in prime time in the spring

In its documentary offering, the encrypted channel announced the broadcast of the film A Winter in Maranello, behind the scenes of the preparation for the Ferrari season… with certainly the announcement of the transfer of Lewis Hamilton to the Reds in 2025. The other doc will follow his future teammate, the Monegasque Charles Leclerc, throughout the next Monaco GP. Furthermore, F1 Academy will look at the rise of driver Doriane Pin and the Planète + channel will program Le Mans 55 on March 13, on the deadly accident at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1955. Finally, the long-awaited docuseries of six episodes, Alain Prost, the Professor’s last lesson will be the subject of two prime times on Canal+ in the spring.

For the sixth year on Canal, MotoGP will return on March 10 with the Qatar GP, the first of 21 races of the season. The duo Laurent Rigal-Randy De Puniet keeps the comments and Pauline Sanzey, Jules Deremble and Charlotte Gabas the presentation. Louis Rossi, consultant on motorcycle races 2 and 3, is preparing a documentary on falls in MotoGP entitled Even not bad!. A long format on Marc Marquez is also planned, as is a season 2 of Team Zarco, broadcast on digital, to follow French driver Johann Zarco inside.