THE FLYING LAP
Breaking the TV rules Why focusing on F1 technology brings fans flocking to learn more
There is probably nothing more polarising in motorsport than ‘engineering’. On the one hand, Formula 1’s USP is its technology; on the other, the F1 teams are massively secretive about their work.
Then there’s the media in general. You’re either a ‘techie’ or a ‘Street-of-shamer’. You’re either into cascade element updates or nasal jewellery and Lewis’s latest squeeze.
There are exceptions, of course. Autosport is one and so is F1 Racing magazine. I’ve lost track, though, of the number of times a TV director has been in my headset at an F1 race saying: “This is getting too technical. Wind it up. Throw it back to the studio.” Or, as was the case when I was covering F1 races for
The Sunday Times: “Write nothing technical. The readers only want to know about the stars and the action. Don’t mention tyres or engines, let alone wings.”
So it was that, defying the odds, I teamed up with former Autosport technical journalist Craig Scarborough a few years ago to plug what we believed to be an obvious hole in the market. With none of the TV networks spending any resources (time, energy, money) on the engineering side of F1, we thought it would be useful to supply the TV networks with short, 3D animation videos about the key car-tech updates from any given F1 weekend.
This would involve four key elements: We needed to ‘build’ from zero a minimum of three F1 cars. These would then be
‘updated’ as we went along;
We had to be on top of said updates by close of play Thursday (cars being wheeled to and from the scrutineering garage) or first thing Friday (FP1);
The animation needed to be created from Craig’s storyboard, and then rendered, in less than 36 hours;
We then had to sell and supply these animations to the TV networks.
Our belief was that we could make the engineering not only interesting to the F1 stalwarts in an easily watchable way, but also accessible to the uninitiated. It’s one thing for 15-year-old Xtreme Sport Youtubers to glance at an F1 technical drawing or to read the odd word or two about centres of pressure, it’s another for them to be able to see the old
Ferrari front wing being replaced by the new one in video form – and to understand why that change has been made.
It wasn’t easy. Some teams, such as Mercedes and Mclaren, were very helpful with our ‘ground-zero’ car matrix builds, other teams were not. We were very fortunate to meet Dean
Wright, our 3D animator, at an early stage; and both LAT and Sutton Images kindly supplied us with many digital images to add to our own photos for our storyboards.
In two years we produced 86 different videos around the updates at Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mclaren within a day or two of the specific changes appearing. Together, car by car, they provide a fascinating view of how these designs evolved over that period.
Five TV networks plus FOM (but not Sky or Channel 4) quickly bought in to the videos and the response to them was huge, even if the audiences were mainly non-english language. At the end of 2016 there came another development: video production would be taken over by Motorsport.tv, the new Tv/digital platform based around the old Motorstv channel.
This year we have produced at least one update video for The Flying Lap from every F1 race (sometimes two or three) and also broken new ground with Willem Toet, an aerodynamicist who has worked at Benetton, Ferrari and Sauber. Both from his base in Switzerland and in our rapidly expanding Richmond offices, Willem has been working closely with Craig, Dean and Emma Wright and the special-effects team to produce the next generation of 3D animations, featuring vortex flows, turbulence wakes and downforce spreads. And that’s just the start of it: sometime soon we’ll be taking
3D F1 animation to an even higher level, by which I mean that you’ll be seeing the cars somewhat out of context.
The key thing is that the fans, both technical and otherwise, seem to love them. Our Mclaren F1/indycar comparison drew 88,000 views on Youtube alone. The Red
Bull pre-august break update video attracted 110,000 views; and over 200,000 people have viewed our Ferrari halo 3D animation.
There was a time, back when Craig, Dean and I were starting out, when Youtube guidelines went as follows: “Make the videos short; don’t get too technical; and include live action wherever possible.”
We broke all those rules and the videos kept cranking up the numbers. Which led us to one inescapable conclusion: despite what we’re told, the fans love the technology.
But then we always knew that, didn’t we?