Formula 1: what are the new features of the Canal+ system?

Gauthier Delomez 11:21 a.m., March 04, 2022

INTERVIEW

Formula 1 fans have been waiting for it for almost three months.

The resumption of the F1 championship is scheduled for the weekend of March 19, with the Bahrain Grand Prix.

A season to follow in full on the antennas of the Canal + group after a historic year 2021, won at the end of the suspense by the Dutchman Max Verstappen.

In an attempt to attract more viewers, the group will offer new features in its system.

The deputy director of sports writing at Canal+, Thomas Sénécal, listed them in the

program on Friday.

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Pilot Pierre Gasly in the spotlight

There will be "a lot of new stuff", promises Thomas Sénécal at the microphone of Philippe Vandel, for the tenth season broadcast by the group.

The first new meeting is called "MyReplay", and will feature one of the most prominent French drivers.

The voice of F1 on Canal +, Julien Fébreau, "will take Pierre Gasly on board camera to relive the entirety of a Grand Prix", explains the deputy sports director, in charge of motor sports.

This program will air on March 12.

"Pierre Gasly gives us a level of immersion never before achieved," adds the future sports director of the group from July 1.

The first broadcast of the offseason trials

Second novelty for Canal + subscribers: the broadcast of the off-season tests, which take place this weekend, two weeks before the first Grand Prix of the year.

There will be nine hours of antenna, underlines Thomas Sénécal.

The teams carry out tests to develop the new cars.

An appointment that was never broadcast before.

"We have to satisfy a hyper-fan audience that has been with us from the start," says the group's deputy sports director, "we also have to address a new audience who may have discovered F1 more recently, in 2021. , with this completely crazy end to the season", continues Thomas Sénécal on Europe 1.

New faces of F1 on Canal+

Finally, Canal+ welcomes new faces to cover Formula 1. The young journalist Pauline Sanzey, currently at the head of a program on golf, "will come to reinforce the incarnations of the F1 team alongside Margot Laffitte, Julien Fébreau, Jacques Villeneuve, Laurent Dupin and Franck Montagny", lists the future sports director of the private channel.

The group also decided to call on other experts.

“For nine years, we have mainly had consultants who are former pilots. We wanted to increase the angles of attack”, relates Thomas Sénécal in

.

The channel will welcome Éric Boullier, the boss of the Grand Prix de France, Jean-Louis Moncet, the journalist specializing in motorsport who will approach F1 from a historical angle, Jeannie Gow, an English journalist, and finally Julien Simon-Chautemps, the engineer who worked alongside Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen until last December.