During a live television conference on YouTube, Canal+ made its comeback and exciting announcements for Formula 1 fans in anticipation of this highly anticipated 2022 season.
A very, very large number of consultants
At the Grand Prix commentary, Jacques Villeneuve and Julien Febreau will always be accompanied by Franck Montagny and Laurent Dupin. But in addition to Thomas Senecal and Margot Laffite, Canal+ also welcomes a new presenter in the person of Pauline Sanzey.
The consultants during the Grand Prix weekends will be, according to their availability: Jacques Villeneuve, Romain Grosjean, Loic Duval, and Jean Alesi. They will occasionally be supported by Jean-Louis Moncet as a historian and memory of Formula 1.
Please note that Grosjean will be replacing Villeneuve to commentate on the Miami and Canadian Grand Prix.
Finally, some other less regular consultants will be invited, such as Julien Simon-Chautemps, former engineer notably for Räikkönen, Eric Bouillier, director of the French Grand Prix and former director of Lotus and McLaren, or even Jennie Gow, F1 journalist in England.
Exclusive documentaries
New for the 2022 season, Canal+ is launching myREPLAY, which will feature episodes focusing solely on a driver with onboard cameras capturing a race or multiple races, narrated and commented on directly by the driver in question. Pierre Gasly will be the first driver to participate in this series, which will be broadcast on March 12th. The episode will allow viewers to relive his third-place finish at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
In addition to this new show, two documents will be created. The first will trace the history of Max Verstappen and will be titled “Born to Win”. The second will be a documentary about Alpine F1 called “Eyes in the Blues”, just like they did for Endurance last year.
Just like on the Canal Football Club, augmented reality animations will now be used on the Formula 1 set to help better understand certain design developments in particular.
Also note that Julien Fébreau will continue to host live Twitch streams between each GP weekend and will still be broadcasting the F2 and F3 races between the F1 sessions.
Clear races for everyone
The communication from Canal+ has indeed confirmed to us that 4 races will be broadcasted for free this year, just like last year, although the Grand Prixs involved have not been announced yet.
« On the clear Grand Prix, there are planned 4 clear F1 Grand Prix and 2 Moto GP. » confirms Séverine Ray.
Broadcasting of the Bahrain trials
The winter trials will begin next week in Barcelona behind closed doors. This means that although photographers and journalists will be present, no TV broadcast will be allowed to attend.
However, Canal+ will be present in Bahrain for the second week of winter testing where 3 hours of airtime per day will allow for an assessment of the results and the strengths at play before the first Grand Prix of the year, on the same Sakhir circuit.
