Sky F1 reveal major coverage change for next three races

There will be a different look to Sky Sports’ coverage of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne

Sky F1 will use a new state-of-the-art studio for this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix coverage – the first time their whole presenting team will not be on-site at a race.

Sky Sports presenter Natalie Pinkham revealed the new studio on Thursday, equipped with augmented reality graphics and a 360-degree filming environment, at Sky Studios in Osterley. It will be in use for the next three races in Australia, Japan and China.

Sky commentators David Croft and Martin Brundle will still be on-site at Albert Park in Melbourne, as will pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz and presenter Rachel Brookes.

However Pinkham, alongside pundits Naomi Schiff and Karun Chandok, will be based in Osterley this weekend for coverage of the third race of the 2024 season.

The arena-shaped studio, which includes a massive LED floor and high resolution screens, has also been used for Sky’s coverage of Monday Night Football, US Open tennis and the NFL play-offs.

The normal setup of a full presenter line-up on-site will return in Miami in May.

This move represents the first time since Sky landed the rights to F1 in the UK in 2012 that the channel has not had their full presenting team on-site.

(Sky Sports )

“The Sky pad is here, bigger and better then we have out in the field,” said Chandok.

“This looks amazing, doesn’t it? It’s going to be fun.”

Sky’s coverage of the race on Sunday morning will also start half-an-hour later, with the build-up reduced from 90 minutes to 60 minutes.

The race on Sunday starts at 4am (GMT), with qualifying on Saturday at 5am.