Live from Silverstone: F1 director of innovation Pete Samara on getting closer to the action

There was more than the usual sprinkling of Hollywood stardust at the British Grand Prix last weekend (7-9 July 2023), with the fictional team Apex tucked in between the Ferrari and Mercedes garages and lining up at the back of the grid.

The as-yet-untitled feature film starring Brad Pitt as a veteran racer was at Silverstone with a realistically dressed garage plus a pair of modified F2 cars – which took positions 21 and 22 on the grid – with their own on-board cameras to capture shots of the weekend’s racing.

F1 is no stranger to accommodating additional camera crews keen to capture an alternative view of the action, but while Netflix’s Drive to Survive has provided viewers with a factual (albeit highly crafted) narrative, the feature for Apple will provide a fictional – and highly authentic – view of F1.

“Getting content off the car is really challenging because of the speed and vibration. We used to only have nine of those cameras streaming at one time. We have now gone full field.”

For F1 director of innovation and technology Pete Samara, it’s another fantastic initiative that will help to raise awareness of F1 even further.

Speaking with SVG Europe at Silverstone, he says: “Our technical teams are there to support them and help them succeed, so they will lean on us for help, and we will support them with anything we can, but they have their independence to make a great film. They’re taking content from us, but it’s on them as to how they use that.

“They’ve got the best in the business and we’re very good at what we do, and we have found that successful in the past, to allow other organisations, broadcasters or initiatives we work with to succeed. Our job is to provide as much support as possible.”

The Apex garage – with Brad Pitt as ‘Sonny Hayes’ – at Silverstone

An example this season is the innovation for 2023 that allows F1 viewers to select an onboard stream including team radio messages from any of the 20 drivers across all races and qualifiers. In the UK, viewers can make that selection via the Sky Sports App, with the broadcaster positioning the onboard driver feeds as perfect mobile companion content to the main, big-screen broadcast.

Outside of the UK the same can be achieved by using F1’s live streaming service, F1 TV.

AWS sports partnership manager Neil Ralph added: “With F1 TV re-launched in 2021, F1 is now able to serve fans directly, adding driver tracking options and live data to onboard cameras.

“Leveraging AWS allows F1 to continually innovate – for example, F1 added its own channel, F1 Live, with expanded pre- and post-race content and its own commentator and presenter line-up; and also uses Amazon Transcribe as part of the automated live closed captioning.

360-degree view of the action

For Samara, F1’s onboard camera and RF operation is one of the pillars (another being the “core data” of timing) of the broadcast and media team’s offering.

“We are the only motorsport with live streaming from all cars,” he says. “Getting content off the car is really challenging because of the speed and vibration. We used to only have nine of those cameras streaming at one time. We have now gone full field, which is what we always wanted it to be.”

Read more Inside F1’s 2023 broadcast plans with director of broadcast and media Dean Locke

When asked what F1 can do to continue to try and get viewers even closer to the action, Samara refers again to the on-board perspective.

“We have a 360-degree camera on the car which we don’t get off the car live – it’s delayed – and I would really love to get that live off the car. I think that would be a real next step up in engagement if a viewer can spin around the car.”

The on-car 360 degree cameras collect 480GB of footage from the race and at least 72GB of footage from qualifying.

“With the cars travelling at such high speeds, it’s not easy to get the content off those cars. We’ve done a great job with the current on boards, but 360-degree is an area we are looking at.”

When asked about the timescale, Samara describes it as a “long-term” project.

Read more: Live from Silverstone: Formula 1 broadcast production facts and figures