Sky Sports’ coverage of F1 will look slightly different in 2023, as fan favourites such as Johnny Herbert and Paul di Resta have been let go by the broadcasting giants.
It has been suggested that Herbert in particular paid the price for speaking out against the injustice that occurred at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, despite Sky Sports’ will to remain neutral.
The broadcasting giant’s coverage of F1 has been phenomenal in recent seasons, with every second of a race weekend covered and analysed, from FP1 to the Grand Prix.
Obviously, the company tend to focus on the more successful and influential driver, as giving these drivers more airtime will increase their viewing numbers.
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Motorsport Broadcasting have now revealed exactly how much each driver featured on Sky Sports and the number one driver might not be who you would expect.
Bottom of the leaderboard, making up zero percent of Sky’s coverage is Williams driver Nicholas Latifi, who has now left the sport after the team decided to replace him with Logan Sargeant.
Also towards the bottom of the list, making up less than one percent of the coverage are Lance Stroll and surprisingly Valtteri Bottas.
In fourth place is George Russell with 10 percent, who managed to impressively pick up Mercedes only win of the season in Brazil, while his teammate Lewis Hamilton finished below him in the championship and winless.
Speaking of Hamilton, he and Max Verstappen finished level with 11.6 percent of the coverage focused on them, despite the pair being the focus of attention during their tense title battle the season prior.
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The fact that the current F1 champion did not receive the most screen time is somewhat surprising, with Verstappen cruising to the 2022 championship without much competition.
Topping the list, making up a whopping 13.7 percent of Sky Sports’ 2022 F1 coverage is Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who looked to be the early favourite for the title, before becoming the victim of a number of mechanical failures and strategy errors.
The 25-year-old will be hoping to top the drivers’ championship in 2023, with his impressive amount of screen time meaning very little to the Monegasque who is yet to win a championship.