F1 makes historic broadcast move for Monaco Grand Prix

Local TV hosts have long produced coverage of the race on the streets of Monaco but that is set to change

Formula 1 will produce the television coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix next week – ending a longstanding grip on the event from local broadcasters.

F1 produces the world feed for every race on the calendar, with Monaco previously being the anomaly among a season of 22 races in 2023 – a figure which has dropped from 23 after Imola’s cancellation this weekend due to flooding in the Emilia Romagna region.

Local TV station Tele Monte Carlo had been the producers of one of the sport’s most famous races, but F1 will now control the broadcasting of the event, including the world feed.

The local hosts have been criticised in recent years for their feed, with examples of key action being missed and shots shown at random times.

A memorable instance was in 2021, when a battle for position between Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly after a pit-stop was cut-out for a random replay of Lance Stroll’s car running wide at the swimming pool chicane.

The event’s production is now set to improve by F1 moving it in-house, with new and improved angles in addition to traditional shots around the twists and turns of the principality.

Monaco has been out on its own in locally producing their F1 race for the last 11 years, since Fuji Television stopped producing the Japanese Grand Prix in 2011.

Previous to that, F1 gradually took the reigns at grands prix around the world from local hosts to in-house production.

Formula 1 will produce the television coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix next week (Getty Images)

2023 marks the first in a three-year deal between F1 and the Automobile Club of Monaco (ACM), in the short-term stamping out doubts about the future of the blue-ribbon race.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez won last year’s Monaco Grand Prix in wet conditions. The Mexican trails team-mate Max Verstappen by 14 points heading into this year’s race.

Hometown favourite Charles Leclerc will be eyeing his first ever podium at a race he has notoriously struggled at since his F1 debut in 2018.

The Ferrari star has secured pole positions in the last two years but was unable to take to the start line in 2021 due to a mechanical failure and a pit-stop blunder in 2022 meant he finished fourth.