It's been a busy couple of months in motorsport with the recent Indy 500, and this weekend's Le Mans 24 Hours. There's still plenty going on in Formula 1, of course, as the 2022 season continues.
After a challenging few seasons, Ferrari have enjoyed two wins for Charles Leclerc and secured plenty of podium finishes. However, after overcoming some early reliability concerns, reigning world drivers' champion Max Verstappen has recorded four wins this season for Red Bull and now leads the standings again. His teammate Sergio Perez also clocked up a win in Monaco – so Checo isn't out of the title fight either.
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While Sir Lewis Hamilton finished on the podium in the first race of 2022, it's been a more challenging start to the season than Mercedes would like by their extremely high standards.
Their engine customer teams also had a difficult start to the new season, but Lando Norris did manage to take a third place at Imola for McLaren recently.
With a double-header in Azerbaijan and Canada imminent and the British grand prix just a few weeks away, here's how you can keep up to speed, if you'll pardon the pun, with the 2022 Formula 1 season.
• Formula 1 2022 season – watch live in the UK on Sky or NOW
• F1 in the UK for FREE – extended highlights on Channel 4
• Is F1 TV available in the UK?
• Formula 1 Drive to Survive future
Formula 1 2022 schedule
The new season calendar for Formula 1 in 2022 features 23 rounds, with six double-headers and two triple-headers.
The first race took place in Bahrain on March 20, and the season will conclude in Abu Dhabi slightly earlier than usual, on November 20 (the men's football World Cup starts on November 21).
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Do you remember the F1 Sprint experiment last year? Well, it's happening again this year, with three further Sprint weekends including 100km 'qualifying races' on Saturdays which set the grid for Sunday's main event. The Saturday sprint grid will be set by a qualifying session on Friday afternoons or evenings, as was the case last year.
After the Emilia Romagna Sprint weekend in Imola, you can expect to see F1 Sprint schedules at the Austrian grand prix on July 8-10, and the São Paulo grand prix on November 11-13.
The top eight drivers score points this time around instead of just the top three, and the driver who sets the fastest time in the Friday qualifying will be named pole position holder in the record books (presumably even if they don't win the Sprint). So long, Pirelli Speed King award, we barely knew you.
Formula 1 2022 season – watch live in the UK on Sky or NOW
Sky has exclusively held rights to live, uninterrupted, HDR-ready coverage of every grand prix since 2013 in the UK, with coverage on its dedicated channel Sky Sports F1. You can also watch Formula 2, Formula 3 and the all-women's W Series on the channel.
Commentary for Formula 1 comes from David Croft and Martin Brundle (who also call the action on F1 TV's English-language world feed), with Simon Lazenby, Natalie Pinkham and Rachel Brooks sharing hosting duties.
Shop Now Sky Sports F1 package
A rotating cast of ex-F1 racers provide analysis, including Damon Hill, Jenson Button, Johnny Herbert, Karun Chandhok, Nico Rosberg and Paul di Resta. Sometimes a special guest analyst will turn up, like former IndyCar and NASCAR star Danica Patrick.
This season has also seen another racing driver, Naomi Schiff, join Sky's at-track team. Naomi is W Series' diversity and inclusion ambassador, and will also continue to appear on coverage for the all-women's competition as Sky takes over the broadcast from Channel 4.
And of course, there's also the one and only Ted Kravitz – whose stream-of-consciousness paddock stroll, Ted's Notebook, is a virtual treasure chest of memes, behind-the-scenes entertainment and plenty of awkward moments.
Sky Sports F1 currently costs £18/month as an add-on to existing Sky packages, with a 31-day rolling contract. So if you add it prior to a double or triple-header, for example, you're going to get pretty good value.
You'll get comprehensive IndyCar Series coverage (complete with former F1 stars like Romain Grosjean, Marcus Ericsson and Takuma Sato) on Sky Sports F1 as well, with a whopping five races packed into July alone following Ericsson's confident Indy 500 victory last month.
And if you like the idea of watching MotoGP icon Valentino Rossi driving sports cars around, then Sky also now has coverage of the GT World Challenge Europe.
Here's some example package pricing for new customers who want all the sports channels:
- Sky TV (Sky Signature) + Sky Sports: £41/month for 18 months (setup fees apply)
- Sky TV, Sky Sports and BT Sport: £65 per month for 18 months
Additionally, new customers can take up Sky TV and Netflix for an 18-month term, starting at £26 per month (excluding setup fees), which could be an appealing option. Then, if you like, you can add on extras such as Sports, Cinema or Kids channels.
If you're new to Sky, you will need to take the Sky Signature package before you can add on other channels or bundles. Sky Glass prices are different, as you will also pay for the TV set as part of your package.
Another option is NOW's Sky Sports membership, priced at £9.99 for a day or £33.99 for a whole month.
Related: How to watch all the action during the MotoGP season
What's more, NOW's Entertainment membership also gives you access to loads of channels and on-demand boxsets, including motorsport documentaries like the recently-released Queen of Speed, a engaging look back at rally driver Michèle Mouton's groundbreaking career.
Off-track, Sky has announced a two-year partnership with Mission 44, Lewis Hamilton's charitable foundation which aims to support and empower young people from marginalised groups across the UK.
F1 in the UK for FREE – extended highlights on Channel 4
Channel 4 continues to show extended, free-to-air highlights of qualifying and every race, produced by the award-winning Whisper. It usually starts up a few hours after the chequered flag drops.
C4 also airs the British grand prix live every year, and it usually goes all out on pre-race coverage, including an elaborate hidden camera prank on Max Verstappen which you can see a clip from below.
You can now find coverage of the all-electric Formula E world championship across its broadcast channels, its streaming service All4, and the Channel 4 Sport YouTube channel. Although Sky now has the full W Series rights, C4 will continue to broadcast highlights, and carry live coverage of the category's Silverstone race.
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Channel 4 F1 hosting duties are mainly undertaken by Steve Jones, with Lee McKenzie on standby to run the ship when Steve is unavailable. Commentary is led by Alex Jacques, with insight and analysis from the likes of David Coulthard, Mark Webber and Billy Monger, plus Lawrence Barretto and Alice Powell.
If you missed out on Channel 4's grand prix highlights and can't or don't want to take Sky, you can also catch up on All4 if you're in the UK. W Series and Formula E highlights are available on All4, too.
Is F1 TV available in the UK?
Formula 1 streaming service F1 TV Pro – now available in over 85 territories and six languages – boasts live coverage of races, along with full replays as soon as the race ends, on-board driver cameras, a pitlane feed, data channels including live timing and driver tracker maps, plus "full unedited team radio" for all your sweary racing driver needs.
You can also watch Formula 2, Formula 3 and Porsche Supercup coverage on the streaming service.
A cheaper tier without live coverage, F1 TV Access, is available in a further 33 countries. This has live timing and audio commentary, exclusive documentaries and shorts, plus over 650 archive grands prix or highlights with a library going back to the 1980s.
You can get F1 TV Access only in the UK for £19.99 per year or £2.29 per month. If you're in the US, you can sign up for F1 TV Pro for $79.99 per year, or $9.99 per month.
Sign Up F1 TV Pro (available in selected countries)
Because Sky has exclusive live rights to the sport in the UK, F1 TV Pro isn't yet available in the UK, and it's highly unlikely that this will change unless the rights are completely renegotiated – Sky's current agreement for live UK coverage runs until 2024.
A note on the F1 TV website says: "Over time we will be looking to increase the number of countries where F1 TV is available and to also provide an ever-increasing amount of live video content along with historical races from our archive."
You can watch F1 TV in your web browser or on iOS, Android, Amazon Fire and Roku. You can also cast from another device using Apple AirPlay and Chromecast.
Formula 1 Drive to Survive future
Formula 1: Drive to Survive will return to Netflix, with a two-season renewal confirmed at the Miami grand prix. Seasons 5 and 6 of the documentary/reality series will cover the 2022 and 2023 Formula 1 seasons.
Season 4 of Drive to Survive, covering last year's intense title campaign, premiered in March 2022. You'll find the trailer at the top of this piece, and it includes Christian Horner swearing and riding a horse (not at the the same time, however).
Filming for season 5 is already underway and according to The New York Times, all of the drivers are continuing to participate with the exception of Max Verstappen, who has been vocal about his dislike of the show's editing and hasn't actively participated for a few seasons now.
Max pointedly described the show as "a bit more like 'Keeping Up With the Formula 1 World'" in a media session before the Saudi Arabian grand prix.
"I watched a few episodes of the last one and I was surprised, I suddenly found myself talking in it. And it's probably stuff from like, 2018 or something they picked up and used again – about fighting and what I like to do," the reigning world champion said.
"But that already is not of course correct... I also realised that a lot of times I was saying stuff and they were around with this [boom microphone] and they pick up a lot of stuff. So, I'll have to be a bit more careful with that as well."
Max was also upset by how his friends Daniel Ricciardo and particularly Lando Norris came across in the McLaren-centric episodes in season 4, adding he felt "it look like Lando was a bit of a dick, which he isn't at all".
For their part, Lando and Daniel recorded an official McLaren video showing them watching excerpts from Drive to Survive in a Gogglebox style, and their reaction to an out-of-context clip of Lando from an interview is to literally laugh it off together.
A number of other F1 drivers have asked for the series to reflect their real experiences more closely in future episodes, including Mick Schumacher, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, who were all asked about comments that Formula 1 boss Stefano Domenicali made about Drive to Survive.
Gasly said he felt drivers were "happy to play our part in the show, but as long as it kind of reflects who we are personally".
Drive to Survive's producers have insisted that they have no need to exaggerate narratives. "Over the four series, Drive to Survive hasn't over-editorialised anything," Paul Martin told BBC Sport.
James Gay-Rees also dismissed suggestions that a 'Netflix effect' was impacting on sporting decisions, describing such theories as "a total red herring".
"It's just people under enormous pressure making decisions in the moment," he said of the controversial ending to the title-deciding 2021 Abu Dhabi grand prix. "There's no way anybody was thinking, 'Will this play well on Netflix?'"
Formula 1's director of media rights Ian Holmes disagreed with any suggestions that rivalries had been faked, telling The New York Times: "This notion that some things are made up, it's just chatter. At the end of the day, it is authentic."
However, he added that he hopes producers will "be mindful of [his] concerns", so that the teams and drivers will remain keen continue to participate in the show.
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