It's time to deliver

Sky Sports F1 HD presenter Simon Lazenby reveals his excitement ahead of the channel's long-awaited launch...

Writing this just a couple of days before the launch of Sky Sports F1, you've caught me in something of a dilemma. On the one hand, I'd love it if we had another month of preparation time. On the other, I just can't wait to get started. Finally, the wait is almost over. At a rough count, I've been working on this project for five months and after such a long build-up, and mindful of just how many great features we've already filmed, I just can't wait to get my teeth into Formula 1. Fortunately, it's not long before launch day. Unfortunately for everyone else, it's my face which will be on screen first on Friday night when we go live with our preview show! Don't worry, though, we'll quickly move on to some of the prettier faces... As you might imagine, it's been a very busy last few weeks in Sky HQ preparing our new channel, although the hard work really began for me at the start of January. I've always been a F1 fan - there's nothing like lazing around on a Sunday afternoon watching a race on the couch, is there?! However, there has been a lot of preparation and revision to do. One of the great challenges in this role is that F1 fans are incredibly passionate and deeply knowledgeable about their sport so if you don't know what you're talking about then it will very quickly become apparent! I also know there's nothing like getting amongst it and that the best way to get inside a sport is to be there on site, which we will be. For the last couple of months it's been hard work but also a lot of fun. I've spent a lot of time with Ted Kravitz. His technical knowledge is amazing - I swear he must have a photographic memory because he can spot, with just one quick glance, the smallest of small details which has changed on a car. And then last week I enjoyed the spending a few days with Martin Brundle in Barcelona. Martin, as you'd expect, was just fantastic. We were stood at the end of the long back straight just before the approach into a couple of particularly difficult corners and he was explaining about the intricacies of the different driver's racing lines, what set-ups were being used, and sharing some of his expert knowledge with me. We could also see, for example, just from that vantage point, how Fernando Alonso was fighting the Ferrari, how good the McLaren and Lotus looked. Yet it wasn't just a case of learning about the cars and drivers with Ted and Martin, it was also about getting to know my new team-mates. We all need to have a rapport on screen and the good news is that we are all getting on like a house on fire - which, given the amount of time we are going to have to spend together over the next eight months, is probably just as well! But the serious point is that, in my experience from presenting rugby, a team works best when you're all mates. For everyone at Sky, this is the start of a massive new challenge. Over a race weekend, for example, we'll be on air for 14 hours. Take off the time when the cars are on track and there's still at least seven hours of editorial and content to be driven by what we are producing around the paddock. So we know we have a huge task ahead to fill that time with interesting content that will continue to entertain and inform the viewers... but we also know that we can do it. And on Friday, we'll start proving we can. Sky Sports F1 launches on Friday night with 'The F1 Show - 2012 Preview' at 8pm. To find out more about the channel, click here