Formula One is an experience – it is visceral, it reaches out and pulls you in.  The sound of the engines, the colours flashing past in the blink of an eye. And if you are lucky enough to be in attendance, the smell of the fumes that linger in the air.

The advancement in television picture quality has brought Grand Prix racing into people’s homes like never before.  Viewers want an experience like the punters who pay to attend – minus the traditional downpour at Spa. The internet and social media has thrust information into the palms of fans thirsty for knowledge in real time and your personal accessibility to the media that covers it.

And with the exposure comes the additional responsibility for broadcasters to allow everyone the opportunity to have the same access to the racing experience.  Formula One is a very technical sport and can be difficult to follow at the best of times. So how do you cope when you are trying to provide subtitles for the fastest sport on the planet?

The first issue thrown into the path of a subtitler – like an exuberantly discarded front wing – is that of homophones. Commonly we wrestle with “there/their/they’re” and “its/it’s” and can usually provide the word in the correct context. “Cue” is a word that is essential in snooker and far more likely to appear in context than “queue,” so you can manipulate the software to provide the likelier example.  Formula One is transcendent in sports linguistics in that you can have both versions of the homophone in the same sentence. For example:

“He is having trouble with his left rear brake as the suspension is collapsing and likely to break completely.”

“Because of the flat spot in his front tyre, the car is juddering violently and physically causing him to tire.”

And while this isn’t strictly a homophone, it is definitely something to wrestle with:

“If Button wishes to speak to his mechanic he has to press the red button on his steering wheel.”

You can’t apply a housestyle, so all instances of “brake/break” come as one version over and over.  If you don’t have context, you’re working from just a single word utterance – TEAM RADIO: Issues with breaking – then it can be difficult for an accurate portrayal.

The next impediment is the noise. Formula One cars used to be fitted with V8 engines that emitted a mighty roar, but in an effort to promote kindness to the environment, V6 engines with turbo chargers were introduced. Unfortunately, the racing soundtrack went from heavy metal to easy listening and the fans complained. The F1 hierarchy bowed to this request and looked to manufacture a resonant snarl through different exhaust pipes. So once again, when you are subtitling, it sounds like someone is throwing a distressed cat past your head as a race car speeds by.

The background soundtrack can make it difficult to hear the commentators so it is a skill in itself trying to piece together what is being said to ensure it is faithfully represented in your subtitles. The commentary booth can be fairly well insulated at some races so you can cope, but when the on-screen presenters stand outside a garage just as a car is being fired up or a wheel gun is initiated, you don’t have much hope.

Having the capability to listen to the team radio instructions and the subsequent (and sometimes emotional) driver’s responses is vital to the odyssey of a grand prix race. Sebastian Vettel’s infamous blanking of a “Multi 21” order at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix was relayed in real time. We know that Vettel was trying to overtake team mate Mark Webber when his team declined permission for the manoeuvre and it brought the viewer inside the drama of the Red Bull F1 team.

Another challenge for subtitlers is when the background noise of the engine from the cockpit is coupled with English not always being the primary spoken language for an engineer or driver.  This sometimes makes it difficult to follow and can challenging to find something tangible to grab onto.  Technical jargon can also be an issue if you are a layman and uninitiated the automotive dark arts. Monoqoque, parc ferme, qualy, nomex and HANS device are the tip of the iceberg in terms of the grand prix lexicon, and if you have no idea what the commentary team are talking about, then you struggle to edit around the word to make sense. So for example, “nomex” can be explained as the fire proof underclothes a driver wears. It may be more of a mouthful, but it allows for conceptual understanding.

And don’t get me started on the biggest bugbear in the sport – the fact that Felipe Massa and Felipe Nasr (pronounced Nassa) are allowed to compete at the same time!

All the tears, tantrums, tongue twisters and tortured ear drums are forgotten however if you as the subtitler lucky enough to cue out “THEME MUSIC: “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac” as the best theme music in television greets you in your earphones and the goose bumps on your arms manifest themselves once more.

Ian Steven, Subtitler