Official F1 Live Timing App 2014 reviewed

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The quieter sound of the new engines wasn’t the only cause for complaint for some during last week’s Australian Grand Prix.

As the first race weekend of the season got underway many fans were more than a little disappointed to discover that the live timing page on the official F1 website had been stripped of most of its functionality. No sector times, no lap chart, no weather information – just a list of lap times and purple/green/white sector time indicator lights.

Since the official Formula One app first went on sale it’s been a question of when rather than if the free version would be cut back to give viewers an incentive to buy. But does the paid version offer a sufficient increase in functionality at a reasonable enough price to be worth it?

Pricing has been a major area of complaint with this app in years past. The 2013 edition was priced at an excessive £23.99 for a single season.

The new version, marketed by Formula One Digital Media instead of Soft Pauer, appeared with little fanfare shortly before the new season began but immediately distinguished itself with a substantial price cut.

It’s now offered for a much more sensible £9.99 for the all-bells-and-whistles version. For your money you get much the same information as was available in last year’s app, including a live map of the circuit, detailed sector information and speed, gear and tyre data.

A free offering remains, though as on the website you only get a basic leaderboard and text commentary. The paid version remains a one-year subscription.

The experience of using it is familiar from previous apps and does it a good job of presenting complicated and rapidly-changing data in an intelligible way.

I’m sure I would have enjoyed rummaging through the rich data on offer but I couldn’t, for the simple reason that the app is unbelievably buggy. You get the full gamut of glitches: it fails to load, crashes mid-session, dumbly fails to respond to your taps and shows wildly incorrect information.

Throughout the Australian Grand Prix weekend it was unusable, and on the infrequent occasions when it did run the data stream was usually well behind the free website timing screen. When the developers get all the bugs worked out it may well be an excellent app, but it’s a leap of faith at the moment.

Choosing to cut back the free live timing page may make sense as a business decision, but failing to offer a corresponding paid version for desktop users doesn’t – and wouldn’t even if the paid add worked beautifully. It clearly wasn’t ready for the start of the season, leaving F1 fans less well catered for in this respect than they were six months ago.

Last week team principals admitted they had been surprised by the strength of reaction from fans against the dismal double points rule. No doubt for some changes like this are enough to turn the off the sport completely.

But more often than not it isn’t a single change, rather an accumulation of factors which prompts a person to give up on something they once enjoyed. Factors like the inconveniences of not being able to follow the sport as well or as closely as they used to.

The gutting of the free live timing page and the huge shortcomings in the paid version (price cut notwithstanding) is another example of how those who are supposed to be marketing the sport are getting it wrong at the risk of alienating its fan base.

F1 Fanatic rating

The official F1 Live Timing App 2014 can be purchased through Google Play for Android, iTunes for Apple

Official F1 Live Timing App 2014

Format: Android, Apple
Publisher: Formula One Digital Media
Published: March 2014
Price: £9.99

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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112 comments on “Official F1 Live Timing App 2014 reviewed”

  1. IMO, the full F1 app should be free. Why eke out money out of an app, when providing the full info of the sport could help garner more fans?

    1. Because they probably have analyzed the market and realized that the income of the app is greater than the money brought in by possible new fans.

      Call them greedy suits, but they’re not stupid.

      1. At the same time, don’t give them too much credit. I’ve sat on the other side of this debate MANY times when we were shipping software products and trying to decide which part should be free, which parts the base package and which premium.
        It’s not an exact science AT ALL, and mostly comes down to test groups, polls and in the end…a gut feel by the guy(s) making the decision. And when the next regime comes in, they usually reverse whatever the previous guys did. That doesn’t make the first one right or the second one wrong. It’s all educated guesses which often turn out wrong.
        I’m not going to pretend to have enough insight into their commercial rights, country by country to know where I fall on this one.
        Personally, I would like to see it free because I always fall on the side of inclusion and then upselling something with real value. The Timing and Scoring is one of the first things that got me really into F1 races and I hate to see other’s lose that. But then, it’s not a lot of money.

        1. Paid mobile app, I can understand. But they have to change the one on the website to just colored dots instead of numbers? That’s just low.

    2. @surya
      I don’t think the fully fledged live timing would draw in any new fans.
      It only really works once you know something about F1 and watch it on TV anyway.
      Youtube videos of former races and events however….

    3. This is Formula 1, the word “free” does not compute.

      1. Nope, it sure doesn’t. In fact, I’m surprised that the word “free” isn’t blocked when on an F1 thread. :)

    4. F1 makes money from TV predominantly. So if they give you a very good app outside of TV for free, they are loosing eyeballs and hence the money. So they need to milk the app too, right?

      1. Carlos Fandango
        19th April 2014, 23:01

        No, because the app is used while watching the race – it’s not a standalone offering.

  2. Is really the mobile app tied to one device? You can’t use on the phone and tablet?

    1. @oletros I tried and couldn’t find any means of doing so. If anyone out there has found a way to please do say!

      1. Elliot Horwood
        23rd March 2014, 12:22

        you just re download the purchase on another device, works with apple anyway and someone on twitter got it working with android. goes by your apple ID or GMAIL acccount i imagine

      2. I also tried, I also failed.

        1. you just restore purchase within the actual F1 timing app when you have downloaded it on the other device, it goes by your Apple ID, or i guess for android GMAIL account

      3. Just looked again and you need to go to ‘settings’ then click ‘event store’ then there should be an option to ‘restore purchases’. Just login with apple ID and it works :) hope that helps

        1. +1 this worked or me too.

      4. I just bought it on my Android tablet (Nexus 7) and when I started the app on my Android phone it registered the season pass as well. Don’t see the problem.

        Also, for me it gets a 7 for now. I experienced no crashes or loading failures. I also had the faulty countdown and the Massa/Kobayashi bug, this is why I’m not giving it full points.

        For the rest it just works great with good information and a smooth experience even on my rather slow phone.
        And the price this year is a very fair one.

        All in all I’m happy I bought it.

      5. The free version has become of little use and I’m thinking about the paid app but most users found it buggy and I’m afraid I will pay for an app less tested and fineshed than Lotus car.

        But some users of Android seem to be happy, what’s your OS @keithcollantine? Android or iOS?

    2. The .apk file for Android users will no doubt already be floating around the local pirate-themed dock just like last years. Though the price is so much more sane this year, if it has actually worked I might just have bought it; especially as the Kangaroos were killed off.
      Oh well.

      1. Yes, but unlike last year, the APK is free, but the premium stuff is an in-app purchase… so you can’t just install the APK and get the premium stuff for free this year…

        1. There’s software out there that can perform magic you wouldn’t believe ;)

    3. I’m running the Android Tablet version on my Windows tablet PC using the Bluestacks Android emulator…. seems to work ok :)

  3. I’m surprised to hear you had such problems with it – I used it trackside at the Australian GP on Saturday & Sunday over the mobile network, and expected trouble getting enough reception to sustain the data, but it was flawless all weekend for me (on an iPad Air).

    I don’t work for them, but my only complaint would be that it’s too sensitive to movement when you’re dragging a finger to change the viewing position on the track, I found that difficult to control (having used all of the previous versions).

    Hope you have better luck next week!

    1. Actually, I forgot about stopped cars showing as still in the top ten for much of the race. Other than THAT, it worked fine…! (And the radio coverage of Friday practice was better than the Aussie commentators, too.)

    2. Sounds like you got lucky. I had all the same problems Keith encountered.

    3. I have pretty good experiences on my ipad mini.. bet it’s more stable than the android version (as is often the case).

      It’s far from perfect, I always need to put off pit radio and turn it back on to get it to work.
      For the rest it’s really stable.

  4. The gutting of the free live timing page and the huge shortcomings in the paid version (price cut notwithstanding) is another example of how those who are supposed to be marketing the sport are getting it wrong at the risk of alienating its fan base.

    Hear, hear. At a time when other streams of motorsport seem to be going to great lengths to make timing and data available to fans (even the Florida Winter Series had free live timing!) FOM are going completely the other way.

    They’ve also crushed the efforts of the small number of third-party developers who took the free timing data and built applications, both desktop and mobile, that far exceeded the capabilities of the in-house app… but then that’s probably intentional.

    1. http://f1.narezka.org/?lang=eng# seems to still work very well indeed.

    2. Agreed. F1LT was the absolute perfect live timing (fan-created) app, but it operated via a login on the official F1 site. Now there’s much less info it can offer, and that is a real shame.

  5. My experience of trying out the Android version was awful. Massa and Kobayashi were showing in points-scoring positions for most of the race, the team radio messages (a new feature) were not working, and I gave up on trying to delay the timing by 30 seconds (to sync with the Sky Go stream I was watching) when it kept jumping around between live and several minutes’ delay!

    For a sport that likes to portray a high tech image, it’s utterly pathetic.
    If they must try to make money from timing, they should just charge for a log-in to access to the data stream itself and leave the app-writing to anybody who fancies a crack at it. I expect they’d all do a much better job.

    1. Massa and Kobayashi were showing in points-scoring positions for most of the race

      It did this on iOS as well, and I’m guessing this is one of the main bugs to which @keithcollantine refers. As far as stability I imagine that will depend on your device to some degree. I’ve had no crashes at all, but the faulty data throughout the race was pretty disappointing (it’s in the replay if you download that as well). The bigger disappointment for me has been the response of their twitter account. When Soft Pauer sold the app they also managed the twitter account and whenever there was data showing incorrectly (which did happen on occasion) you could contact them quickly on twitter and they would respond in kind to let you know they were working on fixing it. Often times you didn’t even have to contact them as they’d already posted that they were aware of a problem and were working on it. Then shortly thereafter they’d usually have a fix. I seam to remember one race once where they couldn’t fix an issue and they apologized for it and explained that it couldn’t be fixed during the duration of the race. Seemingly with the app now being taken under the roof of Bernie’s goons, the twitter account was handed over to them as well, and much like the official website (which has no contact information posted anywhere) and its twitter account, if you tweet at them you are pretty much guaranteed no response. They also don’t appear to have posted anything acknowledging the obvious corrupt data issues they were having during the race. Fan interaction is something FOM does not care for. Clearly fans are viewed by Bernie as a nuisance, not the lifeblood that supports his false empire. Personally I would gladly go back to paying what I have the last several years if the app still had real customer service and went back to illustrative landscapes rather than the new god awful Tron style maps they’ve chosen this year. I hope they can get their issues sorted out, because so far the app is a definite step backwards from the Soft Pauer app we had even as far back as three years ago, and in mobile app development that’s quite a long time.

  6. I paid the equivavelent of 9,30 Euro’s for the app, which is cheaper than £9,99. I used it during the qualifying where it made me able to follow specific drivers sector times, even if FOM TV feed through RTL (German TV) and the internet feed of SKY or BBC (I don’t know which of them it was). This was a grand experience as I could foresee a drivers good lap was coming up and I knew in advance when he had given up and took an in lap.
    During the race it also helped me some, but here I discovered several faults in the data, suddenly Kimi wasn’t displayed at all and often I saw that the overtakes was showed with a lot of delay in the app.
    I wasn’t too impressed with the handling of the view of the track and the list of sector times, but I’m sure they will provide new developments for the coming races.
    I have also experienced DNF’s (crashes) but I’m looking positively forward to see how the app develops over the year. Maybe it will be at the front row before the end of the season:-)

  7. try F1LT. Android, Windows, BB OS and IOS I think. http://f1lt.pl/ I have the Windows and Android versions and they work a treat. All you need is an F1.com username and password.

    1. During the Aus race, I couldn’t get it to work reliably. More often than not, it showed no data. And when it works, it shows the same info as the free feed, no sector times, no pit stops, etc.

    2. The 2.0 version no longer seems to work but the 3.0 version seems OK.
      Finding it was a little hard though – seems that FOM don’t like the competition.

      I use it mostly in replay mode though as I often don’t get to watch live.

  8. I refuse to pay for any more gold taps for the Ecclestone girls – I’ll just go without.

  9. For desktop users, if you have android phone, there is android emulator for PC called Bluestacks, you can sign in with your google ID, and download paid app. I am not sure that it will work both on your phone/tablet and bluestacks, but it works without any problem.

    1. +1

      Works well :) It does work on both phone and tablet.

      1. BTW I’m running on a Windows 8.1 Surface Pro

  10. For desktop and laptop use try F1LT. It’s free and works very nicely.

    https://openrepos.net/content/pieczar/f1lt

    1. Until FOM order a take-down… again.

      1. THANKYOU! are the graphics 2014, shame that FOM took down http://f1lt.pl :(

    2. Can’t open a deb file on windows

      1. That’s a link to the Ubuntu version of F1LT. Google is your friend – I’m hesitant to post links since FOM have been getting more aggressive with copyright-infringement takedowns.

    3. Thank you VERY much :)

  11. The vastly reduced price is very welcome. I’ve used the iOS live timing app since it’s inception back in 2009 and literally cannot imagine watching a race without my iPad. I found the new app to be much better than is described in this article though, the only bug I experienced was Massa was showing in 9th position for much of the race. He retired at the first corner, other than that it was flawless for me.

    1. Even if that’s the only bug, it’s a pretty severe one.

  12. I tried the free version because i thought it would have some basic timming info according to the description on the official site. Following the australian gp free practice i realized that timming was scrambled with mixed actual real times and fake ones. These was the case for all the following sessions when i realized that the free app was actually a demo one as was the 2013 app also.
    They could at least write it somewhere in the description. I really felt cheated… this was no mistake it was on purpose… really bad
    As for the paid version i still think its too expensive when you consider it would last for only 8 months.
    I would gladly have paid it if this would be for all the future seasons but its not.
    How hard can it be to have one STABLE app for all seasons?

    1. @cosmas both the free and paid apps have demos for every session, but they should prompt you to join a live session if it is underway. If it doesn’t do that during the next live session try closing it and relaunching it. You should get a dialogue box that pops up and says something like “There is currently a live session for Malaysian GP FP1 underway, would you like to join?” with Yes and No buttons underneath.

  13. @keithcollantine Can you review this great website and live feed website I know. Here’s the name: F1 Fanatic!

  14. I can not agree with your opnion on the app.

    The app works fine on my Nexus 5. Yeah, there were a few interruptions, but the app recovers quickly within one second. Eventhough the app reacts directly to my taps, so no accordance to you.
    But during the race, Felipe Massa hangs on ninth place, even if he was taken out on the first corner, so you could not see who was actual on that position.

    Anyhow the app impresses with additional team radios which are not broadcasted on television. This works fine during the race and you could hear e.g. an angry Vettel or the Lotus team calling her drivers for a stall.

    In my opinion, the app is worth the money.

    1. Anyhow the app impresses with additional team radios which are not broadcasted on television.

      I didn’t hear any which weren’t also broadcast on the television so I can’t verify that claim. That said as the app crashed so often there may have been some I didn’t hear. Still it would be interesting to hear if there were more unhappy messages from Vettel as a lot of those were played during the race.

  15. krustylicious
    23rd March 2014, 12:43

    The andorid version is usable on multiple devices (Android only). The app was awful on my tab 2 but fine on my note2. As you said the timing issues were apparent on race day, which could/should have been tested pre season. Massa was shown as “stop” p9 for most of the race ..

    That said Dorna has taken the view that £19.99 for the motogp android app is acceptable and it isn’t ..

    1. I tried that before and have just tried again but it isn’t working for me.

      As other people seem to be having different experiences to me I’ve taken the line out of the review to avoid confusing anyone.

    2. Yes, the MotoGP app is ridiculously priced! Basically they charge that much because it’s the more popular sport. The fact is that they charge for the SBK app at a much lower price.
      The pricing of the MotoGP app makes the Official F1 app pricing looks very generous. And FYI (and anyone else for that matter), the pricing of F1 app is different between countries (or at least different between currencies), and that made me very happy because I paid the app for the equivalent of $8.6 or £5.25! Mind you that this amount, while looked small, it’s actually a lot of money. I don’t know how they priced it, either they try to have a nice number for the price and put it under the psychological barrier (99000) or they actually pricing it based on the economic situation of each country.

  16. Elliot Horwood
    23rd March 2014, 12:48

    “and is locked to a single device. ” It’s locked to your apple ID, i can use the app on my iPhone AND iPad. It cost me £7.49 so must have gone up in price. To get sector times it was worth the money

    1. Sector times used to be free. So taking away the sector times and charging for them doesn’t make the price ‘worth it’.

  17. It gets -10/10 from me because for some reason they feel that if you live in South Africa you are not allowed to purchase it or use the free version. For that reason my experience so far has been terrible. I am forced to get the pirated version of the app.

    1. I might be wrong, but I remember someone from South Africa (or maybe other country?) can’t buy it at the beginning. But near the race weekend (or at least before the qualifying), he can buy it. I also at the beginning can buy it, but they eventually release it for my country (Indonesia) at March 14th (Friday). The good thing (at least for me) about it is that they priced it differently between countries, and I can buy it at a cheaper price compared to the England price of the app. Maybe that was the reason that it wasn’t immediately available in all countries because they want to create a specific price for each country.

      1. I’m in the Philippines and I can still NOT download it. It is ‘not available in my location’ apparently. Having spent on the app for the last 3/4 years, it is more than a little disappointing that I am not considered worthy enough to need it.

        As the article says, just about enough to make me turn off again…

  18. Errors, bugs, glitches, malfunctions, always late. Another useless app F1

  19. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    23rd March 2014, 13:11

    Atleast they’ve cut the price, realizing that it’s pretty poor software.

    For as complex and advanced as Formula One is, it baffles me how their software for users and their website is so unbelievably outdated, slow and poorly set out.

  20. The gutting of the free live timing page and the huge shortcomings in the paid version (price cut notwithstanding) is another example of how those who are supposed to be marketing the sport are getting it wrong at the risk of alienating its fan base.

    Exactly Keith. I will just live without sector times for now, who knows how many races I will bother follow live anyway this year. One I am almost certain to miss is Abu Double, a boring race and with the farcical Super duper extra points bonanza thing its just asking to get its bluff called.

  21. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
    23rd March 2014, 13:13

    [T]hose who are supposed to be marketing the sport are getting it wrong at the risk of alienating its fan base.

    My sentiments exactly. If the spectacle of a Formula 1 Grand Prix was not so immense and engaging, what motivation would there be to follow a sport that clearly values its fans behind the profit it makes from its fans? In this regard F1 really has a lot to learn from a series like BTCC, of which one of the key factors is the reasonable pricing of tickets, or paddock passes and other items, and there is no McCarthyism on the censorship of online videos. I am very financially comfortable, I have often found myself on the exciting side of the paddock fence at Silverstone, but even I can appreciate the frustrations of those clearly alienated by a sport that blatantly doesn’t value the allegiance of the more badly off. But at least we have the people’s champion, F1 Fanatic! Thank you for staying my hand from buying that app, it was just in time!

  22. This app (at least the Android version) has been developed with a framework which cannot keep the pace with the needed requirements…
    And keep in mind the application F1LT (OPEN SOURCE and FREE) by Pieczar has been removed due to FIA request.
    Fortunately, you can still build the APK and use it.

    Best regards,
    Luca B.

  23. I used to used the online timing website on my laptop and it was great last year. You would read the race especially during the pitstop phases and know exactly where drivers are going to get out after the pit-stop, who is gaining, etc.

    I’m questioning myself why there is no option to buy the update version like the app available on their website for PC users like myself. I have also sent an email to the FIA but I’m not surprised that this has not been read.

  24. Once again I have the feeling the true fans are ignored… I won’t be totally opposed to a pay version (at a fair price indeed) but
    1. I want to get more than what I had for free.
    2. I want the damn thing to run on my PC so that I have all I need on the same screen thru my local network (dsl) not on a smartphone with it ridiculously small screen…

    1. In conjunction with the free version of the app of iPad I also used the third party F1LT in my laptop. This also experienced bugs during the race, in particular the current drivers’ positions in the track map. But once they’ve sorted it out, this will be my sole source of race data.

      1. Thanks but f1lt (I have tried it) is not giving sector laptimes (or did I missed that?), nor is it giving the “intervals” between drivers… and that’s what I need. I could pay for it but it is not available for PCs, only for IOS+Android cellphones…

        1. Correct, I believe it relies on what ever data the legit F1 timings offering.

  25. I followed the Aust GP using the official app free version and I can forgive the early season bugs but won’t be subscribing to the premium version on the principle that it should be made available to fans for free and absorb the cost of developing the app.

    I watched the Bathurst 12 hour race this year on a fairly good resolution live stream all day and had my laptop open to a spartan looking but comprehensive live timing data. I felt so looked after as a motorsport fan!

    F1 is a very profitable product without needing to milk it’s fan base for more pennies.

  26. I’ve been buying the app since there was available but this year, I do not.

    Is paying money for nothing. Last year, it was almost impossible to use it properly. Big delay in showing info, stop working….

    Bernie is too old to run that part of the business.

  27. Not surprised by this review at all. I bought the full paid app way back in the 2010 season and it sounds like it’s just as awful and unusable today as it was back then.

    FOM seem determined to turn F1 into some sort of exclusive premium priced experience accessible only to wealthy and upper middle class people.

  28. Those “celebrating” the price-cut, do forget that much of the info was actually FREE one year ago. This “price-cut” is nothing but a well known technique sellers always used, to make a customer “feel” that they are making a good deal, while in reality they are (still) being ripped off. Do not offer the price you want directly – offer first a higher price. Then “decrease” the price, basically to the price that you actually wanted to start with, and you will make the customer much more happy to pay you…even for something that used to be free.

    All this said, I do not think this is the major problem with this business-sport. The real problem is that I as a customer am paying to see racing, and what I am getting is “a lot of lifting off and coasting around the lap” as Button expressed it after practice in AUS. The core of the “sport” is at risk, and the greedy people running it are busy most of the time finding new “business cases”. Hopefully soon they will have more “business cases” than customers. Then and only then we will get back to the basics and see some real racing. Racing where the driver actually matters.

  29. I went and looked out of curiosity and all I can find is this free version

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.softpauer.f1timingapp2014.basic&hl=en

    Where is the paid version? Keep in mind I’m in Ireland so maybe it’s not available here.

    1. Oh the premium stuff is an in app purchase, sorry.

  30. * It clearly wasn’t ready for the start of the season, leaving F1 fans less well catered for in this respect than they were six months ago.
    They should release it for iOS, Android and Windows Phone at the same time. No delays whatsoever

  31. I gather the main reason for much of the bugs is because the app was very late been developed & released so there wasn’t time to do any real testing before Melbourne.

    This app has been totally re-written compared to those of the past few years & the decision to do that & move away from Soft Pauer was taken very late, The Android version wasn’t finished until 2-3 days before Melbourne.

    They know its buggy, Know what the bugs are & how to fix them so an update should not be too far off.

    No mention of the Team Radio clips & Live audio commentary from BBC Radio?

    1. @gt-racer I’ve scanned through the source code of the APK (they haven’t encrypted it or anything – it takes a while but it’s possible to de-compile the apk) and there are plenty of references to soft pauer’s code in there, so to say it’s been “totally re-written” is incorrect. FODM were updating the app regularly over the weekend. IMO the only bug i’ve found is that the timing is a tad glitchy and the Team Radio isn’t working properly yet.

  32. Dave (@f1submariner)
    23rd March 2014, 15:08

    I have bought the official App each year since 2010 and always found it worth every penny. Watching Sky F1 HD, I find the app gives me 8 second advantage ahead of broadcast, plus gaps, sector times compared to the commentary. This years app appears the same and it did jump around a bit during Aussie GP – but it’s still worth every penny.

  33. I’ve got an old iPhone 3GS and the 2014 crashes almost as soon it loads for me. Boo hoo! :(

  34. Keith, while the price of the app is indeed 9.99GBP, it differs between countries. I bought it for the equivalent of 5.25GBP (99000IDR).
    For comparison, the MotoGP app is priced the same as in England and automatically converted to local currency -> 19.99GBP -> 370000IDR… a massive of almost 4x the price of the F1 app! And you would think that the country where there are lots of MotoGP fans (Indonesia, one of the biggest market for the two top factory teams which is Honda and Yamaha) with a much lesser buying power than most western countries would get a cheaper price for the app.
    The pricing mentioned above is from the Google Play Store. I haven’t checked the pricing on the Apple App Store.

  35. Why don’t true F1 fans make a stand. Every time a price is put on something you reach in and pay. If nobody paid for SKY, F1 would be free to air. If nobody paid for this app, guess what? It would remain free. I’m afraid it is the so called fans that are digging the grave for F1. I won’t be using the app because I make a stand and will not be part of the demise of F1. In 5 years when no one can afford anything with an ‘F1’ tag, remember you read it here first.

    1. @tiomkin – The F1 timing app was never free in the first place, in fact, as pointed out in the review, it’s over 50% cheaper compared to last year. If you can’t afford to pay a single one-off payment of £10 for 12 months access then I’m surprised you can afford to wash & feed yourself…

      1. And how many times does someone have to shell out £10 for 12 months? If I have to do this 100 times for everything then yes, It soon adds up. This cost is not in isolation. It is an additional nonsense that pushes up the cost of living. Wait 5 years, then the vast majority of adults will not be able to afford F1 or any sport. Nice insult by the way money bags.

        1. @tiomkin Once a year… Will you be alive in 100 years then?

          I’m hardly money bags, £35 a month that sky charge for F1 on Sky Go is steep IMO.

  36. yet another nail in the F1 coffin

  37. @keithcollantine Can you possibly re-review the app after a couple of races, i.e. after they’ve had time to iron out all the alledged bugs? (I personally didn’t have a single force close on my Nexus 5 throughout the entire Aus GP weekend, although team radio was v. patchy)

  38. I brought the app for both my phone and iPad ( they are on seperate apple accounts)
    I am generally happy with what is provided.
    The iPad display is great. For qualifying it was great you can select a driver and see their current speeds, gears, sector times and tyres. Interestingly I was at the Melbourne GP and used the app on my phone for much of the sessions and the app timing was updating faster than the spectator screen times.

    To those complaining about $10 for a season access. At 19 races that’s little over 50c per race…. I mean really? It costs me $18 to go to the movies. $8 for a McDonalds meal.
    I acknowledge that PC app would be good, but you can blame computer hackers for that. If people didn’t strive so hard to everything for free through illegal means, the businesses would be able to provide what people want. Developing stuff for PCs is a risky business with is why apps are taking precedence.
    I can say all that because I have had my own software business devastated by pirating. Couldn’t be bothered putting in the hours and investment to have it stolen within 24 hrs of going on sale.
    Businesses have a right to get a return on their investment. Saying “they have enough money anyway, I want it for free” is the unfortunate point of view much of society have today.
    F1 is a business not a charity
    The app in my opinion is better than last year with more data and i am sure they will patch out the few bugs I experienced.

  39. Formula1 is suffering from lack of testing, so does the Live Timing application.

  40. 1. The fact that this app was released in the week prior to the first race indicates the haste in which it was completed. Especially when you compare previous versions went on sale BEFORE the new year. They needed to wheel it out in ANY shape to cash in on the first race hype just in case any potential purchasers watched the first race and quit on the sport for the year. Sort of like a car in the pits having work done leaving pit lane without a front wing to avoid losing a lap under a safety car: “Just get it out there and fix it later”.

    2. The previous versions of the Soft Pauer timing app have been Unpersoned. Even the 2010 version of the app was available for purchase until a few weeks ago but now all traces of its existence is gone from at least the Google Play pages, and I suspect the fruit pages will be the same. Whether or not the app was based on the Soft Pauer version, I don’t know, but there has been some wrangling/flexing of muscle between the parties involved here.

    3.It looks as though they are trying to create an entire website experience in the app – not just live timing screens. Maybe in the coming months they will be able to achieve it, but from my perspective it looks a fair way off.

    4. I can accept if the app has some teething problems, but the fact that Massa & Kobayashi were placed in 9th & 10th place at various points during the race is unforgivable. Not once in the Soft Pauer version of the app did I find an error this obvious. The map is a little fiddly, but that’s only because I could only install on my phone and not on my tablet (which is another story altogether).

    5. The price is cheaper, yes. But the timing service is also inferior. Pro rata as far as I can see…

  41. I had no trouble at all and really enjoyed watching the race with all the data from the app live. I have never purchased it before due to the price tag. But at 75% off last years price I jumped at the chance.

  42. Can someone who purchased the Android app guide me how to access the text commentary during a session? I looked around during the Aus GP but couldn’t find it.

  43. @keithcollantine I work in IT and while I was initially excited at seeing that you reviewed the product, however, I was disappointed, as all you have done is talk about the bugs. Sure you’ve mentioned the features, but I don’t agree with your review of the app. The app does have bugs, however, it did show me lap times all weekend, it showed me positions, albeit one or 2 minor glitches, Massa remaining on screen during the race was annoying, but did I fret, no, because I put logic to it and realised that Massa was out of the race and moved everyone up by 1 position.

    Delivering an IT application is similar in launching an F1 car, you have a finite release date, and all going well, you’ll achieve it, but look at RBR at the start of the year, something like the Renault powertrain not being ready has put them on the back foot. Knowing all the politics and the way that the FIA deals with IT over the years is clear, no clearly defined scope, suppliers chosen as late as possible and I’m guessing that there is a fair amount of wining and dining which helps lubricate a vendor selection process. The app “promises” lots of features, and sure its not up to scratch, but is it useless, or less than an average score of 3 out of 5? I do not think so, it shows laptimes and additional information and is better than not having that information at hand.

    1. @dragoll

      but is it useless

      For me, yes, it was. And all the features in the world are little use if you can’t use them.

      1. @keithcollantine

        For me, yes, it was. And all the features in the world are little use if you can’t use them.

        Each to their own, although, having live timing in its current form vs not having at all, suggests that the app isn’t useless. I’ll be using it this weekend, and no doubt you will too.

      2. it was worse than useless for me. Despite being a loyal customer since 2010 I am unable to even download the app as it is unavailable in the Philippines. Why? No reason given, and no answers despite repeated messages on their twitter…

  44. But you have to admit this app costs far more than the average app…

  45. And the pay-for version is not available for Windows (Mobile, 8.1 Desktop or Web).

    That is sucky…

    But luckily I’ve worked out how to run the Android version on Windows tablet PC using Bluestacks Android emulator

    1. *for Windows (Mobile,

      In case u didn’t know: Windows Mobile has been dead for several years now.
      There is Windows PHONE, thats new and alive and kicking ;);)

  46. I’m using an old app called F1 Live Stream. It’s from 2012, but still works fine.

  47. Living in GMT -5 means that live timing is pointless for me, since I rarely catch races live; the only ones I have a chance of catching live are the Canadian, American, and Brazilian GPs; most are either too late or too early for me to see live.

    It’s a shame they removed the live timing from the Formula 1 website, since there were plenty of practice/qualifying sessions I followed live on the website along with live Twitter feeds when I was unable to catch those sessions…

    1. I think you guys have missed that you don’t need to watch the race LIVE – the paid app allows you to download ANY session from any previous race and watch it whenever you watch that session. All you do is press the down arrow at the top of the first screen, scroll to the race you want, and press the download icon next to the session you want. It then downloads the whole session and you get it “live” – I assume this even includes team radio.

      Pretty neat idea – shame that the app comes with NO INSTRUCTIONS on this!

  48. Great review, Keith – thanks for highlighting how shoddy this app is – currently.

    I am also really disappointed with the lack of technical support anywhere – the App Store link to support simply re-directs to the F1.com website, with no mention of support.

    When the app was supported by Soft Pauer, the app’s Twitter feed was super-responsive and super-friendly. No response at all now, even though it’s the same account.

  49. Keith – maybe you could mention in the review that it is also not available worldwide. In the Philippines I am still unable to access it. So much for creating a global fan base.

  50. Wondering if it is worth installing if it only a half points race ;-)

  51. Where can you access radio transmisions in the android app?

  52. Piece of junk! Takes me at least half a session just to get connected. And then, no sector times? Just coloured dots? It’s getting less and less of an incentive to get up in the early morning to watch and follow the races. Maybe I’ll be better off to sleep in and watch the “encore” broadcast. F1 is losing this fan in a big hurry.

  53. Brian Reynolds
    30th March 2014, 14:10

    I logged in via IE on windows as usual. Shock horror – No timings – time between positions nothing. Number of stops for tyres, critical to knowing where they really stand, gone. To cap it all the timing stopped updating and only a reboot of the browser caused a refresh and even that was 1 to 2 laps behind Sky reality. The web timing was always a lap ahead of sky before. So sad nothing working properly and no incentive to put it on my phone, too small anyway; and no option on windows to have a better product. The cars might be state of art but in their rush to get cash from the followers they are found wanting. Sad little me in charge of a great sport.

  54. And decimating the free version means there’s no way to keep up when using Windows, since the app isn’t developed for everything that it should be. Own goal there…

  55. Bernie has excelled himself this time.
    When, worldwide, F1 fans are leaving in droves he tries to be greedy by taking away the free live timing (maybe he needs the money for legal fees). Wouldn’t mind paying if a full PC version was available and there had been some honesty in making this change (by way of adequate notice).
    Simply not impressed by all of this! Taken together with the farce that makes up the 2014 season and I think I shall vote with my feet.
    F1 fanatic? Used to be!

  56. Id be happy to pay for the app as well as have access on my pc. Take a look at what the usa sports do for their fans. Heck I can watch live anywhere on any device for a decent price, and not bother with animated graphics. F1 have no clue. For a sport that is supposed to be steps ahead in technology, they have no idea how to service their fanbase. I cant be bothered anymore… if i feel like watchng i will… if i want to use an app or f1.com i might… but not really bothered if i dont… will read about it in the paper next morning… is this really how you want F1 to be seen (or not)

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