“App” has become the new mot du jour in F1. Ever since the good folk at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi sent all us journos an iPod touch with their media kit on it, we’ve been downloading Apps from the iStore like crazy.
Current favourites are the Mr T App called “iPity” (Genius!) which selects random BA Baracus quotes, the lightsaber App that allows every grown up child to pretend they’re really a Jedi, and, my personal favourite, a Guitar App that allows you to strum away on the flights to the races. It is mega.
But finally, an App that may actually be genuinely useful has arrived on the market, rather than just useful in the sense of taking up time and making me laugh.
It’s an official F1 Timing App. And it’s awesome!
I was given a sneak peek of the technology in Monaco by former BAR Operations Director, ex Vice President of Honda Motorsport, and genuinely all round good chap, Otmar Szafnauer, whose brilliant idea this App was. He got the rights to use the F1 logo and all the official timing from Bernie, got the right peoplearound him and voila, here we are.
It’s not just like the live timing like you get on F1.com. It’s way better. It’s circuit maps, driver and team details and, the coolest bit of all, a 3D map of the circuit with coloured dots that represent every F1 driver, circulating the track exactly as they are in the race. That’s right, it is realtime. Want to know where Hamilton’s come out of the pits in the race and the TV’s missed it? No worries, just watch the App and you’ll see exactly where he is. Zoom in and out, google earth style, and watch the race unfold in realtime before your very eyes.
Available for iPod touch and iPhone, this is one App you really have to get your hands on.
Its a couple of quid per race, and, I think, a very worthwhile investment.
Just click HERE to open the istore and download!
Go on, what are you waiting for?
The Buxton Blog 
wow. that is rather fantastic.
what does “couple of quid per race” mean? is that extra to paying for the app?
I believe a new version has to be downloaded for each race… so the download at present is for Silverstone, and then you’ll be able to download the one for Hockenheim.
The technology is such that in order to get the realtime working and the graphics for each circuit downloaded, a single App covering every track would be too heavy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens in the future, but for now it’s race per race.
[…] Sidepodcast, there wasn’t much to tie the new iPhone back to Formula 1. That was until I read Will Buxton’s blog post this […]
[…] C got quite excited about the mention of an F1 app in Will Buxton’s blog, and wrote an entire post about it. Is it so, can it possibly be, that Bernie is starting to […]
yikes!
hmm, they may have told you that, but myst is currently available from the app store and that weighs in at a whopping 727MB.
the f1 app starts at 9MB and after downloading everything from turkey and a little from monaco, it doesn’t appear to have made the slightest difference to my available disk space.
I believe that’s the case… but I’m not 100% certain. It’s a pretty funky App either way, but catch your drift that at a fiver a weekend, it may price itself out.
Will, you’re 100% right! I really like F1 and I’m crazy about it but CHF 9.- a weekend is defentetly too much.
Apparently when OS 3 is out next week you will be able to buy a season pass for £14.99, so around £1.50 per race weekend.
I have purchased British GP already as it gives much more than I get on the tele, and thereafter will certainly purchase the season pass for £1.50 per weekend.
I love this app, the best I have seen.
My fellow on Facebook shared this link with me and I’m not dissapointed that I came to your blog.
p.s. Year One is already on the Internet and you can watch it for free.