Formula One finally adds race videos to YouTube

2015 F1 season

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Formula One Management has reversed its policy of not publishing race footage on video sharing service YouTube.

The world’s most popular website for distributing videos has been established for over ten years and is already widely used by other racing series.

Bernie Ecclestone has long opposed using YouTube to distribute F1 video and as recently as last year stated race highlights would not be made available on the service. However footage from some of last year’s race are now available on the site, such as last year’s season finale:

There is also footage from pre-season testing:

Some drivers are also featured in special season highlights packages:

It remains to be seen how far FOM are now prepared to embrace YouTube. Other series such as NASCAR offer full-length race replays for fans to watch.

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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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32 comments on “Formula One finally adds race videos to YouTube”

  1. It’s a start I guess. Maybe after spending years blocking every video they have found, they might be beginning to realise …. ‘maybe these people want to watch f1 videos?’

    I wanna see full race onboards, all pole laps, etc

    1. @sdtaylor91 I think those kind of videos might involve FOM using their own servers.

      1. Why? YouTube is growing exponentially every day.

        I doubt FOMs entire archive would even account for 0.001% of the total footprint.

  2. Oh, wait. I clearly missed my alarm for qualifying and am still dreaming…

  3. Joined 28 Dec 2005!

    1. Impressive considering Youtube was launched in 2005.

  4. I tried to load Sebs 2014 highlights but there was nothing to view ;)

  5. Who gave Bernie a time machine from 1995 to 2015?

  6. Surely full race replays would be the least they could do now that so few races can be seen free to air. Not being able to watch races live bugs me but I wouldn’t mind being able to catch a full replay. I’d also feel less bad about downloading or streaming from dodgy sources.

    1. @tommy-c
      Indeed, and even if they don’t want to show full race replays of a race right after it is finished, they could at the very least put up the full races of some classics of the past (Nurbugring 1999, Brazil 2003, Suzuka 2006, Hungary 2006, etc…). Races that will attract new fans to the sport, but FOM even take those down.

  7. They are 5 years too late.
    They’ve lost more fans than they could have gotten from Youtube’s casual viewers

  8. They should put the Race-Edits on YouTube , cause they are much more exciting .

  9. To watch the full video, head to http://www.Formula1.com or download the Official F1® App.

    Some are not full length so have to look for them on their website which is a pain when YT is well distributed. I imagine this is to increase ad revenue.

  10. Guys let’s not break this down. It’s a very big step in the good direction.

  11. Bernie has possible seen the millions just watching Mec’s videos which they send out to anyone willing to sign up on F/Book,
    stupid old fart is so far out of touch and so up himself he believes he knows better,
    possibly his Grand kids told him to use YouTube.

  12. to watch F1 here in Belgium i have to pay 16 euro per month extra on top of a cable tv subscription
    i would have to watch every race live or program the recorder thingy they provide to “tape” it for later viewing
    they do not broadcast training sessions
    the provided commentary with the cable channel is very sub par compared to BCC and even worse than SKY.

    If i want to watch MotoGp in Belgium i can subscribe on their website for 100 euro, this gives me every session live with a great and very entertaining and knowledgable commentary team, acces to video archives, interviews with most riders between every session, and i can view it on every computer or device i have, wherever i am.

    i do not understand why F1 does not have an option for fans

    i feel 0 shame in just watching a shady stolen stream for F1, and i pay for motogp the connivence and quality makes that a very easy 100 euro to spend

    1. You can watch F1 for free on the RTBF (La Une et La Deux) but it’s in French. The coverage is crap though. Also, you can grab the BBC for some races.

      Is the Telenet coverage any good?

      1. i can understand french, but it feels like work and is not very entertaining for me as it takes way too much effort, i think RTBF does a decent job though

        bbd does not show all races live, and some races are not on bbc1 or bbc2 (we don’t have 3)

        i really don’t like the telenet coverage, they have many channels where you can watch in car streams and so on, but the commentary is weak and they have no option to watch training. and they want 16 euros a month on top of my cable and digitalTV sub. Money that mainly goes to pay for the football rights they have.

        it’s not impossible to watch f1 in Belgium, it’s even very decent if you are comfortable in french.

        I was just stating the contrast with motoGP, hardly a organisation known for their modern media presence and yet they have every session and full archive of every race ever, available whenever you want on whatever device you like. And with a very good commentary team.

        Many “old fashioned” media industries don’t seem to understand people don’t mind spending money on a convenient and well made product.

  13. IT’S HAPPENING !

  14. It’s good to finally see more of them on Youtube, but I can’t view any of these video’s posted here unless I watch hem on the Youtube website itself.

  15. Did you guys see the “uptade” of their website?
    Not only it’s total rubish but also some important info disappeared – like old race results. Now you can only see 2014 and 2015 and only race, no speedtraps, no practises or qualy.
    Omg this is going the wrong way.

    1. They are probably still updating some stuff.

      1. I hope so ;) However it is unlikely that they would release unfinished website ;)

  16. The race videos are from the Sky commentary, i wonder if it is some sort of collaboration with Sky as well?

    FOCA know that people will be posting videos & clips of races, so they may as well post them themselves.

  17. Since this article went up FOM have changed the settings on their account preventing them from being viewed when embedded on other websites.

  18. Interesting to see Peter Windsor hosting some of the videos.
    Here’s my favorite, hope there was no concussion involved
    https://youtu.be/Sp_YoqhCmAg?t=12s

  19. It’s a start!

  20. Wow I just checked out the Moto GP website and the subscription to the live video feeds they offer. Why does this not make sense for f1? $$??

  21. FOM is in kind of Technology dark ages. Baby Steps I guess !!!

    I paid up yesterday to the F1 Access on the formula1.com Website and then downloaded the Android and iPad App only to realize that there is no login facility for the F1 Access in the App. I need to buy the Access Once again on iPad and Android. As far as the App itself is concerned I guess it is one of the worst App ever made. How hard is it for FOM to make a simple App that just works without breaking ? I can understand the predicament of Honda and Renault PU as they are complex piece of engineering but this one is totally ridiculous !!!!

  22. Erika Sorensen
    14th March 2015, 20:50

    This is great and hopefully within the next few years, we’ll be able to subscribe to “F1+” and stream full coverage and extras like with WRC. That’s the way all video content is going – forget about the free-to-air vs pay broadcasting debate! I want it alongside Netflix on my browser bookmarks and tablet homescreen, and I’ll gladly pay. I’d like to think it’s not necessary for Bernie to pass on and someone who understands what century it is to take his place before this can happen.

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