FOM to end support for F1 Live Timing app next week

2018 F1 season

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Formula 1 will end support for the F1 Live Timing app on December 10th.

“We’ll no longer be updating the app and the information contained will not be up to date,” FOM confirmed on Thursday. The Formula 1 app will not be affected by the change.

FOM introduced the Live Timing app in September following complaints over changes which were made in version 11 of the Formula 1 app. Many fans complained the updated Formula 1 app prevented them from being able to view all 20 drivers at once on the live timing screen, which showed as few as seven drivers on some platforms.

However FOM has indicated it will address users’ concerns about the Formula 1 app before the 2019 F1 season begins.

“We are working hard to make the features you want available inside the Formula 1 app for the start of the new season,” FOM said in a statement.

FOM also confirmed 4.4 million people watched the second season of the official F1 Esports Series during 2018. These include 1.2 million television viewers and 3.2 million on live streams.

“2018 was a pivotal year for our efforts with respect to Formula 1 Esports as it saw the inclusion of the first official teams and built firm foundations for the future success of the series.” said F1’s managing director of commercial operations Sean Bratches. The championship was won by Mercedes’ Brendon Leigh ahead of team mate Daniel Bereznay, which meant the constructors’ champions also won the Esports team championship.

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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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20 comments on “FOM to end support for F1 Live Timing app next week”

  1. I can’t help that worry that this is a retrograde step.
    When live timing disappeared there was outrage, I have little or no confidence that it will be replaced with a comparable data set, that will allow me to commentate in my head when live pictures are unavailable.

    I will not be spending my money on an app that does not meet or exceed what is currently available.

  2. However FOM has indicated it will address users’ concerns about the Formula 1 app before the 2019 F1 season begins.

    Maybe get the functionality fixed and working normally in the Formula 1 app, before decommissioning the live timing app? But hey, what do I know, I’m just a dumb IT professional.

    1. You should know then.. adding new features when things do not work is the best way to create new problems, so the old problems are gone then ;)

      1. “Move fast and break things” – Silly-con Valley’s motto.

        1. @phylyp: Exactly. Like privacy and trust .

      2. Other common thoughts in IT management:

        ‘Load testing, an expensive waste of time’, ‘Testing slows down delivery’, ”Why spend money on testing when you can get paying users to do it for you?'( cough, cough, every new apple IOS ), ‘What would the Ops team know, they’re there to deal with issues’

  3. Formula 1 will end support for the F1 Live Timing app on December 10th

    Live Timing had been the only way I could follow what was happening in a race when I couldn’t afford to watch F1 and when my connection to the internet was too slow for video. I remember there was one race which went well beyond the 2 hour time limit, and so after my local broadcaster had cut the video feed it was Live Timing that I ran to to find out what was happening. That was the race where Michael Schumacher looked like he had one final chance of winning the race. I’m sure Mark Webber was also doing well in that race too. I gleaned that information from Live Timing. Earlier this year my local broadcaster decided I preferred watching Bathurst instead of F1, and again it was Live Timing that I used to keep up with what was happening.
    I can understand that there wasn’t a lot of money in this, so I guess it was inevitable that it would be shut down. I’m sure I’d seen it in the background in some of the shots from inside the garages or on the pitwall during the races. Of course, the teams were using the premium version of Live Timing, which I wasn’t interested in. I guess Liberty Media will find another way to supply the same information to the teams.
    Live Timing gave you an overview of what was happening on the track that the TV people weren’t able to do. It also covered events like the practice sessions even if the local broadcaster didn’t. I’m sure it worked over a 48 kb/s modem as well.
    Undoubtedly it required funding to keep it running, and, today with cheaper broadband and good on track commentary it is inevitable Live Timing would have fallen out of favour. That meant no one could justify the cost to keep it running.
    My thanks to all the people who worked on Live Timing. You helped me to stay involved.

  4. I did tell them it was a waste of time. The only time its useful is at a track and you cant get enough signal to make it work. If you’re at home, its on the telly… well it was… I want to watch a driver on the limit not a pixel doing 1 minute 33s.

    Good riddance, something better comes this way….

    1. And you’re the only person who watches F1, aren’t you?

      I, and many others like me, like having the extra info. We watch the race, but can instantly get to see sector times etc of different drivers, which adds a whole extra layer to the event. “Ooh, Vettel is closing on Hamilton by 4 tenths a lap. He’s way faster in sector 2, but slower in the other 2 sectors, and sector 2 isn’t great for overtaking. I wonder if he’ll manage it?”

      I hope they manage to get decent live timing back into the main F1 app.

      1. i cancelled my subscription this year after the mess they made of the app.
        Only a new app with at least the same options will persuade me to subscribe again.
        So indeed, there are more people who liked this app.

    2. Many of us actually like to supplement our viewing of the race with the timing. Too often things are happening in the race which isn’t shown on the TV feed; with the live timing you can “see” what else is going on in the race.

      You don’t have to use it; but there are thousands (if not millions) of those of us who do.

  5. I must have missed the how to make your product inaccessible, expensive and dumbed down class at university.
    Cancelling my subscription, I have had it with these geniuses.

  6. FOM also confirmed 4.4 million people watched the second season of the official F1 Esports Series

    Would like to see a deep-dive into these numbers. I wonder what they’re counting as a “view,” page loads? One race I watched for 30 seconds had around ~900 viewers.

  7. Almost all other racing series manage to provide comprehensive live timing and quite often a good live stream, sometimes for free, but usually by subscription. (WEC, WSBK, BTCC, BSB and even IOMTT as examples) Many have been doing this for years and there is clearly a lot of experience around and yet F1 – the richest of the rich – manage to cobble together something more akin to a sixth form project and still expect people to pay for it.
    It should have been superb but misses the mark by a long way.

  8. Easy enough to turn back on the hidden live times on the Website btw

    https://mobile.twitter.com/thefalken/status/989864424944144384

  9. Will the live timing still be available through the f1 website?
    I miss the old teletext style timing screen, it’s was simple and more legible.

  10. Few expected Liberty to do worse than Ecclestone, but – here it is.

  11. I suppose what we need to expect is that Liberty will do whats best for Liberty. If that happens to benefit F1 good for us, if not….tough.

  12. Considering how many technical problems F1 TV Pro had this past season, I have very little confidence in any online offering from Liberty.

    Ex.

    – There were an average of 20 random audio commentary dropouts per race replay (lasting from a couple of seconds to a minute or more). When I contacted F1TV support, they tried to blame on “commercial breaks” from Sky TV. I had to go several rounds with them to convince them that the Sky TV feed doesn’t have commercials. After several weeks of this, I finally got a support tech to actually watch a race replay, after which they acknowledged that the problem was on their end and they (mostly) fixed it.

    – Two races had no audio at all for the first the first several minutes.
    – The Abu Dhabi replay, along with the replays of at least 8 or 9 races was broken for at least a week immediately following Abu Dhabi race. I think that if I hadn’t been VERY insistent with tech support (ie. dozens of msgs), that they wouldn’t have bothered to fix it

    There were many more problems. Chase Carey himself characterized the 2018 F1TV Pro offering as a “beta test” – of course we were paying for it. If Liberty has any integrity, they would at least offer a discount for 2019 to all of the 2018 subscribers. Yeah, right….

    1. Yeah, it definitely should’ve been sold at a discount given everyone using it was effectively a BETA tester.

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