The 2025 F1 calendar is packed to capacity as last year’s was. Next month the teams will embark on a 24-round campaign featuring a total of 30 races.
On paper, the prospects for a competitive season appear much better than they did 12 months ago. Last year ended with four different teams vying for victory, and no driver took consecutive wins over the final 15 grands prix.With little change in the technical regulations during the off-season, there’s plenty of cause to be optimistic that the new season will see a close fight for the title, as Max Verstappen’s rivals strive to stop him taking his fifth in a row.
But F1’s groaning schedule increasingly appears to be turning off some fans. The new season covers 10 months and features three sets of events on three consecutive weekends.
The FIA published the starting times for all of this year’s F1 race sessions and once again many take place at inconvenient times for those not moving with the paddock from track to track. This is an insoluble problem for F1, as the new time for this year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix indicates: The earlier time is more favourable for viewers in the USA, less so for those in Europe.
Is the inconvenience of a few early starts – or many, depending where you live – worth it to know you won’t miss a moment of the new season? Will you catch up on highlights if you can’t watch a race live? Or is F1’s schedule now so stuffed that organising almost half the weekends in a year around it is too much of a burden?
You say
How much F1 do you plan to watch in 2025? Cast your votes below and have your say in the comments:
Grands prix
How many grands prix do you intend to watch in 2025 (live or highlights)?
- All 24 (75%)
- 17-23 (19%)
- 9-16 (5%)
- 1-8 (2%)
- None (0%)
Total Voters: 220
Loading ...Sprint races
How many sprint races do you intend to watch in 2025 (live or highlights)?
- All 6 (62%)
- 5 (1%)
- 4 (3%)
- 3 (9%)
- 2 (5%)
- 1 (0%)
- None (20%)
Total Voters: 217
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macaque (@macaque)
9th February 2025, 8:54
Why wouldn’t we watch the highlights at least? That takes 10 minutes at most.
As far as watching races, F1TV Pro or whatever is called now is great for watching either the whole race later in the day, or watching the “Race in 30 minutes* if you don’t have time for the whole race or want to watch more than the 10 minutes on YouTube. Anyway, if I can’t watch live I do try to avoid any spoilers until I can watch.
David BR
9th February 2025, 12:34
@macaque I tend to watch entire races, even if they’re in the background. I like following Formula 1 races as they unfold in real time (live or not). Whenever I watch a race highlights or in 30 minutes video, I feel kind of disconnected. The whole point of Formula 1 for me is that it’s a global sport and takes you to places around the world – part of the reason I dislike too many races in the same country (hello USA) or more than one night time race – I associate Singapore with the latter, but add more and they tend to blur together. Maybe just me.
BasCB (@bascb)
9th February 2025, 12:47
To me F1TV helps a LOT – Sometimes I watch live, sometimes I watch at a more convenient time (sometimes sharing the feed with by brother and watching together). I can always just jump forward, if I feel nothing is happening – or during periods of waiting for the track to dry, accidents to be cleared away etc. It’s possible that I will watch a few races “highlights only” if I miss a whole weekend and don’t find the time, before I stumble upon the race result (that often makes me less inclined to watch the whole race).
As for sprint races, I guess I will be seeing several of them, but I really have little interest in them, it will be more of a “oh, why not” thing. I might watch highlights from them, 5-7 minutes tends to be enough to capture everything interesting happening during them.
David BR (@david-br)
9th February 2025, 15:27
@bascb I subscribe to F1TV too, the comment wasn’t meant to downplay the channel. I can access it relatively cheaply from where I live without having to subsidize some Murdoch-owned outlet and it’s definitely convenient, I’ll sometimes start watching 20 minutes later than the race start, or several hours later if the time zone is totally out (e.g. Japan) when in the past I’d have to watch at something like 3 in the morning…
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th February 2025, 19:27
@macaque Channel 4’s highlights programs can be up to 2 1/2 hours (to fit in prime-time ads) and not everyone (at least, not everyone in the UK) can guarantee enough bandwidth availability to watch YouTube videos (even 10-minute ones).
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th February 2025, 19:28
Also, not everyone counts the YouTube highlights videos as highlights because they are relatively brief.
Riccard
9th February 2025, 8:58
I’ll probably watch about 20 of the 30 races. If I don’t have plans, or my plans are in a different part of the day, why not watch?
If the races are close and there’s interest up and down the grid like last season, I’ll watch closely; if not, it might be on in the background
But at the end of the day, I’m a fan. I enjoy the races, figuring out who’s fast and who’s on the rise, watching strategies unfold, following the stories of the midfield drivers… and seeing supreme skill at the front.
I won’t put off plans to watch the races, but where plans permit, I’ll be there.
Kurik
9th February 2025, 11:15
Yeah, that’s pretty much me as well. I will watch the highlights and avoid spoilers where I can but 24 of pure dedication is not for me. Can probably push 18 as I normally do but we will see. Processional races like Monaco will be missed but will watch qually for it for instance.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th February 2025, 1:49
Yes, no reason to put off plans to watch races, simply cause can watch races back a few hours later, even without f1 tv, so it’s a matter of doing stuff you can only do at a specific moment vs stuff you can do at any time.
Riccard
9th February 2025, 9:01
As for full races vs sprint races – the sprints are enjoyable to watch for me. You get all the drama of the start, which is always the most exciting bit; then you see drivers actually pushing and desperate for overtakes, which isn’t a common in full races; and they’re just long enough that some drivers wreck their tyres anyway and become vulnerable.
You don’t get pit stops and strategies to the same extent, but everything else from a full races is there, and often better.
Plus the added intrigue that the drivers haven’t fully dialled in their setups, and someone unusual might have a page advantage 🏎️
Craig
9th February 2025, 9:11
Sprints remain a waste of time, why anyone’s trying to hold them up as equal to full races is beyond me.
S Arkazam
9th February 2025, 15:14
I’ve never heard anybody say they are “equal to full races”!
I’ve heard a lot of people complaining about them and vowing to never watch them, to then enter the discussion on the action on track during the event.
Craig
9th February 2025, 23:20
The title does say “30 races”, which implies they can be mentioned in the same sentence together. Sprints offer nothing and the fact they have to be justified with “it’s better then practice” (which I’d argue they’re not) says more then enough for their ‘worth’.
I don’t watch them, but being a follower of F1 it’s not exactly possible to avoid hearing what happened in them so you might as well look up some highlights to see what people are worked up about.
Craigslist
10th February 2025, 0:24
I have some shocking news, Craig. YOU ALSO mentioned sprints and ‘full races’ in the same sentence! Perhaps you’re a closet sprint-lover and you will now be excommunicated from F1 for your heresy.
Or perhaps it’s just really natural to talk about the various F1 races as different-but-similar things, and it’s not that big a deal after all.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
10th February 2025, 0:43
Come on. How tenuous is that. Nothing is implied other than the existence of 30 races. And given the fact that the very article to which this is a title, separates the sprint poll from the grand prix poll surely “implies” they should not be treated equally.
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
9th February 2025, 9:27
I’d watch all of the sprint races but they often catch me by surprise and I miss them.
I’m not a big fan of them per se but, hey, it’s good to watch F1 cars racing.
Jungle
9th February 2025, 22:00
I don’t mind the sprint races but i do find that they mix up the whole race meet a bit much. Prefer the 3 practice sessions to see how they dial in the cars for each circuit… and then watch it all unfold for qualifying and the race.
Ding Dong
9th February 2025, 9:27
It’s not the hardcore fans (I.e. folk inhabiting F1 websites) that should be asked, but the more casual fans.
I used to watch 90% of races a few years back on terrestrial tv. But now since it went to highlights only and some of those are on at inconvenient times plus there are so many more races I’m probably watching fewer than half now
I wouldn’t even count the sprint as a race, think I saw most of one sprint last year because it just happened to be on while we were eating dinner and there was nothing else on.
The ever expanding F1 Calendar is a good lesson in the concept of ‘less is more’. The viewing experience is being watered down from an event to be anticipated, analysed and savoured every few weeks to simply another weekly chore like doing the hoovering or taking out the bins.
Picasso 1.9D FTW (@picasso-19d-ftw)
9th February 2025, 18:50
Yeah this is me too. I used to watch the full live race without fail, whatever time of day. Since we get highlights only on free to air, the engagement is slashed. Half the reason I still watch as often as I do is because I taught my daughter to love F1 years ago and I can lean on her enthusiasm!
Red Andy (@red-andy)
10th February 2025, 6:58
Cumulatively though, the numbers continue to rise, even if some people aren’t watching all the races anymore, the overall numbers are still getting bigger. If there is an oversaturation point, it hasn’t been reached yet.
Really the argument about oversaturation at the moment is, “I don’t want to watch any more F1 races, so no one else should be allowed to either.” It’s a fundamentally selfish argument.
AndrewT (@andrewt)
9th February 2025, 9:37
Strangely enough, for me one of the highlights of last season proved to be the Austin sprint race, yet I still don’t see it justified to call 2025 a 30-race season. For me sprints are just sessions of a weekend, with not much more watching-value than a free practice. But to answer the question, I’ll try watch as many Sunday races and regular qualifications as possible, but it won’t be a tragedy if I miss the sprints.
MarcusAurelius (@marcusaurelius)
9th February 2025, 9:41
Strange poll. I’ve watched all races I could see since 1973. I only skipped the 1994 Monaco Grand Prix after Ratzenberger and Senna’s death at the previous race and Wendlinger in a coma after a practice crash. I was so done with F1 then…
Wer
9th February 2025, 23:06
I happen to have recently watched the 1994 GP and was amazed at how much action there was and how intense the Schumacher/Hill and Benetton/Williams rivalry was that season. Either I had forgotten or the contrast to modern – rather boring – times amplified the experience.
As opposed to you, Senna’s death made me a dilligent F1 fan, as it made me realise how fragile all the best things in life are.
El Pollo Loco
9th February 2025, 9:42
I will only watch the Las Vegas GP’s ultra cool car ride to the podium nightclub. So, roughly 5 mins of peak entertainment.
It’s a 24 GP calendar, but calling it a 30 race calendar makes for a good headline…
Dan_the_McLaren_fan (@dan_the_mclaren_fan)
9th February 2025, 9:51
I’d still watch everything, but probably the highlights more often.
Nowadays, I watch most races on replay anyway.
Jere (@jerejj)
9th February 2025, 10:07
All for both & live, so my approach remains & will remain unchanged.
i luv chicken
9th February 2025, 17:02
Every single minute of coverage on a race weekend. If for some reason I am away at a local race, I will record and watch after returning home, even if it’s late at night. And I make sure to not discuss the race with anyone at the track, and everyone in my circle knows that the same applies. Yes, I have no life. Been doing it since before North American tv coverage, straining to hear Allan Brinton’s late night race report, from the track, on radio, and then waiting for the mailman to deliver my airmail copy of Autosport, a week after the event. Just to ensure that all the technical areas were covered, a daily check to see it my Motoring News had been delivered, was in order. The delays were the downside of living in Canada, while F1 was centred in Europe.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
9th February 2025, 10:23
I can’t vote as I don’t actually watch, I just listen to the radio coverage while keeping an eye on the timing screen and some websites.
However, I do follow the entire weekend from first practice onwards.
So I probably give up more time than a lot of viewers.
If it has been a particularly eventful race then I may watch the highlights though.
El Pollo Loco
9th February 2025, 14:30
Why don’t you watch?
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
9th February 2025, 14:53
Eye issues.
Rapidly changing images (so basically all sports) soon gets painful for me.
S Arkazam
9th February 2025, 15:31
Sorry to hear that.
You didn’t ask for help/solution, but I’ll give some suggestions anyway.
If you connect a 2nd display to your device (especially laptop/pc) then you can often reduce frame-rate. Thus if reducing the refresh rate to 1fps or less, then it will become a serious of images rather than a video.
It might work, or simply ignore.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
9th February 2025, 15:46
Thank you for the help ;)
It’s not so much the frame rate as the rapid switching of views.
Switching from Helmet Cam – to
heli-cam – to
shot of celebrity – to
pit crew – to
screen full of data – to …….. well, you get the idea ;)
David BR (@david-br)
9th February 2025, 16:11
@nullapax It doesn’t make me feel disoriented, but the rapid switching of views is off-putting, one of the reasons I dislike the highlights videos. Or indeed a lot of ‘younger generation’ YouTube content – by which I mean stuff my teenage kids watch. It’s an edit every two seconds, at most, like a compulsive lack of attention to anything (e.g. Mr Beast) and you’re forced to refocus instead of having time to decide for yourself what you want to focus your brain on. Essentially, brainwashing I guess.
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 2:24
Second that. That’s a huge bummer. Another thing I’ll remember not to take for granted.
stefano (@alfa145)
12th February 2025, 1:10
ever considered following single drivers in a race? Sky gives you the option to just get the onboard of a driver of your choice IIRC. It’s a different experience from the usual grand prix coverage, but more immersive in a way
asz
9th February 2025, 10:30
Recording the whole broadcast is an obvious alternative to getting up early for the live race or only watching highlights.
A grand prix that ran at 3 AM is still perfectly enjoyable to watch at 9 AM.
El Pollo Loco
9th February 2025, 14:33
Never understood complaints about the start time. What difference does it make what time you watch it as long as you don’t know the outcome and it’s pretty easy to avoid that, unless you’re waiting days. I know there’s an added element of excitement if it’s truly live, but it’s a very small margin.
Zach (@zakspeedf1team)
9th February 2025, 10:40
I’ll watch the opening round, and then take it from there, seeing how I feel. I’ll probably watch most if not all of the highlights though. Sprint races very likely I’ll give a miss, but we’ll see.
Jonathan Parkin
9th February 2025, 11:16
I remember when F1 seasons were 16/17 races and I would be excited for an upcoming season.
Now when I see a list of 24 races, I just feel exhausted
Daniel
9th February 2025, 12:17
Not paying for the overpriced sky packages and too lazy to illegally stream it.
F1 isn’t what it used to be and 30 races is just way too much.
20 races and no sprints IS the ideal season.
Especially when we get seasons like 2011 2013 2014 2016 and 2023 where there’s 1-2 winners and even less championship contenders.
Sam
10th February 2025, 8:28
This 100%.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
9th February 2025, 11:23
No sprints. Like Formula E I’ve tried to watch and like them but they do nothing for me.
There are several events now that are a race too far and I’ll just read a race report later. Dreadful venues, races taking place for the wrong reasons or a load of tedious DRS / tyre management / stewards / track limits instead of a race.
Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Vegas, Miami, China, Jeddah, Mexico.
Shimks (@shimks)
9th February 2025, 11:47
All of it. Plus all of F2 and F3.
bsanderson (@bsanderson)
9th February 2025, 12:30
I’ve seen every race since the late 80’s and don’t plan to stop now
I luv chicken
9th February 2025, 17:12
It’s taken decades for my friends and family to understand that on F1 race weekends, they don’t talk tome, they don’t phone me, they don’t prepare errands, they don’t dar interrupt my viewing, and heaven forbid, spill the results, when for some reason my viewing has been delayed.
Jungle
9th February 2025, 22:14
Salute
Constantijn Blondel
9th February 2025, 12:47
I’ll wait until Drive to Survive comes out in early 2026 and watch everything with s sufficient amount of salt on my popcorn ;)
Neil (@neilosjames)
9th February 2025, 12:47
Going into it with the intention to watch all the grands prix and all the main qualifying sessions, as I always do.
That’s more than enough time commitment for me, especially with the number of races we have now. So while I’ll probably watch some sprints as well if I’m not doing anything, I’ll stick with ‘intending’ to not watch any.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
9th February 2025, 12:47
All the real races. What Sundays are all about. Sprint races not for me though. I’ve selected none out of protest for detesting them but sure I’ll catch the odd one when family in bed.
LosD (@losd)
9th February 2025, 12:52
Wow, 24 comments in, and no one has proclaimed what “real fans” wants and likes? Must be some kind of record.
Monosodico (@monosodico)
9th February 2025, 13:22
I have been watching F1 since 1984 and every year I have tried to watch all the races of the season live, even those with difficult schedules for South America such as Malaysia and China. It is a passion and will continue to be so. So why choose only a certain number of races to watch?
Jane (@janedone)
9th February 2025, 13:25
I will watch all, but probably not as closely or intently as MotoGP. Yes I know I’ll get bashed for this but probably in window mode 1/3rd of the screen while I’m browsing the web on the other side. I don’t need to watch double replay of DRS overtakes. MotoGP is when I will watch full screen with full attention.
Leksa (@leksa)
9th February 2025, 13:58
Definitely not going to wake up in the middle of the night for Chinese sprint race. Otherwise, all.
Renee (@renee)
9th February 2025, 14:37
Calling it a 30 race season in the title is a bit click-baity. Technically it is correct, with the 6 sprint races we have 30 race sessions, but calling it like that intentionally insinuates a 30 GP calendar. Which it is not. The sprints are rather pointless as well. Only watch them in fear of missing put on something good or causing a lack of context later in the weekend.
Still watch all races on F1 TV with a delay. Mostly out of convenience, time wise. And to fast forward any rain delays or red flags.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
9th February 2025, 14:49
The grands prix are races and the sprint races are races, one is just longer than the other. FOM has a silly preoccupation with not referring to the sprint races as ‘races’, and has even gone so far as to rebrand Formula 2’s sprint races as ‘sprints’, but we’re not going along with that nonsense.
Besides which, they’ve changed what the various ‘sprint’ sessions are called enough times over the past four years. Remember when were supposed to call them ‘sprint qualifying’?
An Sionnach
9th February 2025, 15:00
The sprints are shorter, but they still seem to be competing with each other to finish in the highest possible position. There should be a single word to describe such a competition..? (!)
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th February 2025, 19:41
Unfortunately they still aren’t independent races. Between the importance of keeping the car intact for the race, and the large amount of information that is given about how Sunday’s race will be done on the Saturday sprint, the sprints end up part of the race; as if there had been a decision to pause the race to give out a bunch of prizes, analyse everything and then go to bed.
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 23:05
It’s very click baity. I’m surprised Keith bothered to respond and defend it. It’s an additional 20 or so laps in a weekend without a tire change. Even if they called then races or GPs, I wouldn’t consider it a 30 race calendar in the truest sense.
An Sionnach
9th February 2025, 14:58
A bit disappointing that nobody voted none of the races. Wonder who’s writing half the comments here, then(!).
MichaelN
9th February 2025, 15:06
As in previous years, I’ll probably listen to the live commentary on the radio while doing other things and then watch the highlights on YouTube. Most of the time, anyway. When the race is on in the morning or evening I’ll skip the radio and go straight to the race highlights – sprint and GP – on YouTube. The highlights tend to be quite good these days, and cover all the notable moments.
Qualifying I’ll probably skip most of. I don’t care for the format and the highlights are unfortunately quite badly edited. They’re basically just a static shot of the finish line with the commentator screaming about a position change. I expect I’ll watch a majority of onboard pole laps, though. Those tend to be posted to YouTube a bit later.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
9th February 2025, 16:10
Last year was the first time since 1994 I didn’t watch every GP live and I plan to do the same this year although instead of watching the full coverage delayed there will be a few races where i’ll only be watching the short Youtube highlights.
With 24 race weekends and a dozen circuits on the calender now that I simply don’t get any enjoyment out of watching (Jeddah, Miami & Las Vegas for instance) I just can no longer be bothered to spend any more time than I need to watching circuits I honestly just can’t stand.
And when it comes to the sprint weekends. I’ll be doing what i’ve been doing since 2022 and not watching any of the Friday or Saturday action during them. I simply don’t like the sprint format & haven’t watched even seen a second of footage from any sprint race beyond 2021 as I refuse to engage with them.
I’ve just got to the point, especially with the expanded calender that I just can’t be bothered to waste my time watch the circuits or elements they tack onto the weekends that I don’t like. And I used to be a fan that consumed every second of coverage i could over a weekend to the point where I spent 4 years with a satellite dish in a bedroom pointing out of the window so I could pick up the German coverage of practice when we didn’t have that in the UK. I don’t speak any Germany so didn’t understand any of it but just wanted to watch as just watching cars lapping circuits was something I loved watching. I still do & it honestly hurts to be skipping as much as I am now but again with as many races as we have, gimmicks like sprint races that i don’t like and a dozen circuits I just don’t enjoy i just can’t be bothered with everything anymore.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
9th February 2025, 16:19
I didn’t specify not the races I didn’t watch live last year were China, Qatar, Las Vegas & Miami. I did however watch the full races delayed a bit later on but as I say for races I skip live this year there will be a few where I just watch short highlights rather than the full coverage.
Thinking back I think the last time I didn’t watch a GP in full & only saw highlights would be Aida 1994.
David BR (@david-br)
9th February 2025, 16:49
@stefmeister Fully understand your take. Turning Formula 1 into a consumer product seems to come with an oversaturation that forces you to limit your intake. The thing is, when you decide you have to be selective, you can end up deciding to follow less than you did previously. I opted for watching ‘all races’ because in principle that’s how I always start a season, keen to see how it all unfolds. But the reality is that I always end up missing some practices, sprints or even GP races as I’ve reached saturation point with either the venue or the season. I don’t think I’ve ever watched the Las Vegas or Miami weekends in full, or Jeddah, possibly just an intrinsic dislike of those venues.
MichaelN
10th February 2025, 9:54
I was in much the same place a couple of years ago. I watched most of the races live, but skipped a few that I didn’t care for and caught up with those on the highlights. I said then that I’d always make time for the Belgian GP and some others, but when an event kept me otherwise occupied during the race at Spa in 2018 it sort of connected the dots that I don’t really need to watch all these races live. I’ve seen hundreds, I get how most play out. The highlights are just fine.
I understand that you miss out on some of the tactical uncertainty that comes with watching live, but that has been so devalued by the frequent interruptions and neutralizations of the races that it’s becoming increasingly rare to have races that can be genuinely described as tactical masterpieces. You mostly get the opposite (like McLaren at Monza and Ferrari at Silverstone last year) or just total flukes that are retroactively hailed as inspired.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
9th February 2025, 16:58
I’ll skip some of the axis of evil races. Certainly Saudi Arabia, perhaps Qatar and Bahrain.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
9th February 2025, 17:08
Well in an ideal world I might say 24 as an intention. But I voted for 17-23. This is much more likely as I usually miss a couple of races each season owing to other commitments.
Sprints I am not bothered about. Might see 1 or 2 but I don’t worry about missing them.
Edvaldo
9th February 2025, 17:54
Not Las Vegas and the Asian races, no matter how interesting the championship is. Might watch it later if it turns out to be an exciting race.
Konstantinos
9th February 2025, 18:10
Ideally all but what I would love is some sort of spoiler free rating system where if a race is super boring, you can check whether you can skip it if you are watching after the fact. Maybe race fans can do this, have a “hey if you miss this one it’s not the end of the world” stamp.
kuvemar
9th February 2025, 18:57
I will watch 30 race sessions and a couple of Q3s.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
9th February 2025, 19:36
I consider the sprints part 1 of the full race, so it’s still a 24-race season as far as I’m concerned.
I’m starting to get problems with some races, ironically because F1’s become more popular. At work, the default screen goes to a news page, and now F1 is popular, the results are sometimes spoilt on there. I also have no access to Sky for Sunday races (nor any method of doing so, even if I wanted it) This means that races that start too late for me to watch before going to bed are dependent on the highlights being uploaded before going to work. I had 2 races spoilered that way last year.
I also missed a sprint because I was required to be somewhere else, and wasn’t free to attempt watching the sprint highlights (which I would have had to do because race qualifying was attached to them).
In all 3 cases, I did eventually see clips on Tumblr (which I don’t count as highlights, even the ones that amount to a race summary). One race was good enough that I bothered to go and find the entire highlights program as broadcast. But I think this sort of issue is going to get more common, with more pressure to race outside Europe and more competing time-sensitive requirements about what I have to do on a weekend other than F1.
I will likely aim for 30 sessions (unless I hear qualifying’s been cancelled for one of the sprint races for a non-safety-related reason), but the probability of that actually happening is low.
mmertens (@mmertens)
9th February 2025, 20:22
Probably I’m a minority, but I watch all sessions (practice, qualy, race) for F1, F2, F3 and Porsche Cup for the full length for all events (also all pre season testing as well). But since I have to somehow live my life , I need to watch it on my spare time, which means I’m usually able to follow the first 2 or 3 rounds almost live but eventually I start getting behind schedule. The downside is that to avoid any race spoiler I need to stay out of any F1 related news sites , etc for the most of the year, but nothing beats watching all sessions as if it were live. Due to the length of the season, I now normally finish the season on mid January which is pretty odd. Normally is this period when I read all news in sites like this but inevitably I miss a lot of good reads and insightful info during the season. During the roughly a month without F1 activity I started to watch all F1 archive 3 or 4 years ago, I started on 1970 and I already reached season 2005 ( currently on wonderful Imola race where Alonso held Schumacher beautifully until the end) and it’s great to see all periods of F1 and remember the events I watched live when I was a kid (from Adelaide 85 onwards). Reading this you can understand that I am a F1 Fanatic (as this site’s original name) and it’s really great to discover how other people watch races. And more interesting to see that I am probably the 0,0001% of viewers that watch everything. And is baffling to see that I can cram all of this whilst indulging in other hobbies as race sims, flight sims, music, guitar playing and of course raising a family and working all along the way. I’m really glad to have the flexibility of streaming nowadays, it makes everything more convenient!
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 23:09
Impressive commitment. You likely know more than 90% of F1 “journalists” with that level of intake. Knowing as much about what’s going on in F2 and F3 as F1 should be required for anyone to call themselves an F1 journalist.
Johns
9th February 2025, 20:48
I ll watch ever practice, every race until the fia does something stupid like ban a driver for swearing or make max strt from the back to improve the show with some silly penalty.
bull mello (@bullmello)
9th February 2025, 22:08
Usually watch all races live, or delayed, depending the times.
If delayed, then I try stay from emails that announce the winner in their email subject. Even Keith at racefans.net did that on one of the races last season. This was a few hours after the race. Please don’t do that @keithcollantine
Gary Taylor
9th February 2025, 23:31
I will try and watch all the grand prix race weekend’s work permitting as i am not a fan of the sprint race’s i find them a waste of time and resource’s…
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
10th February 2025, 0:00
It’s disappointing that watching a highlights reel is considered “watching a race” but I guess that’s what it’s come to in terms of how FOM gauges viewership.
I used to watch all sessions of all races live until the calendar expanded to a point where it was taking way too much of my weekend and I stopped enjoying F1 as I knew it.
These days I select a few based around what used to be, in my opinion, the optimal calendar, around 16 races. As I’ve always stated, I don’t watch any part of any weekend that has a sprint abomination which immediately takes out 6, and then select from the remainder based on spacing between events etc.
The change to later start times has also soured my enjoyment as it pushes most too late into the night for me given my location – watching replays doesn’t do it for me as live sport is live real time for me.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
10th February 2025, 0:54
There could perhaps be a ‘sub poll’ for the sprints asking how many of the (currently) 41% that will not watch every sprint, will nonetheless submit a rating on the Racefans polls for those events they do not watch.
And yes, I am sore about it. I thought this site was for those that loved motor racing in general. I have no issue with interesting debate about elements of the sport that people have a problem with – heck, I wouldn’t necessarily mourn the loss of sprints myself – but I do really dislike people actively undermining polls and conversations merely because they disagree with them.
Then again, perhaps it was unreasonable of me to post this as I am clearly mistaken. After all, it is categorically stated amongst the above comments that “Sprints remain a waste of time”. So I guess there is nothing to debate after all.
BenjaminS (@benihana)
10th February 2025, 2:19
Watching from France I try, again try, to watch all I can including F2 and F3 sessions, but due to Canal+ being the broadcaster has basically stopped F1 TV from being useful. They don’t do any replays on F1 TV in any respect and claim it is because of Tobacco advertising ban in France. I could swallow that if only Canal+ did not have replays for a full week including all Vuze sponsorship fully on display. From that Canal+ does a reasonable job but they do have Jacques Villeneuve or Romains Grojean as color commentators and these colors are not great. I much prefer the English F1TV commentators but with Will leaving it might just be a bit of hole there, but getting to see Sam Collins on You Tube brightens my days.
GmP (@gmp)
10th February 2025, 5:41
Is F1TV (the subscription streaming service) different in different countries? I thought it was the same video everywhere, and you could select which commentating you want. Am I mistaken?
MacLeod (@macleod)
10th February 2025, 8:02
The world feed is SKY then you can select English which is Will Boxton teams and then the other Lang with their teams….
BenjaminS (@benihana)
10th February 2025, 11:19
Yes F1TV is different by region and which broadcaster claims exclusivity. In France F1TV is now not available as a seperate channel but has been incorporated into Canal+ and works very differently from Canal+. I loved F1TV in Canada but the service does not travel as once I was in France all the shows, replays and such stopped being available and even with a VPN I could not get them back.
GmP (@gmp)
10th February 2025, 5:34
I use F1TV for all F1 viewing. Not expensive, a whole year subscription is cheaper than the lowest cost race ticket here in the USA. Or two tanks of gas for my car.
Intent is just as last year to watch all 30 (24+6) races, plus qualifying live and direct, even if that is an inconvenient time (west coast USA). And if FPs are at decent times, I watch those too.
Except the race weekends that I visit. Last two years that was all three USA races, this year so far only Austin. Can’t go to Miami, and Las Vegas still to be decided closer to race date.
Last year this worked, missed only a few FPs, but no race nor qualifying. This year fingers crossed I can do it again.
MacLeod (@macleod)
10th February 2025, 8:04
You drive on LPG who much is an Years subcription? Mine was 64 euro but they increased it to 99 euro’s ….
El Pollo Loco
10th February 2025, 23:11
A lot less. Less than $100 for an entire year. I don’t get people who say watching F1 is expensive. I guess it can be if you order some weird cable package to watch it, but if you get F1TV it is quite inexpensive.
Sam
10th February 2025, 8:27
Probably zero outside of ten minute highlights on youtube. Just not interested enough these days given the length of the season, the number of bad circuits and DRS overtakes. At the same time, I have followed F1 for long enough, immersed myself in its history, to want to follow the rise and fall of different teams and drivers. So I still pay attention.
I’ve watched I think twelve races over the last two years when I used to watch it religiously for well over a decade. I would probably still watch the odd race but I recently cancelled my TV license, so I would need get a new one to dip into it.
Bocky
10th February 2025, 9:42
Of course I’ll watch every race. I haven’t missed a single race since I turned on my tv for French GP 1991: I don’t want to end this nice winning streak 😉
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
10th February 2025, 12:34
Id be as interested as to whether Racefans are attending a race this year. ANyone can turn a telly on but f1 is an expensive sport to attend and not everyone who wants to, can.
stefano (@alfa145)
10th February 2025, 20:11
the fact that I’m going to watch all the races doesn’t mean I don’t think they are too many. The numbers of races and drivers should swap, if you ask me
Jon
10th February 2025, 22:51
Since it’s gone behind pay wall and turbo hybrid , drs ,tyres made bubble gum and car park tracks i have lost interest.
I watch with now TV. I will never pay to watch practicing it’s dull and i am at work Friday. Quallys i am only interested in last 10minutes so that for highlights if I don’t already know results.
As for races.
Is it in middle night. Not paying I have sleep.
As race track been butchered. Examples , Mexico hockeinhiem. Thanks but no
Is race track a dull track. Examples Miami , Saudia Arab. Abu daubi Thanks but No.
Is track offensive to eyes , Paul Ricard. No thanks.
As qually happened in dry and it’s forecast heavy rain. Good chance race won’t happen so no i am not paying.
How long is race. Monza is short blast ideal for high lights so no thanks
Am I doing other stuff . I simply don’t have time or money to watch them all now
As die hard F1 I feel end is near for me. Just one final push and F1 will be think of the past.
O yes. I will definitely be watching le mans this year
drmouse (@drmouse)
14th February 2025, 15:06
I can’t answer this.
It’s unlikely I will watch every race and sprint. Life usually gets in the way. I didn’t used to let it, but I’m not as dedicated as I used to be plus I have other priorities (like a newborn daughter).
But how many I actually watch depends a lot on how the season turns out. If one driver is running away with it, not even challenged by their teammate, I’ll miss more than if there is strong competition and excitement.