F1 lands on Apple TV
First the production and distribution of the film with Brad Pitt, which in mid-March will play its cards in the race for the Oscars. Then the news from last October, potentially explosive for the global television market: Apple has exclusively acquired the rights to broadcast F1 live in the United States. Thus, the already very close relationship of the American company with the world of GPs is further consolidated, with the aim of taking the enjoyment of live sport to another level.
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Multiview, the best experience for American fans
All live sessions, highlights, interviews, and insights on the 2026 F1 World Championship will be broadcast on the Apple TV application for subscribers to the service in the USA. There is therefore no new dedicated app but, rather, the specific will of Apple to enclose everything – Formula 1 and other live sporting events, but also films and TV series – in a single container. The American public will then be able to enjoy the maximum possibility of customizing the viewing. Not only thanks to 4K technology, but also and above all with “Multiview”, that is, with the possibility of splitting the screen into a maximum of four portions to choose what to watch between the “classic” images of the international direction, the on-board footage of all 22 cars on the track, the timing monitor, and the live tracker (the circuit with the “dots” that reveal the positioning of the drivers).
A division designed to immerse the viewer in the action, but also facilitated by the pre-set choices of the app: thus, the images of the international direction can be easily flanked by boxes with on-board footage of the top three in the standings (automatically updated in case of position swaps), or directly select a team from the Apple TV “F1” home page and thus enjoy the on-boards of both drivers of that team, always alongside the main television feed. Customization options valid for all devices, whether smartphones, tablets, PCs, web browsers, or smart TVs, which also increase for owners of the Apple Vision Pro virtual reality headset, who can split the field of vision into as many as five portions (one, larger, in the center and two smaller boxes both on the right and on the left).
The agreement with Netflix, between Drive to Survive and live GPs
If the American market is the one that has recorded the highest increase in viewership in recent years – the numbers are still small compared to Europe and such a large growth rate is in some ways physiological – it is also and above all thanks to Drive to Survive: the Netflix docuseries (whose season 8 debuts today) has provided the general public with the basis for understanding the characters and facts that dominate the GP paddock, preparing the ground for the commercial success of the film with Brad Pitt. This is also why Apple has struck a deal with Netflix to distribute Drive to Survive to its US subscribers at no additional cost. In exchange, the Cupertino company will give the streaming giant the opportunity to show the Canadian GP on May 24 live for free – only in the US. It is not excluded that other events may also be granted live for free.
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The tribute to F1 from Apple applications
That’s not all, because the entire Apple galaxy is greeting the start of the first Formula 1 World Championship broadcast live with some special features for its applications. On Apple Sports, for example, live standings functions and alert notifications on the start of sessions are debuting, with the possibility also of integrating widgets with real-time results on the desktop of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac systems. Apple News will feature an entire section dedicated to F1, with news from the main journalistic publications that follow the GPs, while on Apple Music radio, F1 radio commentary and playlists with songs listened to and selected by the drivers before taking to the track arrive for free.
And if there is also news for Apple Podcasts, with the creation of a section dedicated to F1 in which all the main products that talk about the top automotive series are grouped – at the time of writing it is already available in Italy, although not so prominently and with content only in English, in the hope that soon it will also be possible to find FormulaPassion.it podcasts like WarmUp and I Doppiati – there is also a special tribute in Maps. The navigation app installed by default on all Apple devices actually reproduces F1 circuits, with useful details regarding grandstands and corners, but also with the 3D reconstruction of some track structures: in the screenshot above, for example, you can see the Melbourne pit building, complete with a single-seater (unfailingly red) in the pit lane.
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