F1 returns to China this weekend – here’s how to watch live

If the Australian Grand Prix was a reality check for Max Verstappen and Red Bull, both emphatically returned to form in Japan.

A Red Bull one-two at Suzuka extended the team’s lead in the Constructors’ Championship and moved Sergio Perez into second place in the Drivers’ Standings behind Max Verstappen.

Will the dominance continue at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix. Covid lockdowns and subsequent restrictions means F1 hasn’t been to Shanghai since 2019, so it’s more unpredictable than most races.

Here’s how to watch live from the UK, US or elsewhere, including the first sprint event of 2024.

When is the next F1 race?

The Chinese Grand Prix takes place this weekend. Here’s when the main race begins:

• 21 April, 3pm local time – 8am BST, 3am EDT, 12am PDT

When is the next F1 qualifying?

Before that, there’s qualifying. Here’s what that gets underway:

• 20 April, 3pm local time – 8am BST, 3am EDT, 12am PDT

When is the next F1 Sprint?

The first Sprint race of the year takes place in China. Here are the key start times you need to know:

• Sprint Shootout qualifying – 19 April, 3.30pm local time – 8.30am BST, 3.30am EDT, 12.30am PDT
• Sprint race – 20 April, 11am local time – 4am BST, 1am EDT, 10pm 19 April PDT

How to watch every F1 race for free in the UK

• Sky showing every race live
• Extended qualifying, plus highlights on Channel 4 shown a few hours after the race
• Channel 4 only has British GP live

F1 is fast becoming a pay-to-watch sport. But there are ways to watch without paying, especially if you’re happy to watch highlights later in the day.

Sky still has the exclusive rights to show live races in the UK (as well as Italy and Germany), meaning the only coverage on free-to-air TV in the UK will be available on Channel 4. The British Grand Prix is the only race of the season that’s broadcast live on Channel 4 each season.

Channel 4’s streaming service – known simply as ‘Channel 4’ – allows you to watch live from wherever you are. , but it can take a while for the highlights to appear there if you don’t catch them as they’re being broadcast. The highlights show usually lasts more than two hours and is allowed to cover 70% of the action.

You can watch Channel 4 on your TV, of course, but you can also watch using the All 4 app on your phone or tablet (but not live), or in a web browser via the website. See the full range of options on the Channel 4 website.

The other way to watch for free – especially if you want to watch races live – is to use a VPN and stream them from broadcasters in other countries which show races on free-to-air channels (but not necessarily with English commentary). 

Remember, if you watch any live TV in the UK, you’ll need a TV Licence. This currently costs £159 per year.

How to watch F1 races on Sky Sports

If you’re happy to pay a subscription fee so you can watch entire races live, then Sky is the only official option in the UK.

Races are now broadcast in 4K HDR, though you’ll need a Sky Glass TV, or a Sky Q box that’s capable of sending the 4K HDR signal to your compatible TV. That means one which supports the HLG type of HDR, because that’s what Sky uses. You’ll also need the appropriate Ultra HD add-on for your Sky TV package. 

Since March 2023, the relevant channel is known as ‘Sky Sports F1 UHD’, reflecting the fact it now supports 4K HDR as standard.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to only get Sky Sports F1 – you’ll have to combine it with all the other Sky Sports channels. This currently costs £20 extra per month on top of an existing Sky Entertainment and Netflix plan – the cheapest combined plan is currently £43 per month on an initial 18-month contract.

If you don’t want to pay for Sky TV (maybe because you only want F1) then there is an alternative: you can subscribe via Sky’s streaming service, Now (formerly Now TV). That’s available on your phone, tablet, games consoles, via a web browser and also via an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Chromecast, Roku device and others.

It usually costs £34.99 per month for the Sky Sports Pass, but an offer at the time of writing reduces the price to £26.99 for the first six months.

That includes a month of free Now Boost which adds 1080p video (instead of 720p), allows simultaneous streaming on up to 3 devices (rather than just one) and removes ads. After that, it costs £6 extra per month.

For the first time in 2024, a Now Sports subscription includes ‘Bonus Stream’ features, which were previously exclusive to Sky TV customers:

• Go onboard with any driver
• Hear audio from onboard cameras
• Hear full team radio
• View real-time timing screen
• View live track map
• Access the Sky Sports ‘Battle Channel’

BT broadband customers can also get Sky Sports channels as part of a Now add-on for their EE TV (formerly BT TV) package.

F1 owners Liberty Media operate an online streaming service known as F1 TV Pro, but it isn’t available in the UK due to Sky’s exclusive. However, there is a workaround, as we’ll explain below.

How to watch F1 races on ESPN

In the US, ESPN is the only official F1 broadcaster. To access it, you’ll need to pay for a subscription. While it is available via cable TV, it’s much easier to pay for it on its own.

Paying $10.99 for a month’s access makes most sense, but $109.99 gets you the channel for a full year. ESPN+ is also the place to watch many American football, hockey, golf and basketball matches, plus several top European football (soccer) leagues.

You can sign up now via the ESPN website.

How to watch F1 races on F1 TV Pro

In case you didn’t know, F1 TV Pro is the official streaming service of Formula 1, but you can’t subscribe in the UK because of Sky’s exclusive deal for live races.

F1 TV Pro is only available in the likes of the Netherlands, Canada and the US. It costs $84.99 per year or $10.99 per month in the US, and you can access any onboard camera or team radio whenever you’d like.

That extends to helmet cameras, which broadcast live footage from 6-8 drivers each race weekend. Sky have access to these, but you can only choose which to watch via F1 TV Pro.

But in the UK, the exclusive deal with Sky means you can only officially get a live timing service for £19.99 per year or £2.29 per month. Liberty Media, which runs F1, has previously said that using a VPN to access it will result in your subscription being terminated with no refund.

However, we know from first-hand experience that you can successfully watch the service in the UK via Surfshark.

After you sign up, simply install the Surfshark app on the device you’d like to use for F1 TV Pro, then connect to any server based in the US.

Once connected, head to the Formula 1 website on a browser where you have Apple Pay or Google Pay details saved (usually Safari or Chrome) and click ‘Subscribe Now’ under F1 TV Pro.

Create an account if you haven’t already, then click the ‘name on card’ field and let Apple or Google Pay autofill all the details for you. Click the box to agree to all the terms and conditions, then click ‘Complete Order’ to finish.

However, despite this method working in the past, there’s no guarantee it will now. The risk of losing your subscription with no refund will always be there, so only go ahead with this if you’re willing to accept the consequences.

How to watch F1 online with a VPN

If you’re not in the same country as the TV broadcaster, you won’t be able to watch F1 online without a VPN. For example, you can’t watch using the Sky Go or Now apps from outside the UK, or access the Channel 4 catch-up service.

However, there is another way – using a virtual private network, or VPN. A VPN makes it appear that you’re located in the same country as the broadcaster when you connect to a server in the appropriate country.

We’re using NordVPN for the purposes of this tutorial, but there are plenty of great alternatives in our best VPN round-up.

Is there a way to watch F1 races live for free?

Officially, no. But there is a way. In 2024, F1 will be shown on free-to-air channels ServusTV and ORF in Austria, plus Belgian channel RTBF.

You’ll need a VPN (see above) to watch these channels outside of those countries, so connect to the appropriate country – Austria or Belgium – and then head to their respective websites and figure out how to navigate to the right channel and you’ll be ale to watch the live stream.

Obviously, unless you speak the relevant languages, the commentary won’t be at all useful, but the good news is that you can listen to English commentary by tuning into BBC Radio 5 Live. You don’t need an actual radio of course: you can also listen via the BBC Sounds app or on the BBC website – a free account is all that’s required.

We’ve also been informed by a Tech Advisor reader that F1 is shown free to air on an Arabic satellite channels MBC Action and MBC Persia service. They’re available on a number of satellites at varying frequencies, but require a very good satellite installation and setup to pick up the signals. 

Full F1 calendar 2024

Round	Race date	GP	Circuit
1	2 March	Bahrain	Bahrain International Circuit
2	9 March	Saudi Arabia	Jeddah Corniche Circuit
3	24 March	Australia	Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit
4	7 April	Japan	Suzuka Circuit
5	21 April	China	Shanghai International Circuit
6	5 May	Miami	Miami International Autodrome
7	19 May	Emilia Romagna	Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari
8	26 May	Monaco	Circuit de Monaco
9	9 June	Canada	Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
10	23 June	Spain	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
11	30 June	Austria	Red Bull Ring
12	7 July	Great Britain	Silverstone Circuit
13	21 July	Hungary	Hungaroring
14	28 July	Belgium	Spa-Francorchamps
15	25 August	Netherlands	Circuit Zandvoort
16	1 September	Italy	Autodromo Nazionale Monza
17	15 September	Azerbaijan	Baku City Circuit
18	22 September	Singapore	Marina Bay Street Circuit
19	20 October	United States	Circuit of the Americas
20	27 October	Mexico	Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez
21	3 November	Brazil	Autódromo José Carlos Pace
22	24 November	Las Vegas	Las Vegas Street Circuit
23	1 December	Qatar	Losail Circuit
24	8 December	Abu Dhabi	Yas Marina Circuit

Sprint races in 2024

The format will be run at six races this season:

• Round 5 – China
• Round 6 – Miami
• Round 11 – Austria
• Round 19 – United States
• Round 21 – Brazil
• Round 23 – Qatar

There’s been a slight change to the format of Sprint weekends for 2024. After one free practice session, the Sprint Shootout will take place on a Friday, determining the order for Saturday’s Sprint.

That will take place first on a Saturday, before qualifying for the main race follows. During Sprint weekends, the race itself will still take place on a Sunday.

The actual Sprint sessions are unchanged.

The Sprint Shootout delivers a quick-fire version of the usual three-session qualifying. The slowest five cars will be eliminated from Q1 (12 minutes) and Q2 (10 minutes), but the medium tire will be mandatory. In the eight-minute Q3 session, everyone must be on the soft tyre.

Once this grid is determined, the sprint race will take place over 100km. Points will be awarded to the top eight finishers, from 8 for the winner to one point for P8.

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