If you spent years watching Formula 1 on ESPN and cannot find it this season, nothing is wrong with your cable package. The races moved.
From 2026, Apple holds exclusive US rights to Formula 1 — every Grand Prix, every qualifying session, every practice. ESPN carries no races at all. Here is what that actually costs, what you can still watch for nothing, and where BexyTV fits for fans who want the international feeds as well.
Rights and prices checked August 2026. Apple’s F1 deal began with the 2026 season; verify current pricing before subscribing on the strength of any guide, this one included.
What Changed, and Why Your Old Setup Stopped Working
ESPN carried Formula 1 in the United States for years, and its arrangement ended after 2025. Apple took over from 2026 with an exclusive deal covering the full race weekend.
The reason this feels more disruptive than a normal channel change is that ESPN arrived inside packages people already had. If you held cable, YouTube TV, Fubo or Hulu + Live TV, F1 was simply there — you never subscribed to it as a separate thing. Apple TV is a standalone subscription, so the sport has gone from something bundled into something you buy deliberately.
That is the whole story, and it explains the search traffic every race weekend from people assuming their provider dropped a channel.
What It Costs Now
An Apple TV subscription runs about $12.99 a month or $99 a year, and there is a seven-day free trial if you want to test it on a race weekend before committing.
One detail worth knowing, because it materially changes the value: F1 TV is bundled with the Apple TV subscription at no extra cost. F1 TV is the sport’s own product — onboard cameras, driver-specific feeds, team radio, timing data. Fans who previously paid for F1 TV separately on top of a cable package are, in pure arithmetic, better off than they were.
For someone who only watches F1, $99 a year for the full season plus F1 TV is not a bad deal. The complaint is not really about price — it is about paying separately for something that used to be included.
What You Can Still Watch Free
More than most people realize, and worth knowing before you subscribe:
- All practice sessions are available without an Apple TV subscription.
- Select races are made free to non-subscribers across the season.
- Tubi carries alternative broadcasts of several races — creator-led commentary rather than the main feed, free with ads.
- The seven-day trial covers a full race weekend if you time it deliberately.
A casual fan who watches four or five races a year can plausibly get through a season on the free tier plus a well-timed trial. A fan who watches every round cannot.
The Part That Annoys Long-Time Fans
Two things, and both are legitimate rather than nostalgia.
First, the subscription stack keeps growing. F1 now sits in its own place, separate from wherever you watch football or soccer. Someone following F1 and the Premier League and a domestic league is now paying three companies for one habit. Our breakdown of the streaming services works through what that stacking actually costs across a year.
Second, the commentary changed. Many American fans had grown attached to the Sky feed that ESPN carried. A different broadcaster means a different production, and if you prefer a particular commentary team, an exclusive deal removes your choice entirely.
Where IPTV Fits for Motorsport
Three specific things, stated plainly.
- International feeds. Every race is broadcast by rights holders across dozens of countries. That means access to the commentary teams you actually prefer rather than the one your territory assigns you.
- The full race weekend. Practice and qualifying are what standard packages historically dropped first — and for motorsport fans, Friday practice is not filler.
- Catch-up across several days. F1 runs on European and Asian clocks. A race starting at 5am Eastern is watchable that evening if you can stay off your phone, which our matchday timeline covers in more detail.
What it is not: a replacement for Apple TV if you specifically want the American production and F1 TV’s onboard data. Different products, different trade-offs — our explainer on how IPTV works sets out the limitations honestly.
Watching on Apple TV Hardware, and Everywhere Else
A point of confusion worth clearing up: the Apple TV app is not restricted to Apple TV hardware. It runs on Roku, Fire TV, Samsung and LG televisions, Android, Windows browsers and games consoles. You do not need to buy a box to watch F1.
If you are setting up streaming on a television for the first time because of this change, our device guides cover the practicalities — Roku, Samsung and LG, and Apple TV hardware each have their own quirks.
Race Weekend Setup, Whatever You Watch On
- Check the start time twice. F1 spans time zones from Melbourne to Las Vegas, and start times move by several hours across a season.
- Run ethernet if you can. Lights out is a hard deadline and Wi-Fi is where most stutter comes from — the six real causes of buffering covers the rest.
- Open the stream ten minutes early, not at lights out. Ten minutes is enough to fix a problem; thirty seconds is not.
- Know your second option. Whether that is Tubi’s altcast or another feed, decide before the formation lap.
F1 Streaming Questions People Actually Ask
Why is F1 not on ESPN anymore? ESPN’s US rights ended after 2025 and Apple took over exclusively from 2026. ESPN shows no races this season.
How much does it cost to watch F1 in the US now? About $12.99 a month or $99 a year for Apple TV, which includes F1 TV at no extra charge.
Can I watch F1 for free? Partly. All practice sessions and select races are free to non-subscribers, and Tubi carries alternative broadcasts of some races.
Do I need Apple hardware? No. The Apple TV app runs on Roku, Fire TV, Smart TVs, Android, consoles and browsers.
Is F1 TV still worth buying separately? Generally not, since it is bundled with the Apple TV subscription that you now need for the races.
What about sprint weekends? Apple’s deal covers the full weekend, sprints included, rather than Sunday alone.
The Practical Answer for Motorsport Fans
If F1 is the only sport you follow closely, subscribe to Apple TV and stop worrying about it. Ninety-nine dollars a year for every session plus F1 TV is genuinely reasonable, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
The calculation changes when F1 is one of three or four things you follow, each now sitting behind its own subscription. That stacking is the actual problem, and it is what BexyTV is built to address — international feeds, full race weekends and no blackouts in a single channel list. The sensible move is to test it during a race weekend rather than take a page’s word for it.
