F1 Vision, reviewed

For an F1 fan, there are few greater joys than actually attending a race. The sound of the cars in person, the smell of the tyres, even the support races. The problem is, as I’m sure most race goers will reluctantly admit, that you cannot take in as much of the overall race at the track as you would from the comfort of your sofa. There are a tonne of reasons people refuse to pay the prices F1 demands to attend races, but that has to be up there with the best of them.

To combat this, circuits have massive screens dotted around the place so you can catch what’s going on on the parts of the track you cant see. That’s great, but the grand stands with screen views command high prices and get snapped up quickly and the general admission areas around the screens are the sort you have to arrive at about a week in advance to ensure you actually get a space. Not ideal.

There is also circuit commentary. This can be heard booming from the tannoy system all around the track and is very handy indeed. There is a downside here though. People can joke about how quiet the cars are now but, be that as it may, they still drown out the commentators leaving you scratching your head as to why your favourite driver is suddenly missing from a session.

You can buy little radios at the circuit that broadcast the commentary which will go some way to alleviating this issue but these are too quiet and, if you are attending an event in a country that speaks anything other than your native language, even this can be suboptimal.

CIRCUIT RADIO. From a few years back, this thing hanging off my ear is a circuit radio and a finely trained lip reader has more chance of finding it useful when there are 20 cars hammering round.

CIRCUIT RADIO. From a few years back, this thing hanging off my ear is a circuit radio and a finely trained lip reader has more chance of finding it useful when there are 20 cars hammering round.

I made the fabled trip to the Belgian GP this weekend and, you can’t fail to have noticed the abundance of Dutch fans who had presumably turned up to support up and coming star Nyck De Vries! Sensibly, the circuit put on some Dutch commentary along with the native French and English as an alternative. This is great as it means there is something for the majority of people there but it does mean you get the same chatter three times in three languages, meaning there is only time for one third of the commentary you could be enjoying.

Maybe I’m splitting hairs here but if you’re massively in to your racing, this is important stuff!

Enter F1 Vision

F1 Vision (formerly, and inferiorly, Kangaroo TV and FanVision) is the antidote to all the afore mentioned issues. It’s a device, much like a smartphone, that shows the world feed and, more importantly, allows you to select commentary in your preferred language. You can also use your own earphones to ensure Brundle and Crofty are shouting loudly enough over the 20 V6s!

It has some really interesting features too. You can select your favourite drivers and activate their pit channel so that you hear all their communication with the pit lane. It interrupts the commentary but it can be quite insightful if you select a driver who is in a strategic battle. Or quite amusing if you select one of the more animated drivers like Ricciardo or Gasly. Kimi – not so much!

You can also set it to ‘quad screen’ mode which gives you the live onboard feeds of four of the drivers which is great for when they get a bit racey. There are 'advanced analytics' giving you strategic options given everyones available tyre allocation and pit activity too.

As a creature of habit, I loved that the English commentary was the same team I would be listening to, where I watching at home. Brundle and Crofty are not everyone’s preferred option but don’t you tell me you know of a more passionate pairing than Alex Jacques and Davide Valsecci, who commentate on the F2!

Which leads me on to one of the best things about F1 Vision, you get coverage of all the support races. Obviously, this won’t be applicable to all circuits but for most of the European races there are four race series competing at the event. If you’re only bothered about the F1, you’re missing out and if you’ve never taken in the F2, GP3 or Porsche Supercup before, F1 Vision means you’re best placed to get involved and really get the value from your ticket price (but that’s another story!)

So, it’s awesome but it comes at a cost and, as with most things related to F1, that cost is not small. For the weekend, F1 Vision will set you back €99. I found that to be great value and well worth it but for some, that might just be too pricey. You can hire it for a day at a time if you feel happy to skip practice sessions etc but you don't actually save a great deal of money this way. If there are a group of you who fancy it, you can half the individual cost by purchasing a splitter for your headphones meaning two people can listen on the one device, which may make it more accessible.

Any questions, feel free to ask in the comments and tell me about your experience with F1 Vision, good idea or not?