Max Verstappen is world champion and so you want to follow the new Formula 1 season live. The broadcasting rights are no longer in the hands of Ziggo. That means you have to look for Lewis, George, Checo and Max in a different way. Want to watch F1 this year? You have these options to follow all F1 races live.
In recent months there has been uncertainty about what the switch from Ziggo Sport to Viaplay would mean for Dutch Formula 1 fans. Exactly before the start of the new season there is finally clarity. We tell you how to watch Formula 1, who the reporters and presenters are, if there is competition for Viaplay and what the alternatives are if you don’t necessarily have to see live image.
viaplay
Swedish Viaplay acquired the broadcasting rights for Formula 1 in the Netherlands at the end of last year. While there was still talk in the beginning that the permanent Ziggo Sport team would move to the new channel, it soon became apparent that Viaplay wanted to take a different tack. Viaplay is an independent provider and must therefore be purchased separately by everyone in the Netherlands.
You do not need a television package for this, so you can enjoy the royal class without a television subscription. A subscription to Viaplay costs 13.99 euros per month, but for the first year the company has an offer for 99 euros. This equates to 8.25 euros per month. The subscription is tacitly renewed. You must therefore cancel this yourself during the contract period.
For 13.99 euros per month you not only have access to Formula 1, but also Bundesliga, PDC Darts and Premier League matches can be seen with the provider. The Premier League won’t be until August, by the way. Viaplay also offers Scandinavian and international films and series. More information can be found at www.viaplay.comâ€
Share Viaplay account
It is possible to share a Viaplay subscription, although it is not specifically stated whether this is legal or not. The service allows you to create six profiles, of which you can view two profiles at the same time.
Viaplay via television
Several television providers have already indicated that they have deals with Viaplay, so it is easy to take out a Viaplay package through your existing television provider. Such an extra Viaplay package costs 13.99 euros per month with all providers, but various providers use lucrative introductory offers.
For example, KPN offers you to watch until August 1 for 9.99 euros per month and you can watch Viaplay for a total of 20 euros via Ziggo for the first four months. For existing T-Mobile customers, the first four months are even completely free. You have to pay attention, because many of these promotions are tacitly converted to the more expensive subscription of 13.99 euros per month.
Ziggo Sports
In recent years, Ziggo Sport had the exclusive right to broadcast Formula 1 in the Netherlands, but that has come to an end since the arrival of Viaplay. However, there are still some things to watch on Ziggo Sport. The Formula 1 Café that was shown on Ziggo Sport before and after the races, is now officially called Ziggo Sport Race Café and can be seen throughout the weekend. That already starts on Friday evening and has an extra broadcast after the races on Sunday.
You can also continue to watch the summaries of all races, training sessions and qualifications via Ziggo Sport. Ziggo indicates that they have a good collaboration with Viaplay and you can therefore also take out a Viaplay subscription via Ziggo, but you will have to switch channels for this. Viaplay is a separate service on a separate channel.
New in 2022
In 2022, not only will the place where you can watch Formula 1 change, the cars will also be completely new. This is to make it easier to overtake and thus make the races more attractive. The tires are from this season 18 inches instead of 13 inches and all cars have been made a lot safer again. The regulations have also changed on a number of points. For example, it is no longer possible for teams to spend an infinite amount of money, each team must adhere to the upper limit of 140 million dollars.
F1 TV Pro
It is also still possible to directly subscribe to the streaming service of Formula 1 itself. There are two options available in the Netherlands: F1 TV Access and F1 TV Pro. At TV Pro you have access to all races, qualifications and training sessions, not only for Formula 1, but also for F2, F3 and Porsche Supercup. Also nice is that you can view multiple cameras during the race and also have access to all onboard cameras of every driver on the grid. You also have all the times on your screen via the Live Timing screen.
Another advantage is that F1 TV Pro is a lot cheaper than Viaplay. Instead of 13.99 euros per month, you only pay 7.99 euros per month for an F1 TV Pro subscription. If you choose to pay annually, this costs 64.99 euros per year. The only drawback is that the Formula 1 app itself is not always very stable. It can sometimes happen that the image freezes or that a connection to the server cannot be established. Irritating if this happens right at the start of course. Subscribe to F1 TV Pro via the website f1tv.formula1.comâ€
F1 TV Access
F1 TV Access offers everything that TV Pro brings to you, with the difference that you can’t watch the races, qualifying and practice sessions live. It is possible to watch the entire race at a later time. So if you lock yourself up during a race and don’t check social media, you can watch everything two hours later. TV Access costs 26.99 euros per year or 2.99 euros per month.
Free races
There is one race that you can watch live for free anyway! That is the Grand Prix of Zandvoort on September 4. This race can be viewed via the NOS on NPO1. A few other races are also easy to follow through overseas television channels that are included in the standard package for just about everyone.
The Belgian Grand Prix of Spa-Francorchamps can be seen live with our southern neighbors on August 28 on Belgium One, the Flemish public broadcaster. In Germany, RTL managed to get four races. The races that you can see for free via RTL are the races of Emilia Romagna (Italy) on April 24, Great Britain on July 3, Belgium on August 28, the Netherlands on September 4 and Brazil on November 13.
Presenters
If you are attached to the regular Ziggo presenters and reporters, then you are out of luck. Some people stay with Ziggo Sport, others have made the switch to Viaplay. Presenter Rob Kamphues and expert Robert Doornbos will remain with Ziggo Sport and can also be seen again this season at the Ziggo Sport Race Café. Olav Mol also plays a role there, although he no longer beats the races live.
Tom Coronel and Guido van der Garde, who were frequently seen at Ziggo Sport, have made the switch to Viaplay. At Viaplay you will also see many new faces. The most famous name is Amber Brantsen, she will be the face of Formula 1 on Viaplay. The live coverage of the races is done by Nelson Valkenburg and Melroy Heemskerk and they are assisted by Stephane Kox for the live interviews. In the studio, in addition to Van der Garde and Coronel, you will also see Christijan Albers at the table. There is also a role for former drivers Mika Hakkinen, David Coulthard, Jos Verstappen and Tom Kristensen.
Radio
The NPO often switches to reporters during F1 competitions on Sunday to keep you informed about the race, but listening in full throughout the race is not possible. A better alternative is to set up the web radio station Grand Prix Radio, an initiative of Olav Mol and former Veronica DJ Alexander Stevens.
Of course, not only can the race be followed, training, qualifications and news are also covered on the channel. You can listen to Grand Prix Radio online at www.grandprixradio.nl or via its own app for iOS and Android. During the week, Grand Prix Radio is a normal channel with a lot of music and car news.
live blogs
Many blogs and websites also report the races live, such as the NOS or NU.nl. These news sites only offer few updates during the race. It’s smarter to follow a blog from a motorsport site, like https://nl.motorsport.com†In any case, this is a good site for the latest news about everything that has to do with Formula 1 and other car and motor sports. During the races, qualifying and training sessions you will find extensive live blogs where you can read what is happening during the race per minute.
An alternative is the site www.racingnews365.nl, a Dutch site with, in addition to a live blog, also a lot of news about F1 and a special section with information about Max Verstappen. The official site of Formula 1, www.formula1.comof course, also has a lot of information and a live blog.
VPN
Almost every country has a deal to broadcast its own F1 race live via the public broadcaster or a commercial party and with a VPN you could watch the F1 race from Spain or Italy, for example. There are foreign channels that indicate that they broadcast all F1 races live, but you have to navigate these sites yourself.
The channels are ServusTV and ORF in Austria and MatchTV in Russia. The Austrian channels distribute all races and can therefore be seen on one or the other channel. German is of course spoken on the Austrian channels, but you do have interesting comments from experts such as Nico Hülkenberg and Mathias Lauda. A good VPN service with many different country options costs money, start from a few euros per month.
Watch live
The best experience to watch an F1 race is of course to go there. Zandvoort is the easiest option, but the regular tickets are already sold out. On the official website www.dutchgp.com you can still get so-called resell tickets, these are entrance tickets that are sold by the ticket holders for (more expensive) prices. click on View Resell Platform and you will be directed to the site. Click on one of the options and you will see if there are still tickets available.
Most of it is already sold out, but if someone can’t attend the race, you have the best chances here. You can of course also choose to attend a foreign race. The Belgian Grand Prix and Max’s second home race in Austria are popular with Dutch fans. On the site tickets.formula1.com you can see all available tickets for all F1 weekends. Don’t have the money to attend a race live or are all seats already sold out? Then you can always go to the pub with some friends and shout Max (or whoever your favorite is) to victory together.
