The "Official F1 timing app" anyone?

OK, time for something of a review. This is on an iPad (and iPhone, both on 5.1) so Android users may have a different experience.

I used it extensively in FP2, 3 and qualy - Was rock solid, no issues whatsoever - It just worked "as advertised". I think it really was designed for the real-estate available on the pad. The timing screen shows which tires they're on, laps covered, speed trap times (sometimes) as well as lap & sector times and runs ~20 seconds ahead of the Speedtv feed. This is entertaining for a while as you can predict when Matchett is gonna jump in with "Schumacher, purple in sector one, wow!" However, it gets old after a while - I paused it for a few seconds then restarted once the clocks "synced" - Easy to get within a second.

This pause, rewind etc facility is actually pretty nice and should be even better in the race. Immediately after the session it asks if you want to download the data - It's ~3MB per session and can replayed, scrubbed thru etc at will.

The circuit map can be rotated and the angle of view changed - Nice, but more of a gimmick overall - Settle on one view and stick with it. The amount of data in the map is pretty impressive - Car locations are labelled with who, current position etc. Sector times "pop up" as each beacon is passed and slower cars "fade" some when the quicker guys are close - All in all almost too much data!

Commentary scrolls across the bottom of the screen, and any messages from race control also pop up. There's also a "news" feed, but it only goes to stories on Bernie's site (!) - There doesn't seem to be any links to other stuff.

In summary, I'm totally satisfied with it so far. No doubt all the data is out there somewhere, but this does a nice job of putting it all together. Expensive? I figure less than 25cents per session is a reasonable price to pay for the enhanced experience it provides me. Given that Apple takes 30% (?) and I suspect the pygmy half of the remainder, these guys aren't exactly getting rich....

Thoroughly recommended, 4 stars - It's not perfect, but it is pretty darn good IMO.

I may try the free app referenced above in next race and do a comparison - We'll see.

YMMV of course.

Cheers,
Ian
PS - I'll post some screen shots later, but for reasons that currently elude me I can't click on "upload attachments" on the iPad (They're "greyed out") - Can anyone do this? (It was *late* when I tried last night!) For now I've gotta use Dropbox to move 'em to the 'puter and post from there.

 

You're welcome!

You *may* want to try the free app mentioned before re-mortgaging the house to buy it though...... (?)

Anyway, I'm very satisfied with my $30 investment. Bernie has valuable data that some of us are prepared to pay for. "Pays yer money, takes yer choice!"

Anyone remember the dark ages when S/W cost *lots* of money?.....

Cheers,
Ian

 

I do - Our stuff *started* at ~$2k for a couple of "seats". Unlimited license often >$200,000..... Those were the days!

Anyway, a few screen shots to give a little taste;

Cheers,
Ian
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