Can You Still Watch F1 Without Apple TV? What the Streaming Deal Means for Your Wallet This Season

Formula 1 closed the first half of its 2026 season at Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, and US fans marking the summer break face a fresh reality. The sport now streams exclusively on Apple TV, and Apple's hardware just got more expensive.

Searches for 'Apple TV' now spike every race Sunday as viewers who once stumbled on races while flipping through cable channels discover that no cable network carries Formula 1 in the US at all this year.

Sunday's race at the Hungaroring was round 11 of the season and the last before the sport's traditional August shutdown, making this a natural moment to tally what following the sport actually costs American fans.

You Do Not Need the $199 Box

The confusion is understandable because 'Apple TV' refers to both a subscription service and a physical streaming device. The short answer is that fans do not need Apple's hardware to watch a single lap.

The Apple TV app runs on Roku, Fire TV, Google TV devices, smart TVs, iPhones, and game consoles. Rival streaming boxes such as the Google TV Streamer sell for about $75 (£56). What fans cannot avoid is the subscription, which costs $12.99 (£9.73) a month or $99 (£74) a year.

What Watching Every Race Now Costs

That subscription covers every practice, qualifying, Sprint session, and Grand Prix under the five-year deal Apple and Formula 1 announced in October 2025. CNBC reported Apple is paying about $140 million (£105 million) a year for the rights, well above the roughly $90 million (£67 million) ESPN paid under its previous contract.

There are sweeteners. F1 TV Premium, which previously cost $129 (£97) a year on its own, is now included free for subscribers, while select races and all practice sessions stream free in the app.

The change still stings for casual viewers. In the ESPN era, races came bundled into cable packages households already paid for. Now a full season costs about $156 (£117) a year at monthly rates. For a family already paying for other streamers, it is one more line on the bill.

A Double Price Squeeze in One Month

Fans who want Apple's own streaming box were hit twice this summer. Apple raised the price of the Apple TV 4K from $129 to $199 on 25 June, a 54% jump, while the 128GB model climbed from $149 (£112) to $249 (£187).

Apple blamed a global memory chip shortage driven by demand from artificial intelligence data centres. 'We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,' the company said in a statement.

The device itself has not changed. It remains the third-generation model launched in late 2022 with the A15 Bionic chip inside. Anyone holding out may find relief later this year, with a refreshed model widely expected in the coming months.

The Template for Where Live Sports Are Heading

Formula 1's US fanbase reached 52 million in 2024, and 47% of its newer followers are aged 18 to 24, according to the 2025 Global F1 Fan Survey. Apple is betting those younger viewers never wanted cable in the first place.

The deal follows Apple's exclusive Major League Soccer partnership and points to where live sport is heading, out of channel guides and behind app subscriptions. Racing resumes on 23 August, and the subscription clock keeps ticking through the break either way.