Apple TV streams F1's Bahrain Grand Prix from Sepang free in the US, with no subscriptionApple TV streams F1's Bahrain Grand Prix from Sepang free in the US, with no subscription

Apple TV is streaming this weekend's Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix free to everyone in the United States, without an Apple TV subscription.

The race is not in Bahrain. 9to5Mac and GPFans both report that it has moved to the Sepang circuit in Malaysia because of the war in the Middle East, with Bahrain's organisers backing a race elsewhere rather than losing their date. The weekend began with practice on Friday 2 October. According to 9to5Mac, Apple's race coverage starts at 1:50am Eastern on Sunday 4 October, with lights out at 3am Eastern, which is 7am UTC. The race is then available on demand for anyone who would rather sleep through it.

Viewers need the Apple TV app and a US location, and nothing else. 9to5Mac lists the devices: Apple's own, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, PlayStation, Xbox and Android, plus a web browser at tv.apple.com. GPFans says earlier free offers this season took the form of a seven-day trial, and that this weekend's sessions are open outright. It previously reported a free race in Austria, so Sepang is not the first.

How Apple's F1 deal works

Apple became the exclusive US broadcaster of Formula 1 this season under a five-year agreement. GPFans puts its value at 750 million dollars; Apple has not published a figure. In its March announcement, Apple said subscribers get every practice, qualifying, sprint and race live and on demand, and that F1 TV Premium, the sport's own streaming service, is included at no extra cost and sold in the US only through Apple TV. When the deal was first announced in October 2025, Tom's Guide reported Apple's promise that some races would be free to non-subscribers.

• Apple Music carries free live audio of each race, Apple said in March.
• Apple Sports tracks timing and standings, with Live Activities on the Lock Screen.
• Tubi runs free alternative commentary streams for selected races under a separate arrangement.

The price of a subscription is less clear. Apple's March post gave 12.99 dollars a month with a seven-day trial. 9to5Mac's Apple TV coverage this week gives 14.99 dollars. We could not find an Apple announcement of the change, so treat the higher figure as 9to5Mac's.

Why would Apple give a race away?

Because the race is the advert. A free Grand Prix asks nothing of a viewer but an app install and an account, and both of those stay behind after the chequered flag. Apple's subscription business depends on getting the Apple TV app onto Rokus, Fire sticks and consoles in homes that own no other Apple device, and a live sporting event with a fixed start time is the most reliable way to make someone do it on a specific night.

The choice of race is telling. A 3am Eastern start is the kind of slot that would otherwise draw only the committed fans who already pay, so giving it away costs Apple very little in lost subscriptions. It also lands on a weekend when Apple has new shows to push at anyone who opens the app, from an October Apple TV slate that includes Matchbox and Tenzing.

There is a reliability question too. On 1 October Apple's status page still listed Apple TV as down the morning after a services outage. A free live event invites a spike of first-time viewers at an hour when Apple's on-call engineers would prefer quiet. Live sport is unforgiving in a way a show library is not: a buffering wheel during the start is the whole product failing at the one moment that matters.

Our take

APPDOOK's reading is that this is Apple using F1 as a funnel rather than a fortress. The deal is exclusive, but the strategy is not to lock the sport away; it is to make the Apple TV app the habit of anyone who follows F1 in the US, then to convert some of them at the next race they cannot see for free. Whether that works depends on how many non-subscribers turn up at 3am on a Sunday, and Apple does not publish viewing figures, so the answer will probably arrive the way it usually does: in the number of free races Apple offers next season.

What is still unknown is how many more free races remain this year, and whether the price viewers are being converted to is 12.99 or 14.99 dollars. Apple has not said either.