The 2015 Formula One racing season kicks off today in Australia with practice rounds for the Australian Grand Prix. While NASCAR is king in my neck of the woods, the open wheel racers have just as strong of a following globally.
In recognition of the start of the 2015 Formula One season, it was suggested by one our readers (thanks Harry) that we put together a roundup of the Windows Phone apps that will help you keep track of all the Formula One races. All of the apps listed will deliver news, standings, stats and racing schedules to your Windows Phone. The collection has a nice range of designs and some are also available for Windows 8 devices.
PitLaneOne
PitLaneOne makes use of a series of tiles on the main page to pull together a hefty amount of Formula One information. The tiles includes access to:
- News: Set up your favorite RSS news feeds to get all the Formula One news. You'll need to go into the app's settings to choose which sources you want to follow and you can view them from your Internet Explorer or an internal browser.
- Live: This Beta feature allows you to follow live scoring provided by ScoresPro.com during races and view live comments about the race.
- Races: Your schedule of Formula One races along with venue information, practice dates and a layout of the track.
- Standings: Here is where you find out who is leading the Driver and Constructor Championship.
- Driver and Teams: These two tiles will offer you information on your favorite (or not so favorite) F1 racer and teams.
- Settings: Along with the ability to set-up your RSS feeds for the News Tile, PitLaneOne's settings offers options for the Live view and options for opening Twitter profiles.
While PitLaneOne does have a slightly cluttered appearance, do not judge this book by its cover. There is a host of information available behind PitLaneOne's tiles on Formula One. PitLaneOne is a free, ad-free Windows Phone app and a Windows 8 version is also available.
Racing One
While PitLaneOne relies on tiles to navigate around all of its features, Racing One takes advantage of the Modern design's panorama style of navigation. Pages for Racing One include:
- Upcoming Race: Information about the upcoming race, which includes pre-racing schedules, location, lap counts and distances.
- News: All the news that is fit to print about the Formula One racing season.
- Standings: Season standings broken down by Driver and Constructor.
- Calendar: The complete 2015 Formula One schedule along with information (much like you see on the Upcoming Race page) about the venue including track layout.
There is a trial version available for Racing One that has a few limitations and ad support. The trial version will not have support for a Live Tile or live feed and live timing for racing results (found on the Upcoming Race page).
Racing One is a clean looking Windows Phone app that offers a respectable amount of information on the Formula One. Again, it does have a trial version with limitations with the full version running $.99. You also have a Windows 8 version of Racing One for those looking for a Formula One solution for a larger screen.
- Download Racing One for Windows Phone (Trial / $.99)
- Download Racing One for Windows 8 (Free)
- Download Racing One for Windows 8 ($.99)
Racing World
2015 Racing Guide (formerly F1 World) delivers Formula One news, standings, schedules and driver/team information to your Windows Phone. Race information includes details on the track, a map of the track and any news specific to the event.
News feeds for Racing World include Espnf1.com, Crash.net, BBCft, Formula1.com, AutoSport and F1 Fanatic. You can narrow the field of RSS feeds by tapping the Source button on the app's main page. News items are presented in summary form with control buttons to view the full news piece in an internal browser.
Driver and Team information includes news items for that particular teams/driver, results and team member information. There is a TV Guide feature that requires an update to Racing World Pro but that version of the app appears to be still in transition from the older version, F1 World Pro.
Racing World comes across as a nice, middle of the road option for keeping track of the Formula One season. If the TV Guide feature would become active, the Windows Phone app would have a bit more appeal.
Download Racing World for Windows Phone (Free)
2015 Formula Racing Guide
The 2015 Formula Racing Guide is designed to deliver all the news and latest information on the Formula One season to your Windows Phone in an easy to navigate package. The panorama design has pages that include:
- A countdown display to the next event
- A calendar listing of all events in the season
- A list of drivers based on their points rankings
- A list of teams based on their points standing
- News feeds from 24 different sources
- Photo Gallery from Flickr
- Tweets from various Formula One sources (drivers, teams, ESPN F1, F1 and more)
You also have an Other page that will let you filter the RSS feeds that supply the News Page, filter the Twitter accounts monitored by the app and access the app's settings. Settings mainly cover content such as options to delete all saved articles, delete all liked photos and refresh the news feeds.
While the 2015 Formula Racing Guide provides comprehensive coverage of the F1 season, it is not an official app from Formula One Management.
Download 2015 Formula Racing Guide for Windows (Free)
Your Turn
If I could only pick one to recommend, I would lean towards 2015 Formula One Racing Guide solely out of personal preference to the layout and navigation. However, each of the four Formula One racing apps in the roundup are more than capable of delivering all the racing news, stats and schedules to your Windows Phone.
In addition to these four dedicated Windows Phone apps, you can also catch Formula One racing news through Bing Sports, ESPN ScoreCenter and ScoreMobile.
If you have a favorite Windows Phone app to keep you up to date on all the Formula One action that did not make it to the roundup, feel free to toss out your recommendation in the comments below.
