F1 2010 Timing App - Championship Pass (iPhone Application) > Reviews (1)

Soft Paur 2010 F1 Timing app

Introduction

Are you "into" F1? Can't get enough of the F1 experience during race weekend, well now help is at hand from Soft Paur with the Official F1 2010 timing app (for ipod touch and iphone).

How about real time live telemetery data just like the Pit crew use to compliment your BBC coverage?

And thats not all, the telemetery data is translated into actual graphical representation of where all cars are on track and their relative position in the race, including pitstops.

Finally if this still doesn't seem like enough you'll find that the two Friday practices and Qualifying session telemetery data are also broadcast to the app. In addition when you have some down time between races you can check the current F1 news too.

Main screen

On loading up the F1 2010 Timing app your presented (while holding the iphone verticle) with a split screen with current driver standing at the top of the screen with the following information, car , driver, lap and lap time. The bottom half of the screen is dedicated to graphic overview of the track and where each driver is on the circut (shown as a circle with the first 3 letters of the driver name).Below the split screen are 4 icons:-

• Race
• Info
• News
• Setup

By default the Race icon is selected, showing you the race split screen (race data, circuit). The Info option gives a menu (stylised as a race pit board), with options for :-

• Help
• Drivers
• Teams
• Races
• Standings
• Credits

The help option talks you through the layout of the application, its fairly self explanitory and I won't go into any details, suffice to say after 5 minutes of playing you'll know how to use the app anyway.

The Drivers option gives the list of current F1 drivers, on selecting your chosen driver a screen is displayed with gives up to the minute stats and driving history of the driver.

The Teams option is a similar setup to the driver option as mentioned above, with current status and history of the team.

Races lists all the races in the race calendar, each race has the following information. Title of circuit, race date, distance, and all the scheduled race time (practice, qualifying and race).

Standings gives the Team and Driver standings so you can keep up to date with whom is leading in the championship.

Credits gives the Soft Paur software credits.

The News feature gives you access to the F1.com site via easy to navigate titles. There is also a Live Feed option which will be live during each race.

Setup allows you to change the track, session, start times etc and also allows you to switch on options such as show tips, overlay commentary, hide stopped cars, fade cars.

Interface

The application interface is very simple to navigate and looks right at home on the iphone, using colours and fonts that you expect to see while watching F1 on your TV, this makes using the app even more pleasing. Giving you a genuine feeling of sitting on the pit wall (all we need is the deafening sound of a Ferrari engine wailing on full throttle on the pit straight).

If you rotate the screen 90 degree's to landscape the screen switches to full screen circuit, giving you a display of the track which in typical iphone style you can pinch and zoom and click on your chosen driver (so even when the camera is off them on TV you can keep up to date with the actual reace action of your race hero).

For the genuine authentic feel there is a small button at the bottom left of the screen (shaped like a small grey triangle) which once clicked takes you to a split timing screen. You'll recognise this instantly from pit lane footage, and will be very similar to what the TV commentators have access to.

The split timing screen givs you driver position, car number, driver, lap time, gap, Split 1/2/3 (speed traps timings), number of pit stops and number of laps. Some of the information is colour coded, so now when Martin Brundle talks about Jenson Button posting a purple time you'll see why (fastest split time).

The only part of this application which I think could be improved is that of the graphical circuit, its in fairly low quality but doesn't detract from the app too much, and still certainly gives you access to more info that you'll get alone from watching BBC1 coverage.Would I recommend this app?

The answer to this question has got to be a YES, if you follow F1 and love to watch each race live then this app is definately for you, giving you never before information at the touch of your fingers, instead of relying on commentators relating snippits of info to you between the sound of their own voice.

The only downside is the price, at £19.99 this is not a cheap application, however over the course of 19 race weekends it works out at a little over £1 a race and the level of added value you'll get far out weighs the costs.

The app gets its data over wi-fi or 3g, which could be very handy if indeed you are travelling and don't have access to a TV to watch the race, this way at least you can keep up to date with live race info during the day and catch up with the highlights when you get home. So now you'll never miss a race!