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Free / open data

FastF1 logo

FastF1

Unofficial Python library giving free access to Formula 1 lap timing, car telemetry, tyre, weather, schedules and session results as Pandas DataFrames. Most data now needs an F1TV subscription.

Facts verified against the provider's site on

Commercial use: not disclosedBetting use: not disclosedMostly positive
Visit official siteOpen API docsCompare
Featured in:❤️ Developer favourites🏎️ Best Formula 1 APIs🏁 Best Motorsport APIs
58

SportDex Score

#22 of 233 sports APIs

See the full ranking →
Popularity
35

Brand demand, developer discussions, GitHub repos and videos

Community & reliability
78

Tone of public discussions, liked vs criticised points, reliability complaints; based on 8–24 public discussions.

Transparency
65

Public prices, docs, terms and coverage you can check before calling sales

Developer experience
65

Free access, docs, SDKs, OpenAPI, sandbox, realtime delivery, ecosystem

Computed from public data only; uptime and latency are not measured yet. Enterprise feeds that sell by contract score lower on transparency by design. How the score works

Starting price
Not public
Free access
Free tier
Sports
2 (Formula 1, Motorsport)
Live data
Not disclosed
Delivery
SDK only
Discussions
10 threads
GitHub adoption
118 repos

Best for

Python users analysing Formula 1 lap timing, telemetry, tyres and weather, such as hobbyist and research notebooks.

Telemetry analysisLap time comparisonTyre strategy plotsRace result research

Not ideal for

Non-Python projects or hosted-API needs; it is a Python library, not a web service, and most data needs an F1TV subscription.

Limitations to check

  • − Python library only, no hosted API
  • − Most features need an F1TV Access subscription
  • − Formula 1 only
  • − Licence not stated on saved pages

Written from the provider's own pages (source).

Last checked 2026-11-03

FastF1 at a glance

What is FastF1 best for?
Python users analysing Formula 1 lap timing, telemetry, tyres and weather, such as hobbyist and research notebooks. Not ideal for: Non-Python projects or hosted-API needs; it is a Python library, not a web service, and most data needs an F1TV subscription.
How much does FastF1 cost?
FastF1 does not publish prices on the pages we checked.
Does FastF1 have a free tier?
Yes. FastF1 lists a free plan called "Open source".
What does FastF1 cover?
FastF1 is a free / open data. Its sports: Formula 1, Motorsport; data: Fixtures, Historical data, Results, Team stats, Tracking data.
Does FastF1 have a WebSocket or streaming API?
No streaming is listed. FastF1 delivers data by SDK only, so you poll for updates.
What do developers say about FastF1?
Popular unofficial Python package giving F1 timing, telemetry and results as DataFrames; the go-to for analysis posts, student projects and dashboards, with a large GitHub following. Other projects borrow its live-timing client. Caveats: most data needs F1TV access, a network-blocking issue was reported, and beginners hit version-related errors. Often paired with Jolpica or OpenF1.
What are the alternatives to FastF1?
Close alternatives in the SportDex catalog: OpenF1, Jolpica-F1, CollegeFootballData.com, Football Charts, RacingHub.

Commercial decision

Pricing & plan limits

PlanPriceRequestsWhat's included
Open sourceFree—Free library; F1TV Access subscription needed for most featuressource

Not a hosted API. Page says access requires F1TV Access or higher for most features; also uses jolpica-f1 (Ergast-compatible) API. License not stated on fetched page. Language inferred from Pandas/Matplotlib.

Before choosing a paid plan, confirm

• What counts as one request (per call, per market, per region?)

• What happens when you exceed the quota: blocked or billed

• Whether live and historical data are on your plan

• Whether your use (public app, betting, resale) is licensed

The critical question

Data coverage

Sports
Formula 1Motorsport
Data types
FixturesHistorical dataResultsTeam statsTracking data
Key competitions
Not disclosed
Competitions
Not disclosed
Live / in-play
Not disclosed
Women's competitions
Not disclosed
Betting markets
Not disclosed
Bookmaker regions
Not disclosed
Bookmakers
Not disclosed
History depth
Not disclosed
Update frequency
Not disclosed
Name languages
Not disclosed
ID mapping
Not disclosed

Coverage often depends on the plan; confirm the exact league and season on your plan.

Before you build

Usage rights & access

Commercial use
Not disclosed
Betting products
Not disclosed
Redistribution
Not disclosed
Storing data
Not disclosed
Attribution
Not disclosed
Logos & photos
Not disclosed
Who can buy
Individuals
Verification (KYC)
Not disclosed
Not available in
Not disclosed
Only available in
Not disclosed

Developer-ready evaluation

Integration & documentation

Protocols
SDK only
Formats
Not disclosed
Authentication
none
SDKs
python
OpenAPI spec
Not disclosed
Claimed latency
Not disclosed
Status page
Not disclosed
Sandbox / test keys
Not disclosed
Support
Not disclosed
SLA uptime
Not disclosed
Preview brief
# Integration brief: FastF1

Goal: build a feature on FastF1 data. Use only the official documentation below as the source of truth.

## Known facts (from SportDex, verify before relying on them)
- Website: https://docs.fastf1.dev
- Docs: https://docs.fastf1.dev
- Sports: Formula 1, Motorsport
- Data: Fixtures, Historical data, Results, Team stats, Tracking data
- Protocols: SDK only; formats: UNKNOWN — check the docs
- Auth: none
- Free plan: Open source
- Note: Not a hosted API. Page says access requires F1TV Access or higher for most features; also uses jolpica-f1 (Ergast-compatible) API. License not stated on fetched page. Language inferred from Pandas/Matplotlib.

## Verify before writing code
- live update frequency
- whether commercial use is allowed on the plan you pick
- exact endpoint paths, parameters and response fields (read the official docs, do not guess)

## Implementation rules
- Keep the API key on the server (environment variable, backend route or edge function); never ship it to the browser.
- Cache responses and respect rate limits; count how many requests each screen triggers.
- Handle errors explicitly: invalid key, quota exceeded (429), missing fields, empty fixtures, timeouts.
- Start with one demo request and log the raw response before building UI on assumed field names.

Data quality signals

Data source & company

Official partners
Not disclosed
How data is collected
Not disclosed
Certifications
Not disclosed
Payment methods
Not disclosed
Minimum contract
Not disclosed
Country
Not disclosed
Founded
Not disclosed

Reddit · Hacker News · Stack Overflow · GitHub · YouTube

What developers say

Mostly positivecoveragedocsreliabilityalternatives

Popular unofficial Python package giving F1 timing, telemetry and results as DataFrames; the go-to for analysis posts, student projects and dashboards, with a large GitHub following. Other projects borrow its live-timing client. Caveats: most data needs F1TV access, a network-blocking issue was reported, and beginners hit version-related errors. Often paired with Jolpica or OpenF1.

Praised for

  • Rich telemetry and lap data in Pandas
  • Covers seasons from 2018
  • Large community and many analysis projects
  • Live timing client reference

Complaints

  • Most data needs F1TV subscription
  • Version breakages for newcomers
  • Reported network blocking without a fix

Our summary of public discussions, not a rating. Vendor posts are not counted as user opinion.

Discussions

Shortlist next steps

Alternatives worth comparing

  • OpenF1 logo
    OpenF1Free / open data66

    Open-source API for Formula 1 session data: lap times, car telemetry, positions, pit stops, weather, team radio and race control. Historical data from 2023 is free without auth; live access is a paid sponsorship.

    Free tier⚡ StreamingFormula 1Motorsport
    from €9.90/mo10 discussions · 675 repos
  • Jolpica-F1Free / open data50

    Volunteer-run open source Formula 1 API with endpoints backward compatible with the retiring Ergast service, free to use and funded by donations.

    Free tierFormula 1Motorsport
    Free tier2 discussions · 1.6k repos
  • CollegeFootballData.com logo
    CollegeFootballData.comFree / open data57

    College football API with games, team and player stats, recruiting, betting lines and advanced metrics; free key with monthly cap, higher tiers via Patreon, plus basketball API.

    Free tierCollege sportsAmerican footballBasketball
    Free tier2 discussions · 1.1k repos
  • Football Charts logo
    Football ChartsFree / open data49

    Daily-updated football results, tables, goal timing, model probabilities and season projections for 98 leagues via JSON REST and an MCP server; open CC BY dataset and paid history tiers.

    Free tierFootball (soccer)
    from €9/mo1 discussions · 14 repos
  • RacingHub logo
    RacingHubFree / open data20

    REST API with Formula 1 historical data and statistics, documented via Swagger UI.

    Formula 1Motorsport
    Price not public1 discussions · 3 repos
OpenF1 vs FastF1FastF1 vs Jolpica-F1FastF1 vs CollegeFootballData.comFastF1 vs Football ChartsFastF1 vs RacingHub

Evidence & transparency

Official sources

Facts were extracted from the provider's own pages on 2026-11-03. Empty fields mean the provider does not say, not that the feature is missing. How we know