How to watch F1 with friends online, the full setup
Add the extension, open the race on the broadcast you already pay for, share one link. Everyone watches in sync with the chat, the reactions and the ratings. Free, about a minute to set up.
Watching a Grand Prix alone is fine. Watching it with the four people who send you a message on every safety car is better. This is how to put them all in the same room when the sofa is in another city.
F1 TV
12 watching
CoViewer is a free browser extension made by BoxBoxd. It keeps everyone's picture on the same second and puts a chat next to the video. It is not a streaming service and it never rebroadcasts anything, so everyone keeps their own subscription and their own commentary.
The setup
Add CoViewer to Chrome
It is free and it takes one click from the Chrome Web Store. There is no account to create, no card, nothing to configure. The extension does nothing until a race is on your screen.
Open the race on the broadcast you already pay for
F1 TV, Canal+, Sky Sports, DAZN, ESPN, Viaplay, Apple TV, RTL, Kayo, Fox Sports, Sky Italia, NOW, WOW, YouTube or Twitch. Everyone in the room keeps their own subscription and their own commentary language. Nothing is ever rebroadcast.
Let it recognise the session
CoViewer reads the page title and the player to work out which Grand Prix and which session you opened. When it is sure, the launcher appears at the edge of the video. If you are watching something else, it stays quiet.
Create the room and copy the link
One click creates the party and gives you a short link. Send it in the group chat, by message or by mail. The room is yours, you are the host and playback follows you.
Your friends open the link
The link explains the two steps, adding the extension and opening their own broadcast. They join with the same code and appear in the room within seconds, wherever they are and whoever they watch with.
Watch the race together
The sidebar opens next to the video with the chat, the reactions, the live standings and the room. At the flag you rate the race and pick your driver of the day and it posts to your BoxBoxd profile.
How does the sync hold?
The host sends the playback position to the room every three seconds. Each viewer compares that position to their own player and corrects the difference quietly.
A gap under two seconds is closed by nudging the playback speed by five percent for a moment, so nobody sees a jump. Past two seconds the player seeks straight to the right place. On a live broadcast only play and pause travel, because a live stream carries its own clock.
Ad breaks are handled too. When one person hits an ad break, the room waits and resumes when everyone is back on the race. That single detail is what usually breaks a watch party built for films.
What happens in the room
The chat runs beside the video with reactions that float over the picture, so a first lap move gets the same reaction it would get on a sofa.
The room carries the live order, the gaps and who is in the party. At the end you score the race out of five and name your driver of the day and the room sees the vote break down live.
During the weekend the host can drop a poll or a question into the chat and the answers show up as a bar in the feed. It is the part people stay for once the race goes quiet.
A guide for every broadcaster
The setup is the same everywhere, the detail that matters is not. Each service has its own page with the times, the language split and the thing that usually goes wrong there.
International. F1 TV, YouTube and Twitch, beIN Sports.
Europe. Sky Sports, Canal+, DAZN, Sky Sport Italia and NOW, Sky Deutschland and WOW, Movistar Plus+, Viaplay, Ziggo.
The Americas. ESPN, TSN and RDS, Globoplay and Band.
Asia Pacific and Africa. Kayo and Fox Sports, JioHotstar, SuperSport and DStv.
What it costs
Nothing. The extension is free, the rooms are free and there is no limit on how many people join. You each need access to a broadcast, which you already have if you were going to watch anyway.
Frequently asked questions
How do I watch F1 with friends online?
Add the free CoViewer extension to Chrome, open the race on your own broadcast, create a room and share the link. Everyone who opens the link and adds the extension watches in sync with a chat beside the video.
Do we all need the same subscription?
No. Each person watches on the broadcast they already pay for, in their own language. CoViewer syncs the playback position between the players, it never carries the video itself.
Does it work on live streams?
Yes. On a live broadcast the room syncs play and pause and on a replay it syncs the exact timestamp. Ad breaks pause the room until everyone is back.
Is CoViewer free?
Yes, the extension and the rooms are free. There is no account to create and no limit on the number of people in a party.
Which services does it support?
F1 TV, Canal+, Sky Sports, DAZN, ESPN, Viaplay, Apple TV, RTL, RTBF, Kayo, Fox Sports Australia, Sky Italia, NOW, Sky Deutschland, WOW, YouTube and Twitch, among others.
CoViewer is free, it takes about a minute to set up and it runs on the broadcast you already pay for.
CoViewer is made by BoxBoxd, the motorsport social network where fans rate every Grand Prix. The extension keeps playback in sync between people who each watch on their own subscription. It never rebroadcasts a stream. Questions at partnerships@boxboxd.fun.