Desperate F1 Fans Found a Legal Way to Stream the Vegas GP for Free

If you know anything about Formula 1‘s time in Las Vegas thus far, you know that it hasn’t exactly been a cheap race to attend. We can spend all day dragging F1 for celebrating its big break in America by punishing its newest viewers, but that’s been done many times before. Instead, we’re going to call attention to an amusing workaround fans discovered to watch the event for free. Granted, it’s not exactly what you’d call a high-def feed.

Hat tip to reader Kevin, who informed us that the action on track was in fact visible from Las Vegas’ CCTV cameras, which anyone can tune into. The video from ThatOneFormula below shows public domain Grand Prix racing in all its macroblocked glory. As one commenter said, there “lowkey is an aesthetic to it.”

Sort of like those Twitter accounts that used to post “liminal spaces” that appear subtly haunted, modern F1 racing through the lens of what might as well be a VHS recording viewed on a 4K TV has a certain aura about it. It feels kind of like found footage, or one of those early internet videos designed to shock, disgust, or horrify. Except, of course, that doesn’t happen—it’s just cars speeding around, usually alone. Now and then, you might catch a glimpse of a pass in the making, and that’s basically the highlight of the night.

It doesn’t help that CCTV cameras don’t capture sound, so the only thing more eerie than 2025 F1 racing filmed at flip-phone resolution is just that, except silent.

So, thank you, Nevada DOT, for offering us a rare look at the pinnacle of motorsport with the broadcast technology of 40 years ago. We had the Brad Pitt F1 movie to show us how beautiful the sport can be; we needed something to make 220 mph look as dull as physically possible to balance things out. And props to anyone who organized a pirate-free watch party with this feed. Because now that F1 knows this exists, it’ll sure as hell be blocked next season.

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