F1 comes to Apple’s Vision Pro with the amazing Lapz app
At $3,500, you’d need a very good reason to invest in Apple’s Vision Pro headset. A new app called Lapz might be just that reason for Formula 1 fans.
Lapz effectively turns any room into race control, letting F1 fans watch multiple race feeds, stats screens and 3D track maps at the same time. Users can drag the various live feeds into whatever position at whatever size they like. So, for example, you could have a giant “screen” with the main race feed in front of you, mini-screens showing cockpit footage from the three race leaders beneath, with a 3D map of the track to one side and a stats window on the other.
The amazing app is demonstrated in the video below, showing it being used in situ in a user’s home:
The video is a staggering demonstration of the Vision Pro’s 3D processing power. For example, you can watch a live helicopter view on a 3D map of the track, with icons showing where each driver is currently positioned in the race. You can even pin a live video feed from that driver’s cockpit to the driver’s car as he moves around the track, meaning you watch each corner as you see it approaching on the map.
At one point in the video, the user has no fewer than eight different live video feeds running simultaneously, three of which are moving around the 3D map, and the Vision Pro shows no visible signs of stutter.
The 3D map was recently updated with new particle effects that “trail behind the car, marking the driver’s path on the circuit for a brief time,” according to a recent update on the Lapz website. “When the driver activates the Drag Reduction System, the particles enlarge and turn green.”
The only limitation appears to be that the user can’t run a virtual background at the same time as the 3D map of the track, but that seems a very minor inconvenience.
A New Way To Watch F1
The Lapz app fulfills the promise teased by F1 consultant and former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley in an interview with me last year.
He said at the time that F1 was working on developing augmented reality apps that would “make everybody a race engineer.”
“You can imagine that working in augmented reality really well,” he said at the time. “I’m watching Max Verstappen, but I want to flick that across, and I want to see how fast Lewis [Hamilton] is catching him. How do Max and Checo [Sergio Pérez] compare? Let’s have a look at their speed-trace comparison over the last few laps, compare the last few laps in terms of average lap time.
“That is super powerful,” Smedley added. “You then make everybody a race engineer, you make everybody like a team coach. It’s super technology.”
Lapz App Testing
The Lapz app is currently in beta testing, and prospective users will need to join Apple’s TestFlight system to download the app on their Vision Pro.
Users also need a paid F1TV Pro subscription to watch races using their Vision Pro headset. The service not only offers live race coverage, but replays from previous grand prix, although replays are not available in some territories, including the U.K.
The app developers claim that “Lapz will continue to be as free as the Wi-Fi at a coffee shop as long as we can afford to pay our electricity bills.” They are, however, seeking donations via the Lapz website.
