From the 30th of April to the 2nd of May, 2021, the Formula One Grand Prix will take place in Portugal. This race will take place at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. Luckily, the GP is broadcast on many channels worldwide. However, what do you do when you’re abroad and don’t have access to your usual streams or channels? Fortunately, there is a simple way to watch the GP of Portugal for free from anywhere in the world: by using a VPN.
Where Can I Watch Formula 1?
As we’ve said, there are a number of broadcasters that hold the rights to broadcasting F1. This is a quick overview:
| Country or Region | Broadcaster |
|---|---|
| Africa | SuperSport |
| Albania | RTSH |
| Asia | Fox Sports Channels, STAR Sports (Indian Subcontinent) |
| Australia | Fox Sports Channels, Network Ten |
| Austria | Servus TV, ORF |
| Azerbaijan | AzTV, Idman Azerbaycan |
| Belgium | RTBF, Telenet, Play Sport Open, VRT |
| Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia | Sport Klub |
| Brazil | Bandeirantes |
| Bulgaria | Nova, Diema Sport |
| Canada | RDS, RDS 2, TSN, Noovo |
| China | CCTV, Tencent, Guangdong TV, Great Sports TV |
| Cyprus | Cytavision |
| Czech Republic, Slovakia | AMC |
| Denmark | TV3+, TV3 Sport, Viaplay |
| Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania | Viaplay |
| Eurasia | Setanta Sports |
| Finland | C More Max, MTV |
| France | Canal+ |
| Germany | Sky Deutschland, RTL |
| Greece | ERT, Cosmote TV |
| Hungary | M4 |
| Israel | The Sports Channel |
| Italy | Sky Italia, TV8 |
| Japan | Fuji TV |
| Latin America | Fox Sports Channels, ESPN |
| Luxembourg | RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg |
| Malta | Go Sports |
| The Middle East, North Africa (MENA) | MBC Action, Shahid |
| Netherlands | Ziggo, NOS |
| New Zealand | Spark Sport |
| Norway | V sport 1, V sport +, Viaplay |
| Poland | Eleven Sports, Polsat |
| Portugal | Eleven Sports |
| Romania | Digisport, Telekom Romania, Look Sport |
| Russia | Match TV |
| Sweden | Viaplay, V sport motor, TV10 |
| Switzerland | SRF, RSI, RTS |
| Turkey | S Sport, S Sport Plus |
| Ukraine | Setanta Ukraine |
| United Kingdom, Ireland | C4, Sky Sports |
| USA | ESPN, ESPN Deportes |
Note: most of the broadcasters above require you to have some sort of subscription. If you’re not from that region, it could prove difficult to get a subscription, because a lot of broadcasters verify where you live depending on where your credit card or regional payment method is registered. However, some free broadcasters don’t require this, so you can watch their stream for free, as long as you have the right IP address. This is where a VPN comes in handy.
Watch the GP of Portugal for Free With a VPN
When you watch streams online, websites know where you are in the world based on your IP address. This means that you will be able to access some streams, while others are not available. For example, if you’re on vacation abroad, usually, you can no longer watch streams from your home country. An exception is certain paid services in the EU. By law, a subscription to a paid service from any EU country should work in all the other EU countries as well. This isn’t the case for most other streams in the world though, where, for example, a stream such as ESPN will only work in the US.
A VPN changes your IP address, so it seems as if you are in another country. Using this, you can circumvent geo-blocks and be able to watch a stream from your home country, wherever you are. So, with a good VPN, you have worldwide access to more sites than you would be able to access without it. This means you can watch the Portugal GP from abroad, but also means that you can access free Formula 1 streams that are available in other countries. These are a couple of sites that broadcast the F1 Grand Prix for free, and that can be watched using a VPN:
| Country | Broadcaster | Language | Stream URL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Russia | Match TV | Russian | matchtv.ru/on-air |
| Albania | RTSH | Albanian | tv.rtsh.al/kanalet/rtsh-sport |
| Luxembourg | RTL | Luxembourgish | play.rtl.lu/live |
| Brazil | Band | Portuguese | www.band.uol.com.br/ao-vivo |
| Switzerland | SRF | German | www.srf.ch/play/tv/live/srf-info |
If you need a quick guide on how to set up a VPN, check out the next paragraph.
Step-by-Step: Watch Formula 1 Online With a VPN
We’ve tested all of the streams mentioned above with CyberGhost, and they all worked. If you don’t want to pay for a VPN, check out our article on how to use CyberGhost for free. We don’t advise using a free VPN, because most of them don’t have servers in the right country, or throttle your speed or data too much.
If you want to watch Formula 1 abroad or for free, then follow these steps:
- Get a subscription with a good VPN provider. As mentioned, we advise using CyberGhost:
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- After getting a subscription, download the VPN.
- Install the VPN and sign in using your newly created account.
- Select with which server you want to connect. For example, if you want to watch a free stream from one of the broadcasters listed above, connect to a server that’s in the region listed in the ‘Country’ column. If you want to watch it using a paid subscription you already have, connect to the region that stream is available in.
- Open your browser and go to the streaming platform. If you want to watch it for free, copy and paste the URL from the ‘Stream URL’ column in the table above.
- You should now be enjoying the F1 Grand Prix!
Race Schedule and Current Standings
At the circuit in Portugal, the official race will take place on Sunday, May 2 from 15:00 to 17:00, local time (Western European Time). Before that, however, you can also enjoy the practice laps (April 30 and May 1) and the qualifications (May 1). The exact times of the GP of Portugal are as follows (WEST, local Portuguese time):
| Event | Date and time |
|---|---|
| First practice | April 30 (11:30 – 12:30) |
| Second practice | April 30 (15:00 – 16:00) |
| Third practice | May 1 (12:00 – 13:00) |
| Qualifications | May 1 (15:00 – 16:00) |
| Final race | May 2 (15:00 – 17:00) |
The final score of the most recent race in this Formula 1 season (Emilia Romagna) looked like this:
| Position | Racer (team) | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Verstappen (Red Bull) | 25 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) | 19 |
| 3 | Lando Norris (McLaren) | 15 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) | 12 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) | 10 |
This means that both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton now have one win to their name, as Hamilton managed to take first place in Bahrain. The question is how the GP of Portugal will change this.
Want to watch other Grand Prix races besides the GP of Portugal? You can! Read our general Formula 1 article for all the information and the full schedule of Formula 1 2021.
