F1 Sensor – v4.0.0
"Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are watching us from, it is finally time, all of the questions we’ve asked will get an answer. Welcome to Melbourne"
It’s been a long winter, and the last two weeks have been packed with testing and improvements during pre season. This is the final update before lights out in Melbourne.
Live Data Card, Blueprints, and a lot of improvements
This release brings improved live sync with lap identification, support for brand new live data cards, and official blueprints for automations.
📚 F1 Sensor documentation - https://nicxe.github.io/f1_sensor/
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Better live delay sync with mid race lap identification
A new calibration reference, Lap sync (race/sprint), lets you sync live delay at any point during a race or sprint.
Official blueprints, now clearer and more controllable
Two fully supported blueprints are included:
• Race Control notifications
• Track Status lights and notifications
New calendar entity for the full F1 season schedule
The full season schedule is now available as a native Home Assistant calendar entity.
Each session appears as a separate calendar event with accurate start times, location, and description, including practice, qualifying, sprint qualifying, sprint, and race.
Experimental 2026 regulation sensors
Two new live sensors are added to reflect 2026 regulation changes replacing DRS:
• Straight Mode with states normal grip, low grip, disabled
• Overtake Mode binary sensor for track wide energy boost availability
These are based on pre season observations and should be considered experimental
New device structure and automation triggers
F1 Sensor is now split into six dedicated sub devices, making everything easier to browse and automate: Race, Championship, Session, Drivers, Officials, and System.
You also get nineteen new device automation triggers directly in the Home Assistant automation editor
⚠️ BREAKING CHANGE
The previous single F1 Sensor device is replaced by six sub devices. Entity IDs do not change, but anything organized by device in dashboards, plus device based conditions or actions in automations, must be updated to the new structure.
Full changelog
New features
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Add beta session timer sensors for elapsed and remaining F1 time
This release introduces new session timer sensors that expose time remaining and time elapsed for live F1 sessions, with logic aligned to official timing streams and session start events instead of local restart time. The feature also includes race three-hour cap timing and improved fallback handling so timer values stay useful during reconnects and restarts. This is a beta feature and has not been fully validated across all race control scenarios yet, so behavior may still be adjusted as more real-world sessions are tested. -
Add experimental Straight Mode and Overtake Mode sensors for 2026 regulations
Two new live sensors are added to reflect the 2026 regulation changes that replace DRS. The Straight Mode sensor shows whether the active aerodynamic system is permitted on track, with three possible states: normal grip, low grip, and disabled. The Overtake Mode binary sensor shows whether the track-wide energy deployment boost is currently available. Both sensors are based on data observed during 2026 pre-season testing and should be considered experimental until confirmed against live race conditions. The exact messaging format from Formula 1 may be adjusted in a future update once the first race weekend has been evaluated. -
Add F1 season calendar entity with per-session events
The full Formula 1 season schedule is now available as a native Home Assistant calendar entity. Each session, including practices, qualifying, sprint qualifying, sprint, and race, appears as a separate calendar event with accurate start times, location, and description. This makes it possible to view the entire season in the Home Assistant calendar panel and to create automations that trigger based on session times. The existing season sensor is not affected. -
Add mid-race lap sync for live delay calibration
A new "Lap sync (race/sprint)" option is now available in the live delay reference selector, allowing users to synchronize their live delay at any point during a race or sprint session. When armed, the system captures the next completed lap as a reference point. The user then presses "Match live delay" when they see that same lap complete on their TV broadcast, and the delay is set automatically. This is especially useful for users who join a broadcast mid-race or need to recalibrate a drifted delay without waiting for the next session. -
Enable all sensors by default and auto-enable new sensors on update
All sensors are now enabled by default when setting up the integration. Previously, users had to manually select which sensors to activate, and new sensors added in updates required reconfiguration to appear. The integration now stores which sensors the user has explicitly disabled rather than which ones are enabled, so any new sensor introduced in a future update is automatically available without requiring reconfiguration. The sensor multi-select remains available for users who want to disable specific sensors they do not need. Existing installations will have all new sensors enabled automatically on the next update, while previously disabled sensors remain unchanged. -
Split F1 Sensor into dedicated sub-devices and add automation triggers
All entities are now organized across six dedicated devices: Race, Championship, Session, Drivers, Officials, and System. All entity IDs remain unchanged, so automations and dashboard cards that reference entities by their ID will continue to work without any modifications. Any automation that referenced the device itself, rather than individual entities, will need to be reviewed and updated to point to the correct new sub-device. -
Switch weather forecast provider to Open-Meteo for improved global accuracy
The weather sensor now uses Open-Meteo instead of the previous provider to fetch forecasts for upcoming race locations. Open-Meteo automatically selects the best available weather model based on the circuit's geographic location, which means forecasts for races in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Singapore, the Americas, and other regions are significantly more accurate. All existing weather attributes remain unchanged, and three new attributes are now available for both current conditions and race start forecasts: wind gusts, visibility, and a standardized weather condition code.
Bug fixes
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Apply live delay to session elapsed and remaining timers
Session Time Remaining and Session Time Elapsed now respect the configured live delay, so their values stay aligned with delayed live data. If live delay is set to 30 seconds, both timer sensors are delayed by 30 seconds as well. This keeps dashboard timing consistent across all live sensors. -
Entity names now display in the language configured in Home Assistant
Entity names previously appeared in English regardless of which language was set in Home Assistant, because the built-in translation system was not being used. Names are now resolved from the active language and update automatically when the language preference is changed. -
Exclude high-frequency timer sensors from activity history logging
Track Local Time, Session Time Remaining, and Session Time Elapsed are now excluded from activity history to prevent unnecessary per-second log noise. This reduces database churn and makes activity timelines easier to read while keeping the sensors fully available for dashboards and automations. -
Exclude race three-hour timer from live Activity logging
This update fixes an issue where the race three-hour limit timer could still generate frequent Activity entries in the sensor view. The timer is now excluded the same way as the other high-frequency session timers, including live Logbook streaming and recorder filtering. This prevents per-second Activity spam while keeping the current state visible and accurate in the UI. -
Improve default sensor friendly names without changing existing entity IDs
Sensor and binary sensor names now use cleaner, human-friendly labels such as Track status instead of underscored internal keys, and the redundant F1 prefix is removed from default friendly names. Existing user customizations are preserved, so manually renamed entities are not overwritten. Entity IDs remain stable through suggested object IDs, which avoids breaking dashboards and automations while improving naming for new or non-customized entities. -
Keep F1 Sensor available when a reload cannot complete cleanly
This update improves reload reliability so the integration no longer tears itself down halfway if Home Assistant cannot fully reload it. In that case, existing sensors now stay available instead of all becoming unavailable. Reconfigure and reload behavior is now more predictable, which reduces disruption during normal use. -
Keep live timing active when the primary session index is outdated
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Restore overtake and straight mode sensor states after restart in live sessions
This fixes an issue where Overtake Mode and Straight Mode could show unknown after Home Assistant restarted during an active session. -
Keep current session synchronized with live session status during temporary interruptions
Current session now remains in sync with live session status when timing briefly reports interruption-like states before the session is truly over. This prevents the session label from dropping to unknown while live status still indicates active running conditions. The fix makes dashboards and automations more reliable around session start and short control interruptions without changing end-of-session behavior.
Blueprints
- Adds official blueprints
Two new fully supported blueprints for F1 Sensor - Race Control Notifications and F1 Sensor - Track
Documentation
- Update for version 4.0
Maintenance
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Classify F1 Sensor entries as services in the Home Assistant device registry
The integration now correctly identifies itself as a cloud service rather than a physical device. This change has no visible impact on entities, automations, or dashboards, but ensures the integration is represented accurately in Home Assistant's device registry, which improves consistency with how other API-based integrations appear in the interface. -
Refresh F1 automation blueprints for clearer setup and safer behavior
This update refines the F1 track-status and race-control blueprints to align with the current integration and make setup more user-friendly. -
Standardize weather sensor temperature reporting to Celsius
The weather sensor now consistently exposes temperature with the Celsius unit so Home Assistant can display and process the value correctly. This improves reliability in dashboards, templates, and automations that depend on a defined temperature unit. A test was added to ensure this behavior remains stable in future updates. -
Update icons for current tyres and race three-hour limit sensors
This update refreshes the Home Assistant icons for the Current Tyres sensor and the Race time to three hour limit sensor to improve visual clarity in dashboards. The new icons better match each sensor’s purpose, making race and tyre status easier to scan at a glance. No behavior or configuration has changed. -
Add Blueprint issue template
A dedicated issue template for blueprint-related reports and questions is now available. Users can select whether they are reporting a bug or asking a question, specify which blueprint is affected, and provide their configuration and logs directly in the form.
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