Does the Google Play / VPN trick actually work for anyone? (F1TV Pro)

Hi! Posting because I’ve tried to buy F1TV Pro via VPN and the Google Play trick, but I can’t get it to work. Here’s what I tried:

  • Surfshark VPN to Poland on my Android phone

  • Go to f1tv.formula1.com to check that it shows me as being in Poland, and the prices for Poland (39.99€ with discount, or 49.99€ without discount)

  • Install the F1TV app and the F1 app and open either of them

  • The app (both F1TV and F1 app) shows me local prices without discount, in this case 109.99€/year for Finland. Note that the website for Finland shows the 20% discount for new users (87.99€/year), but this is missing from the apps. Note also that I haven’t yet signed in or tried to register an account to either app.

  • (At this point according to internet lore, you should see the prices for the VPN location and complete the payment via Google Play services which masks your real location, thus allowing to pay without having a debit card in the VPN location country.)

I have tried the above several times, every time deleting all of the app data & cache, but no luck, it just shows me prices for my physical location without the discount.

Has anyone actually get the above method to work, and if so what did you do? Is it possible that my VPN provider is blacklisted in the F1 apps? Any ideas what should I try? Using the browser with VPN it obviously stops when I don’t have a bank card in the VPN destination country.

Yes, this is a common issue. So what is happening is that your phone may have some other email id apart from the one you created via vpn. These email ids leak out location to F1, hence the price issue for you.

What you need to do it is to either do this in a completely new phone or else remove all.the email ids from your device( from accounts sectiion in device settings), connect to vpn, make email from there and do the payments. After buying subscription, add back your emails.

(TIP;- If you have a Samsung then you don’t need to do all this. Do all the subscription buying process inside Secure Folder thing. )

See TesterNegative reply & solution on another thread for.the same issue

Glad I’m not the only one, it’s driving me mad

I just did it earlier today. follow this thread step by step and you will get there.

Yeah I’m in the UK and made a Turkish one last week. I used bluestacks on my pc after I had already connected to VPN to make a new Turkish google account and did it that way. Had to use a mastercard on Google pay.

Yep, followed the instructions on here, £24 instead of £71

If you do this, do you have to use a VPN to watch every race?

Living in Australia - managed to gain F1TV Pro Access:

- Got Express VPN on my iPhone

- Set my app store to USA and downloaded F1TV Pro

- Purchased USA iTunes giftcard online and redeemed it on the app store (Was called “my gift card supply”).

- Used iTunes credit to purchase F1TV Pro

The problem I had before this was the need for a USA debit/credit card. This is a good workaround and you can just purchase a full 12 months of F1 TV Pro to avoid purchasing further gift cards etc.

Now I can access F1 TV Pro on any device with a VPN.

I managed to get Turkey prices in the app. The monthly is cheaper than the yearly. 39.99 try for monthly and 591.99 try yearly.
Is there a catch?

This worked last year, but I think the f1tv app might check the Google account connected to device, and gets the actual location that way.

This comment here sorted me right out!!!

Did pro access work for you with a VPN after paying in GBP?

How much did they charge you?

Any other emulator recommendations? Blue stacks won’t install on my mac

Can confirm that this method works. £26 for the year.

Which ones exactly, the ones mentioned in OP?

Only if your country doesn’t have F1 TV pro so for instance I’m In Ireland we don’t have F1 TV pro so I’d need a vpn

Do you reckon it will work as well with Google gift cards? I tried with Revolut, said it wouldn’t complete the transaction

You’re probably looking at different services, PRO vs Access (access won’t let you stream races live, while PRO does)

I did it with an Indian account and VPN which is the cheapest rn. which is about 2500 Indian Rupees/30 USD for a year.