Hey — I'm the solo dev behind PlanB, a free F1 companion app.

Full disclosure, I built it, not trying to hide that.

Started it two years ago because I was tired of jumping between three websites just to check when a session starts and what happened in it.

It's still an evenings-and-weekends project, no funding, no team.

This week I shipped 3.0, and it's an actual rebuild, not a facelift:

new design, new navigation, and the thing I'm most proud of — a race dashboard that shows tyre strategy, position changes lap by lap, lap time comparisons, and overtakes for any session. Plus widgets on iPhone, Android and Apple Watch.

Free, no ads, no accounts, no tracking. Not trying to turn it into a business.

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6503033841

Would love feedback, especially the critical kind

https://preview.redd.it/li2hfy15743h1.png?width=1284&format=png&auto=webp&s=7659a53e4c5ad7d2eab39a472e4eba825d60801c

Hi everyone,

I’m a solo developer and long-time F1 fan. Over the past few months, I’ve been building a small side project called PlanB — a simple F1 companion app focused on race weekends, standings, and clean UX.

I originally built it for myself because most F1 apps felt overloaded with news, betting features, or social feeds. I just wanted something minimal: calendar, results, and standings in one place.

What the app includes:

Upcoming races and circuit details
Full weekend results (all sessions)
Constructor and driver standings
Dark / light themes
Home screen widgets
Local notifications for race weekends

Tech stack:

React Native (Expo)
Custom widgets implementation
Push notifications (firebase) + local notifications (expo)
Local timezone handling for race weekends

Some challenges I ran into:

Handling race times correctly across timezones
Keeping widget updates efficient without draining battery
Deciding what not to build (feature creep is real)

What I learned:

Simplicity is harder than adding features
Clear data > flashy UI
Fans mostly want fast access to race info

I’m continuing to improve it for the 2026 season and would genuinely appreciate feedback from other builders:

How do you validate feature ideas for niche apps?
At what point do you consider adding monetization to a sports companion app?
Any advice on growing organically without being spammy?

If anyone’s curious, the app is live on the App Store (link in comments).

Thanks for reading — happy to answer any technical questions about the build process 🙌

u/mbhusty

I rebuilt my solo F1 app from scratch after 2 years — PlanB 3.0

I built an F1 companion app because I wanted a cleaner race calendar

What the app includes:

Tech stack:

Some challenges I ran into:

What I learned: