Money makes the world of Formula 1 go round.
The 2025 F1 season opener at the Australian Grand Prix on March 16 was nothing short of chaotic. McLaren’s Lando Norris launched his championship bid with a fifth career race victory on a rainy afternoon in Melbourne, overcoming late pressure to finish just under a second ahead of four-time defending champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing - setting the stage for what could be one of the most thrilling and unpredictable seasons in recent memory.
With eight new driver lineups, six rookies, and likely multiple constructors battling for the top spots in one of the tightest fields in history before a major regulations overhaul in 2026, F1 is in pole position to reach its full competitive and entertainment potential on the track. Off it, the racing series is speeding ahead, too, seeing significant growth in viewership, media rights, sponsorships, attendance, and social media presence.
F1 entered 2025 off the back of its most financially successful year to date, reporting USD $3.65 billion in annual revenue in 2024 - the fourth consecutive year of top-line growth. Furthermore, F1 concluded 2024 with $2.6 billion in cash and liquid investments on hand while currently trading at an enterprise value of $30 billion, a 275 per cent jump from 2017, the Huddle Up newsletter reported.
But what factors contribute to the success of F1, and where does all this money come from? In a world where motorsports have historically struggled to capture the attention of sports audiences compared to European soccer leagues, the National Football League, or the National Basketball Association, how has F1 managed to thrive and continue to see gains across the board year after year?
Clearly one catalyst behind its seismic growth has been, and continues to be, Netflix’s docuseries, Drive to Survive.
The show successfully attracted new and younger fans to the F1 fan base. According to Nielsen Sports, 35 per cent of viewers who tuned into the docuseries expressed a desire to watch more races. Additionally, one in four viewers stated that they became F1 fans after watching the show. Season 7 of Drive to Survive was released on March 7.
F1’s attempt at showcasing its drivers in a unique, exciting, and personalized manner through its Netflix product undoubtedly initiated the shift in its fan demographics, and a recent Nielsen report estimates there are now over 750 million F1 fans worldwide, making it the most popular yearly sporting series. According to Forbes, the sport has seen interest rise by 5.7 per cent since 2021. Its 24-race schedule in 2024 averaged over 85 million viewers across linear and digital platforms and reached 1.6 billion TV viewers globally. Last year, the U.S. F1 fan base grew to 22 per cent, up from 19 per cent in 2023.
Netflix can’t take all the credit. After acquiring F1 for USD $8 billion in 2017, American conglomerate Liberty Media recognized the need to improve the undervalued media rights, sponsorship agreements, and hosting contracts, as well as to strengthen its limited presence in the U.S. Additionally, several teams faced financial challenges that needed addressing. Liberty welcomed modern consumption habits by easing the sport’s social media restrictions, allowing drivers and team personnel to share official footage with fans. They launched F1 TV, offering access to every practice session, qualifying session, and race, along with pre- and post-race coverage, for just $7 a month, and introduced regulatory changes, like a cost cap, to tighten the competition and ensure financial stability. Today, nearly every team is profitable, with some smaller teams like Haas valued at over $1 billion and larger teams like Ferrari exceeding $4 billion in valuation, according to Sportico.
The increase in viewership is igniting competition for F1’s media rights in the U.S. between traditional broadcasters and streaming services, which will intensify once ESPN’s deal expires after the 2025 season. According to The Athletic, a fresh deal would surpass the current estimated rights fee of $90 million per year, as the series is reportedly seeking $160 million to $180 million annually for its U.S. TV rights. On ESPN, the average viewership per race for the past two seasons was 1.1 million.
More viewers means more hungry investors - waves of sponsors rushing to showcase their brands to F1’s broader and younger global audience. The viewership boost was the spark, and the sponsors are now the engine driving the sport forward.
F1 comprised 6.6 per cent of the total global sponsorship revenue generated in 2024, as per the Financial Times. The average amount of an F1 sponsorship deal is up from USD $2.87 million in 2019 to $5.08 million today. 20 per cent of all F1 sponsorships are made up of Information Technology companies, such as HP, Globant, Oracle, Dropbox, and Amazon Web Services. However, although the cornerstone of motorsport innovation, tech is not the only theme among the sport’s many brand sponsors.
According to Reuters, French luxury giant LVMH, which owns the Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon, and TAG Heuer brands, secured a sponsorship deal this past offseason that could be worth $1 billion over 10 years. Other sizable sponsorship deals include Nestlé‘s Kit Kat, McDonald’s, Puma, Crypto.com, Qatar Airways, The Lego Group, and American Express, to name a few.
Massive crowds are another trend that the sport can take pride in. The 2024 season saw attendance hit a record-breaking 6.5 million fans, with popular weekends at the British GP, Australian GP, and Mexico City GP attracting over 400,000 fans each. Also, the series is generating considerable buzz on social media, gaining nearly 30 million new followers last year, per Huddle Up. This makes F1 not only one of the world’s most popular sports leagues on social media but the fastest-growing.
F1 returns this weekend with its first double-header of the year at the Chinese GP in Shanghai. Expect Norris to build on his momentum, continuing to prove himself as a world championship-calibre driver in the formidable MCL39. Verstappen, chasing a fifth consecutive title, will be determined to challenge the British pilot once again. Meanwhile, 40-year-old Lewis Hamilton is eager to rebound from a disappointing debut with his new team, where he scraped into the top 10, as he embarks on one final late-career surge in Ferrari red. With high stakes, drivers and teams will push harder than ever, and F1’s unstoppable growth shows no sign of slowing down.
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