Source: BlackBook Motorsport
Formula One continues to accelerate in the United States, posting strong viewership figures during the European leg of the season — but there’s a sharp curve ahead that could complicate its growth story.
The recent Hungarian Grand Prix averaged 1.22 million US viewers on ESPN, making it the second-highest US audience ever for that specific race. Although slightly below the 2022 edition (1.25 million), this year’s performance still marks an 11.2% year-over-year increase — and a broader upward trend that’s now evident across the entire calendar.
Outside of the Miami Grand Prix, every race this season has recorded year-over-year growth in US viewership. Midway through the 2025 season, Formula One is now averaging 1.36 million US viewers per race, up from 1.22 million at the same stage in 2024. For just the European rounds, that number rises to 1.4 million, the highest performance since ESPN took over rights in 2018.
Even more notably, the Hungarian GP brought Formula One within one million viewers of NASCAR on the same weekend — something that only happened four times in total last season, and much later in the year. NASCAR’s own Iowa event averaged 2.17 million viewers on USA Network, slightly below expectations when compared to previous USA Network airings such as Richmond (2.22 million) or last year’s Iowa debut (2.7 million).
The NASCAR-F1 Viewership Gap Is Narrowing
As BlackBook Motorsport notes, the trajectory is clear: Formula One is climbing, and NASCAR is plateauing.
Despite NASCAR’s recent partnerships with Amazon Prime Video and Warner Bros Discovery’s TNT, the Cup Series has now gone 14 consecutive races without surpassing 3 million viewers, the longest such streak on record. That’s in sharp contrast to last season, where that figure was surpassed 12 times by this stage.
In fact, NASCAR’s regular season is now almost certain to fall below a 3 million average per race — a new low.
But Is Formula One About to Undercut Its Own Momentum?
Just as Formula One finds itself within touching distance of NASCAR in US popularity, a major shift could reshape the narrative entirely.
Multiple reports suggest that Apple is closing in on a US$150 million per year deal to take exclusive broadcast rights for Formula One in the US starting next season. If confirmed, the championship would exit linear TV — a move that could risk short-term viewership losses just as the sport is finally gaining mass-market traction.
This raises critical strategic questions:
- Will American audiences follow Formula One behind a streaming paywall?
- Can Apple deliver the cultural penetration ESPN has been building?
- And will the commercial upside offset potential reach erosion?
This moment represents a classic case of platform trade-offs — reach vs revenue, control vs distribution. For Formula One, which has already enjoyed a “Netflix bump” through Drive to Survive, the next leap forward will require a far more complex recalibration of media strategy in the US.
365247 Insight:
Formula One’s US growth is real, quantifiable, and culturally significant. But the pending Apple deal marks a critical inflection point: is this the launchpad into digital dominance, or a misstep that could stall momentum?
We’ll be watching closely.
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Credit: Reporting and data sourced from BlackBook Motorsport
IMAGE: Getty Images
