Formula 1 returns from its annual summer break with this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, the first of 10 races remaining in the sport’s longest season to date. ESPN reports race viewership from its U.S. coverage of F1 races maintained its run of positive momentum of the past few years through the opening half of the season, with the audiences pacing ahead of last year’s full season average.
After defending world champion Max Verstappen started the season with four wins in the first five races, competition took a decided upswing, and that has been reflected in the race audiences. Six of eight races in the stretch with comparable events in 2023 produced year-over-year viewership gains with five event viewership records set.
After the first 14 races of the season, live F1 race telecasts are averaging 1.2 million viewers across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, an increase over last year’s full-season average of 1.1 million. The 2023 season was the second most-viewed ever on U.S. television, following the record average of 1.21 million set in 2022.
ESPN’s viewership this season has steadily grown since the first five races of the season, which were affected by schedule changes. The first two races (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia) were on Saturday mornings rather than the usual Sunday, and the next three (Australia, Japan, China) were held in overnight hours. The Japan and China races were not held early in the season last year.
Highlights in the data noted by ESPN include:
- The Miami Grand Prix in May was the most-viewed live F1 race ever on U.S. television with an average audience of 3.1 million for the race portion of the ABC telecast.
- The Monaco Grand Prix in May on ABC set an event record with an average of 1.965 million viewers.
- The Canadian Grand Prix in June on ABC set an event record with an average of 1.8 million viewers.
- The British Grand Prix in June set an event record with 1.3 million average viewers, also the largest audience ever for a live F1 race on ESPN2.
- Five consecutive races had year-over-year viewership gains: Japan, Miami, Monaco, Canada and Spain. (China and Imola were not run in 2023). The audience for the Austrian Grand Prix was essentially even with 2023 and the Belgian Grand Prix audience was slightly down.
ESPN’s popular commercial-free presentation of F1 races will continue through the remaining 10 events, with telecast presenting sponsorship by Mercedes-Benz. Seven of the 10 races will be simulcast on ESPN+ with the two additional supplemental viewing options of the Onboard Cameras Channel and the Driver Tracker Channel.
As was the case earlier this year for the Miami race, SportsCenter and other ESPN news platforms will again have expanded, on-site coverage from the U.S. Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas and the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the two remaining U.S. races on the F1 calendar.
Live coverage of this Sunday’s Dutch GP on ESPN and ESPN+ begins with Grand Prix Sunday starting at 7:30am ET.