F1 in America: How did it Grow? A SportzNation Special Report

Matt Hylen
Aug 24
6 min read

Photo by Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images via nbcnews.com

Writer: Matt Hylen

When you think of what sports are popular in America, the mind instantly goes to football or basketball, baseball or hockey. Now, when you think of motorsport, NASCAR has dominated viewership in America.

However, over the past couple of years, Formula One racing has started to join that conversation among popular sports in the US. A sport that was once viewed as a sport like soccer (popular everywhere but in the US basically) is now getting billions of dollars spent on it every year.

F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali tells Motorsport.com when discussing the growth in the USA., “Over the past five years, we have implemented a very targeted strategy to bring Formula 1 ever closer to the American fans.”

But who or what is responsible for F1's rise in popularity and viewership in the United States? How did it get so popular so fast? What does the upward trend really look like? Let's dive in.

Drive to Survive

If there is one thing most Americans love, it is drama. America puts together hundreds of different TV shows that will take you behind the scenes, or just shows that present high stakes due to the drama they elevate to the forefront. That is where Drive to Survive comes in.

Drive to Survive started airing on March 8th, 2019. The show was basically an effort by the sport to give their audience, especially Americans, a way to get to know the drivers/teams on a deeper level, getting an inside scoop on every major storyline that happened in the most recent F1 season. To make a comparison, it is very similar to the way in which the NFL creates its show, Hard Knocks, but rather than just following one team, they follow every team and every major storyline.

Ever since its release, Drive to Survive has done major numbers. Based on data from medium.com taken in 2023, the first four seasons of Drive to Survive achieved better viewership results than 50% of all series on Netflix, with most of the seasons even performing in the top 25%.

In addition, in an article done by The Athletic, according to a March 2022 Morning Consult poll of almost 1,900 self-identified adult U.S. Formula 1 fans, 53 percent cited Drive to Survive as a reason for becoming F1 race viewers.

Drive to Survive created a method in which Americans could learn and develop connections to the sport in a way that not many sports can replicate. Netflix has created similar shows to attract viewership in sports like golf or tennis, but neither has done as well as Drive to Survive. The viewership trend is evident, and though it may be down 17% between 2024 and 2025, it still is a glowing representation of America's growing interest in the sport since 2020.

The COVID-19 Pandemic

Drive to Survive and the COVID-19 Pandemic go hand in hand when it comes to American viewership. In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced people worldwide to stay indoors indefinitely, many Americans turned to Netflix to alleviate the boredom and anxiety of lockdown. So, when the new season of Drive to Survive was released just before the lockdowns, it captivated numerous Americans who were previously unaware of F1 with the sport's distinctly European allure and intense drama.

Moreover, Formula 1 was among the first live sports to resume during the pandemic. Fans of typically American sports such as football, baseball, basketball, and hockey longed for the shared experience of watching live sports with others on social media, and F1 stepped in to satisfy that desire.

The numbers during COVID are staggering. American viewership (on a per-race average) went from 608,000 to 949,000. That is about a 54% increase in just one year.

That desire turned into fandom, as the enthusiasm for F1 in America persisted even after the pandemic. In 2021, a record number of fans attended the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of The Americas (Austin, Texas), leading to the establishment of two more American tracks on the F1 calendar (Miami and Las Vegas), numerous American sponsorships, and more content tailored to the American audience.

Without the pandemic, F1 would not have seen the meteoric rise it has over the past five years. The shutdown of American sports gave a sport like F1, which persisted through the pandemic, the spotlight to showcase the amazing aspects of their sport. Millions of Americans fell in love, which can be seen in the viewership numbers every year since 2020. The rise in America from 2020 to 2021 was no fluke, though, but rather just the perfect time to have one of their best seasons ever.

F1's Deal with ESPN

When F1 struck a deal with ESPN in 2018, it gave the sport the foundation it needed to flourish in the United States. With ESPN being the largest Sports broadcasting company in the Country, F1's recognition went through the roof since the platform had an easy and consistent viewership method.

According to blackbookmotorsport.com in 2018, Formula One averaged 539,190 viewers, a figure surpassed in all but one race in 2024. That exception was the Japanese Grand Prix, which started at 1 am ET and averaged 484,000 viewers. Races held in the Americas in 2018 hinted at the rising interest among the US audience, with Canada (967,000 viewers), Austin (881,000 viewers), and Mexico (769,000 viewers) accounting for three of the four largest audiences that year.

According to formula1.com, in 2019, Formula 1 was averaging 671,000 viewers on ESPN networks, a 19% increase from the average of 561,000 in 2018 on ESPN networks and a 24% rise from the 542,000 average on NBC networks in 2017. Only three out of the first 18 races that season have not experienced year-over-year viewership growth on ESPN networks. Additionally, the demographic of individuals aged 18-34 has expanded by 81% since 2018 and is up 87% from 2017.

The 2021 Formula One season averaged 934,000 viewers per race on the US sports pay-TV network ESPN, marking a 54% increase from 2020. This audience figure for 2021 also represents a 39% rise compared to the 2019 season, when ESPN's live Formula One coverage averaged 672,000 viewers per race.

ESPN also confirmed that its 2021 Formula One audience broke its previous all-time record for the series, surpassing the 1995 season, which saw an average of 748,000 viewers per race.

The season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where Max Verstappen defeated Lewis Hamilton on the final lap to win the drivers' championship, attracted 963,000 viewers on ESPN2. Given the minimum nine-hour time difference between the US and Abu Dhabi, the race aired in the early morning. The broadcaster estimates that viewership would have been higher if a later time slot had been available, according to sportspro.com.

This year, according to espnpressroom.com, across ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC, F1 races are drawing an average of 1.3 million viewers, which is a 7% increase compared to the season-to-date average for 2024 and a 17% rise over the entire 2024 season average.

Among the younger demographic of individuals aged 18-49, races are attracting an average of 511,000 viewers, marking a 14 percent increase over the 2024 season-to-date average and a 24 percent rise over the full 2024 season average.

Is F1 Here to Stay in America?

Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images North America via bloomberg.com — Photo by *Mark Thompson/Getty Images North America* via bloomberg.com

In short, absolutely. With viewership extremely steady, a major fight for broadcasting rights between ESPN and Apple, and Cadillac (an American motor company) coming into the sport in 2026, America is primed for a continuous rise in viewership. The sport has cracked the American code, and has done everything right in order to appeal to the US audiences.

F1 took advantage of every opportunity it has gotten since the pandemic in 2020. Before then, viewership in the US plateaued, but the sport found a way. Its political nature, drama-filled seasons, and complex concepts have taken the US by storm, with no real sign of slowing down. All in all, the numbers do not lie, so it is not crazy to expect F1 in America to become close to, if not one of, the major sports in America within the next few years.