Formulation 1 returns from its annual summer time break with this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, the primary of 10 races remaining within the sport’s longest season to this point. ESPN studies race viewership from its U.S. protection of F1 races maintained its run of constructive momentum of the previous few years by way of the opening half of the season, with the audiences pacing forward of final 12 months’s full season common.
After defending world champion Max Verstappen began the season with 4 wins within the first 5 races, competitors took a determined upswing, and that has been mirrored within the race audiences. Six of eight races within the stretch with comparable occasions in 2023 produced year-over-year viewership beneficial properties with 5 occasion viewership information set.
After the primary 14 races of the season, stay F1 race telecasts are averaging 1.2 million viewers throughout ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, a rise over final 12 months’s full-season common of 1.1 million. The 2023 season was the second most-viewed ever on U.S. tv, following the file common of 1.21 million set in 2022.
ESPN’s viewership this season has steadily grown because the first 5 races of the season, which had been affected by schedule adjustments. The primary two races (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia) had been on Saturday mornings relatively than the standard Sunday, and the following three (Australia, Japan, China) had been held in in a single day hours. The Japan and China races weren’t held early within the season final 12 months.
Highlights within the information famous by ESPN embrace:
- The Miami Grand Prix in Might was the most-viewed stay F1 race ever on U.S. tv with a median viewers of three.1 million for the race portion of the ABC telecast.
- The Monaco Grand Prix in Might on ABC set an occasion file with a median of 1.965 million viewers.
- The Canadian Grand Prix in June on ABC set an occasion file with a median of 1.8 million viewers.
- The British Grand Prix in June set an occasion file with 1.3 million common viewers, additionally the most important viewers ever for a stay F1 race on ESPN2.
- 5 consecutive races had year-over-year viewership beneficial properties: Japan, Miami, Monaco, Canada and Spain. (China and Imola weren’t run in 2023). The viewers for the Austrian Grand Prix was basically even with 2023 and the Belgian Grand Prix viewers was barely down.
ESPN’s in style commercial-free presentation of F1 races will proceed by way of the remaining 10 occasions, with telecast presenting sponsorship by Mercedes-Benz. Seven of the ten races will probably be simulcast on ESPN+ with the 2 extra supplemental viewing choices of the Onboard Cameras Channel and the Driver Tracker Channel.
As was the case earlier this 12 months for the Miami race, SportsCenter and different ESPN information platforms will once more have expanded, on-site protection from the U.S. Grand Prix at Circuit of The Americas and the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the 2 remaining U.S. races on the F1 calendar.
Reside protection of this Sunday’s Dutch GP on ESPN and ESPN+ begins with Grand Prix Sunday beginning at 7:30am ET.
