2026 has been a big moment for Formula 1,welcoming a new era of regulations, new teams and new drivers. Change also presents opportunities to grow and trial new technology that spectators of the sport will naturally have different views on.

In an exclusive roundtable with international media, Formula 1’s President and CEO, Stefano Domenicali, stated that he is “very happy” about “the future in front of us”, highlighting that “numbers are growing” across fandom, TV viewership and fan growth. He added that the “…championship is becoming fascinating. There is a lot of action on the track. People are loving it.”

Commercially speaking, Stefano outlined that the sport is “a reference for all the sport major league that are following us to understand how this is possible. This is possible because we are watching, we are listening at the very big micro world that is now bigger and bigger. And the only way to be successful is to be relevant for the different communities we want to embrace.”

When asked about the strategic move to have Apple as the sport’s US broadcast partner, Stefano highlighted that Formula 1 is “changing the way” rights holders monitor, produce, and assess content, in a move towards creating “bigger awareness [in markets, with] bigger streaming content”, adding that “we [recently] saw that the numbers are very, very good”.

The information below lays out the data for TV viewership, social engagements, event attendance, fan reaction and more. While only at the halfway point in the season, with many more races to come, the overall landscape and health of the sport is very positive, with an ongoing upward trajectory.

Formula 1 half year statistics

Race Attendance

• All events this year have been sold-out – 11 consecutive sell outs
• Nearly 3.7 million people have attended race weekends this year vs 3.4 million compared to the same races in 2025 (+6% year on year)
• Six new circuit attendance records have been broken this year:

o Australia (484,000)
o Canada (360,000)
o Austria (320,000)
o Silverstone (564,000)
o Belgium (400,000)
o Hungary (310,000)

• Versus 2025, some attendance increases include: highlights include:

o Japanese Grand Prix up 18%
o British Grand Prix up 13%
o Austrian Grand Prix up 7%

TV Viewership

• The sport continues to see growth in global TV audiences, led by several key strategic markets, including Brazil, Italy and China.
• In Brazil, total TV audiences have grown significantly year on year, with race weekends delivering audiences up to five times larger than in 2025.

o The British Grand Prix reached a record 18 million viewers across Brazil’s TV Globo and SportTV3, generating the highest audience for the event in eight years and the largest single-market audience for any F1 race globally since 2020.

• In Italy, TV audiences are up 27% through the British Grand Prix compared to 2025.

o Several races delivered their largest audiences in Italy in recent years, including:

• Japanese Grand Prix (highest audience since 2017)
• Belgian Grand Prix (highest audience since 2019).
• In China, weekend TV audiences watching the Chinese Grand Prix more than doubled year on year, while increased coverage and growing fandom has maintained strong performance for other races this year.
• The Monaco Grand Prix reached nearly 80 million viewers globally, up double digits versus 2025.

New and renewed Media Rights deals
This year the sport has extended partnerships with international broadcasters including:

• ESPN LATAM (through 2028)
• beIN (through 2030)
• Kayo SPORTS (through 2027)
• Sky UK & Ireland (through 2034)
• Sky Italy (through 2032)

Meanwhile, the sport continues to develop and evolve its new broadcast partnership with Apple, already delivering excellent viewership and engagement across its entire portfolio of platforms.

This included Apple’s first ever simulcast with Netflix for the Canadian Grand Prix while also showing Drive to Survive, attracting a younger and more diverse audience that continues to break new ground for how avid and casual race fans consumer the sport.

New and renewed races
The sport’s global growth has led to an increase in host city interest, both from existing and new venue locations, while conflict in the middle east has impacted race scheduling and logistics planning, including:

• Malaysia announced as a new race location for 2026, in collaboration with Bahrain
• A five-year agreement signed with Türkiye’s Istanbul Park through 2031
• A 10-year extension for the Las Vegas Grand Prix through 2037
• Multi-year alternating extensions for the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (2028, 2030, 2032) and Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (2027, 2029, 2031)
• Portugal’s Portimão returning to the calendar with a multi-year agreement for 2027 and 2028, announced at the end of 2025

F1 Social Media and F1.com/App

• +125 million social followers, an increase of +19% YoY
• F1’s Instagram platform continues to be one of the most engaged channels across world sport
• +12% year on year increase in social impressions across social accounts
• +54% year on year increase in video views, driven by strong TikTok engagement
• +70 million views across social platforms for the Drivers’ Parade LEGO activation at Silverstone this year
• +7 million hours of viewing time spent on expanded video content across F1.com and F1 Ap

Fan reaction

Formula 1’s Fan Voice polling forum asks for the reaction to on and on track action from 60,000 fans. It is a true cross section of fans both new and old to hear their view on a range of topics.

Last season 60% of the fans voted the racing as either Good or Excellent, vs 66% so far this year.

Below are the percentages of Good or Excellent polling across the races so far this year, compared to the same races last year:

• Australia 61% (down from 86% when there was a very dramatic race with a wet track)
• China 68% (up 18%)
• Japan 48% (up 30%)
• Miami 70% (flat vs 2025)
• Canada 84% (up 15%)
• Monaco 47% (up 21%)
• Barcelona 76% (flat vs 2025)
• Austria 72% (down 4% vs last year)
• Great Britain 69% (down 20% vs 2025 due to the very eventful race in 2025 and a safety car ending in 2026)
• Belgium 61% (up 24%)
• Hungary (flat vs 2025)

Growth and Demographic Trends

The global fan base continues to increase each year, with more than 830 million people following the sport, up +64% compared to 2018 figures that marked the first full year after Liberty Media’s acquisition.

Currently, 42% of the sport’s audience is female, with women making up a staggering three-quarters of new fans, while 43% of the total fanbase is under 35 years old.

Hospitality

Across the races so far this year, Formula 1 has:

• Hosted more than 60,000 guests in its hospitality spaces
• Increased hospitality guest numbers by:

o 42% in Monaco
o 22% in Silverstone

F1 Sim Racing World Championship

The 2026 F1 Sim Racing World Championship returned, featuring:

• 9 teams
• 12 rounds at four separate events.
• The opening round at the global esports and gaming festival, DreamHack Birmingham in front of 50,000 fans
• 3 events hosted at Formula 1’s state-of-the-art, multi-purpose sim racing studio within its Media and Technology Centre in Biggin Hill
• 72% increase to nearly 13 million live viewers across YouTube, Twitch and Facebook compared to 2025
• 269 million social media views and 84 million social video views across content so far this year

Licensee Partners

Formula 1 signed 20 new consumer products licensing partners in H1 2026, with product launches and announcements to be rolled out throughout 2026 and 2027. Those that have been launched already this year include:

• Disney’s Fuel the Magic campaign, featuring collaborations with UNIQLO, Gentle Monster, MINISO, and WebToon
• Fanatec
• Premium apparel ranges with Off Season and Nahmias in line with the Miami Grand Prix
• Lights Out trading card collection with Topps, which sold out within 3 minutes
• Hasbro’s F1 special edition of the Monopoly Board Game, with a bespoke Monopoly Grand Prix™ game element.
• DK Books publishing agreement
• LEGO’s 22 minicars for the British Grand Prix’s driver parade
• Hot Wheels’ Tiniest Team Principal campaign

ESG

In June we announced that the sport remains on track to achieve its commitment of becoming Net Zero by 2030, having delivered a 35% reduction (including SAFc) in its carbon footprint compared to the 2018 baseline. To read the full 2026 Sustainability Report, see here.

Carbon reduction highlights include:

• Factories and Facilities emissions across the sport have reduced by over 37,000 tCO2e, representing a 64% reduction against 2018 and a 14% reduction compared to 2024. These savings have been achieved through a continued pursuit by Formula 1 and F1 Teams to transition to renewable energy sources to power their factory and office sites.
• Travel emissions have reduced by over 21,000 tCO2e, representing a 27% reduction against 2018. Emissions from travel will continue to decrease as F1 Teams scale their investments in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and FOM continues its remote broadcast operations.
• Logistics emissions have decreased by almost 20,000 tCO2e, representing a 29% reduction against 2018 and a 21% reduction compared to 2024. This has been achieved by Formula 1 continuing to implement its ultra efficient logistics strategy including lower carbon solutions across land, air and sea transport for the first time.
• Event Operations emissions have decreased by over 1,000 tCO2e, representing a 6% reduction against 2018 and a 17% reduction on a per-race basis. This progress has been achieved during a period of significant growth with the calendar increasing from 21 events in 2018 to 24 events in 2025. The reduction has been driven by incredible collaboration with our promoters and a continued transition to renewable energy sources at grands prix.

Partnerships

Formula 1’s growth not only is evident in fan growth and satisfaction, but commercial growth and support from an ever-growing group of exclusive partners. So far this year the sport has added a number of premium global brands to its roster of world-leading organisations that continue to accelerate the sport forwards. To see the full breakdown of individual partner activations, see here.

New F1 partners in 2026:

• Standard Chartered: Official Wealth Management partner
• Marsh: Official Risk Partner and Official Insurance Brokering Partner
• FanDuel: Official Betting Operators
• Betway: Official Betting Operators
• Flexjet: Official Private Aviation Supplier
• Fever: Official Supplier

F1 Partner renewals / extensions:

• Pirelli: extended as single tyre supplier for the FIA Formula One World Championship until 2028.
• Allwyn: extension to 2029
• Salesforce: extension and launch of new fan engagement agent