ABC’s broadcast of Lando Norris’s first F1 win had an average of 3.1 million people watching. That’s more than the 2.6 million who watched the first Miami race in 2022.
This is also a 48% jump from last year, when 2.1 million people watched the second Miami race.
Even though the Miami race happens later in the day for viewers in Europe and Asia, it’s been great for getting American viewers. The three most watched F1 races in the US have all been in Miami.
The sprint race on Saturday, shown on ESPN, had 946,000 viewers, the most for a sprint race since it started in 2021. Qualifying on Saturday had 625,000 viewers.
This increase in American interest in the Miami race is good news for F1’s TV partner, especially after the start of the season had mixed numbers.
The first race in Bahrain had 1.12 million viewers, down from 1.31 million in 2023. The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix had 920,000 viewers, a 40% drop from last year.
Part of this drop might be because the race was shown on a Saturday on ESPN2.
The Chinese Grand Prix, which was on at 3am Eastern Time, had 626,000 viewers. This is a lot more than the 268,000 who watched the last Shanghai race in 2019.
With F1 working hard to get more people watching in Miami, a crowd of 270,000 at the track last weekend showed there’s a big interest in grand prix racing.
Daniel Ricciardo said the Miami GP felt like Super Bowl week with all the excitement around it.
“It feels like, and I’m not trying to say it’s Super Bowl, but Super Bowl week,” he said.
“It’s like a whole week of things. I feel our weeks have built out now, not to the extent of a Super Bowl week but it’s getting there with events and people are interested.
“It’s from a Wednesday onwards, and it’s not just the Sunday that they’re excited for the race. We had a really good crowd, a lot of young people I feel, and a lot of new audience coming in. So, it’s good to grow the sport for sure.”
