This weekend Miami Grand Prix used to be the most-watched F1 broadcast in the US in the sport’s historyAnd it wasn’t even close. There are many factors that account for this, including the fact that the event was broadcast on terrestrial ABC instead of its typical ESPN counterpart, the race takes place in the Eastern time zone so it aired at 4 p.m. Eastern time instead of the normal early mornings we’re used to seeing, and to some extent, Americans wanted to watch it. home race. All 3.1 million Americans watched Lando Norris take his first win on Sunday, a new record taken from the inaugural 2022 Miami Grand Prix watched by only 2.6 million Americans.
This race was notable in that it featured a winner other than Max Verstappen, and while Lando won through a combination of luck and strategy, his McLaren was also on pace. level to fend off Verstappen throughout the competition. The Miami track isn’t much to write home about, and the on-track battles are few and far between, but I guess it’s pretty good. What do you think about the Miami Grand Prix? Are you one of the 3.1 million people we’re watching?
Interestingly, Saturday’s sprint race on ESPN attracted an average of 946,000 viewers, the largest audience for a sprint race in the US since that sprint format was adopted in 2021. For all the complaints about the sprint format, seeing that event getting nearly a million views on a Saturday afternoon was a revelation. I, for one, appreciate sprint races. More races are better.
The sport has been growing in popularity among Americans over the past few seasons, and it doesn’t look like the growth is slowing down anytime soon. I don’t expect this record to stand for long – perhaps the events at COTA or Las Vegas later in the season will eclipse this record in just a few months.
