Record breaking viewing figures, countries desperate to outbid the other in the hope of holding an F1 Grand Prix and Andretti Global waiting to join the roster of F1 teams reminds us that business is booming in the pinnacle of motorsport. An impressive feat in the wake of a global pandemic which has seen industries hit hard. F1 also made many cutbacks in teams and throughout the paddock coupled with the cost cap. Just how successful 2021 has been for F1 was shared at the recent Liberty Media Corporation 2021 Q4 Earnings Call.

Formula One's President and CEO, Stefano Domenicali as well as Liberty Media's Chief Accounting and Principal Financial Officer, Brian Wendling spoke during the conference call and the transcript was made public. The comments shared revealed that the gripping battle on track between Max Verstappen and Sir Lewis Hamilton produced record breaking figures off track.

Greg Maffei, Liberty’s President and CEO looked back at 2021 and reflected on a gripping F1 championship which resulted in a cumulative tv viewer amount of 1.55 billion. The highest race viewership being the widely publicised figure of almost 109 million viewers for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which rivaled the Super Bowl. Beyond this, attendance was up 14% on like-for-like races. The good news did not stop there as Formula One came in at number two of the 102 Global Motor Sports championships which are evaluated by the FIA on a Sustainable Championship Index - ahead of rival championships Extreme E, MotoGP and NASCAR.

Formula One's President and CEO, Stefano Domenicali; stated that “The 2021 season will be discussed for decades to come as one of the greatest.” Before going on to reveal that they had sold 2.6 million tickets in Grandstands around the globe despite being limited in capacity due to COVID.

The top three events on the list each had an attendance over 350,000 and those were the US Grand Prix, British Grand Prix and Mexican Grand Prix. Meanwhile, a further 11 Grands Prix attracted crowds of over 100,000 people. Domenicali shared the precise figures as reported in the transcript on seekingalpha.com.

“Our total Cumulative TV audience over the season was 1.55 billion, an increase of 4% over 2020. The average audience per race was 70.3 million with our biggest audiences of 108.7 million tuning in for the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Markets that saw significant growth in cumulative audiences were the Netherlands, Italy, the UK, Spain and the US.”

The F1 Sprint which generates the grid order for Sunday’s Grand Prix received mixed reviews at the time, but it was a ratings winner – as Domenicali outlined.

“Our Sprint events proved to be a draw with a TV average audience uplift of 70% for the weekend. Looking only at markets where like-for-like broadcasting arrangement well maintained across 2020 and 2021, the average audiences was 60.3 million up to plus 13% year-on-year and the best since 2013.”

With Mick Schumacher joining the F1 grid in his rookie season and a rejuvenated Sebastian Vettel racing at Aston Martin, the German audience in 2021 showed a ‘significant growth of plus 55% year-on-year.’ Which shows whenever the German Grand Prix returns to the F1 calendar – it will surely be a sell-out.  

When Liberty Media acquired Formula One it was very clear that social media was an area that they were targeting. Therefore, it is little surprise to hear that in 2021, F1’s social media followers grew 40% to 49.1 million. However, social media goes beyond followers which is why engagements, mentions and hashtag data was also shared by F1’s CEO:

“We tallied 1.5 billion engagements with the seven billion video views. F1 web and app unique users video views and page views were all up double digit. The digital share of video minutes consumed increased from 10% in 2020 to 16% in 2021.”

Data heavy statistics indeed from Domenicali but the heart of F1 is always the drivers and this was not lost on the CEO:

“On the driver front, we look forward to the new pairing of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell that have turn over Alex Albon and we welcome a new driver from the grid with Guanyu Zhou joining Alfa Romeo who would provide excitement opportunity to engage and grow our fan base in China.”

The 2021 F1 season audience and the attendance figures broke viewership and engagement records, building upon the huge momentum gathered in 2020. The full series broadcast in 2021, achieved over 23 million views across digital platforms, a 103% year-on-year increase. With Guanyu Zhou now joining the F1 circus in 2022, the China market is certainly going to expand which means that the only way is up as F1 may become bigger than ever.

However, any concerns about the impact of this growth on the environment are lessened due to the fact future changes will also include the implementation of the highly anticipated E10 fuel in the F1 cars. This revolutionary fuel comprises 10% ethanol and Domenicali explained that this “will reduce CO2 emission and a free zone performance development for the Power Unit from March 1st.”

The future plans do not stop there though as sustainability is clearly a major focus for Formula One as well as their promoters' partners.

“Our initiatives can take many forms including 100% sustainable fuels in the 2026 hybrid engine, renewable energy sources, targets around net-zero carbon emission, reducing the capital footprint, increasing recycling efforts, significant savings on overall energy costs and a large initiative working with our promoters partners on event sustainability.” Domenicali announced on the conference call.

Every circus has its ringmaster and Stefano Domenicali’s remarks show that F1 is in pole position to capture even more of the market:

“We believe the new regulation and the changes to the cars, combined with old rivalries and new drivers, will provide more drama on and off the track.”

If this comes to pass, as predicted, then the viewing figures of F1 in 2022 may reach unprecedented levels. In doing so, the sport would become even more attractive for those watching and those hoping to join. Consequently, the real winner will be the fans – and that sounds good to me!