The 2022 Formula One Miami Grand Prix, which took place last weekend in Florida, drew the largest audience for a live Formula 1 event broadcast in the United States of America. Formula 1’s regular broadcaster in the US is ESPN but parent network ABC was in charge of the Miami Grand Prix broadcast, which helped boost viewership. An average live audience of 2.6 million people watched the event.
The qualifying session and the free practice sessions were broadcast on ESPN. Qualifying drawing 953,000 viewers and the first practice session on the new Miami International Autodrome attracted 398,000. These were the largest qualifying and practice audiences since Formula 1 returned to being broadcast on ESPN four years ago.
Formula 1’s figures compared favourably with those for NASCAR, America’s most popular form of motorsport, which held its Darlington 400 on the same day, drawing an audience of 2.614 million.
An average 735,000 people between the ages of 18-49 watched the Miami Grand Prix. This is a key demographic reflecting the younger audience growth F1 claims it has seen from the popularity of Netflix’s Drive To Survive series. They represent between 28% of F1’s viewers, which compares favourably to NASCAR’s 19%.
The 2021 Formula 1 race in the Unites States drew an average audience of 1.2 million, the most viewed in the US in 2021, showing a significant increase in audience to Miami.
The average US audience for F1 races in 2020 was 609,000 viewers, growing by over a third to average 949,000 viewers per race in 2021. For the 2022 campaign, the sport confirmed an average of 1.4 million US viewers per GP, exceeding last year’s most-watched event by 200,000.
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