2026 has been a big milestone for Formula 1, marking a new era of regulations, new teams and new drivers. Besides, the advent of new technologies, other than the opportunity to try and develop them, also triggers different views from the followers of the sport. Over to Formula 1 2026 half year review

Formula 1’s President and CEO, Stefano Domenicali, categorically stated that he is “very happy” about “the future in front of us”. He has enough reason in the growing numbers across fandom, TV viewership and fan growth. As for people, he points out there is plenty of action on the track that gives people even more reason to love the sport. The information below touches upon TV viewership, social engagements, event attendance, fan reaction and more at the half-year point.

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

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, race weekends have seen TV audiences grow up to five times larger than in 2025.

• The British Grand Prix received an audience of 18 million viewers, across Brazil’s TV Globo and SportTV3, a record 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 while the Japanese and Belgian grand prix delivered their highest audience count in recent years.
• In China, weekend TV audiences watching the Chinese Grand Prix more than doubled year on year
• The Monaco Grand Prix reached nearly 80 million viewers globally, up double digits versus 2025

New and renewed Media Rights deals
Formula 1 continues to develop and evolve its new broadcast partnership with Apple, already delivering excellent viewership and engagement across its entire portfolio of platforms. 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)

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, and allowing the Bahrain Grand Prix to be held here
  •  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 App

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. If fan reaction is anything to go by, 66% voted the racing as either ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’ so far this year, compared with 60% in the last season.

ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance)

In June the commitment of becoming Net Zero by 2030 was reaffirmed, having delivered a 35% reduction (including SAFc) in its carbon footprint compared with the 2018 baseline.

Carbon reduction highlights include:

• Factories and Facilitiesemissions 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.

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