Having initially purchased a minority stake in 2016, Liberty Media completed its takeover in January 2017 to succeed CVC Capital Partners as the commercial rights holder of Formula 1.<\/p>\n
While already an immensely popular sport globally, the American entertainment consortium had identified F1, then led by Bernie Ecclestone, as a sport that was simply not making the most of what was possible in terms of reach.<\/p>\n
The sport now reports a global fanbase that reaches over 830 million people, representing a year-on-year increase of 12 per cent, and a 64 per cent increase relative to 2018, the first full year after Liberty Media\u2019s acquisition.<\/p>\n
The F1 audience demographic continues to skew ever younger too, with 43 per cent of the total fanbase now under 35, with growth of 51 million fans under 35 year-on-year.<\/p>\n
Over the last year, 57 per cent of all new fans were under 35, while the gender imbalance that once seemed impossible to overcome is well on the way to finding equilibrium: 42 per cent is now female, compared to 37 per cent in 2018, with a growth of 43 million female fans year-on-year. In 2025, 48 per cent of all new fans were female, while the figures for the first half of 2026 show this has increased to a circa 75\/25 split in favour of female fans onboarding.<\/p>\n
It seems impossible to imagine now, but 10 years ago, F1\u2019s online visibility was in a very different place to nowadays. In August 2016, F1\u2019s Twitter account boasted just two million followers signed up, who were rewarded with a sterile feed of press conference transcripts, isolated snapshots from the TV world feed, and zero attempts to engage or entertain.<\/p>\n
12.6 million followers are now on board, with the social media feed full of video, eye-catching graphics and statistics, and a lively, involved community of fans.<\/p>\n
On Instagram, the growth is even more pronounced: 1.5 million followers in August 2016 has grown to 43.5 million.<\/p>\n
Platform
\nAugust 2016
\nAugust 2026<\/p>\n
Instagram
\n1.5 million
\n43.5 million<\/p>\n
YouTube
\n210,000
\n11.8 million<\/p>\n
Twitter\/X
\n2.2 million
\n12.63 million<\/p>\n
Facebook
\n2.6 million
\n16.69 million<\/p>\n
On the financial side, F1\u2019s stock now trades at $100+, having traded at around $25 during 2015 and \u201916 \u2013 the uptick beginning almost immediately as Liberty Media took control of the sport\u2019s commercial elements.<\/p>\n
F1\u2019s stock now trades at over $100, having being valued at $25 at the time of Liberty Media\u2019s purchase.<\/p>\n Indeed, aside from an obvious downturn when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, F1\u2019s valuation has relentlessly climbed, year-on-year, to the point where it is now on the verge of reaching its highest-ever valuation.<\/p>\n Not only that, but F1 is no longer a niche sport with the perception that it was something to be consumed only by well-off but nerdy anoraks, while the young and trendy were off doing something, anything, else.<\/p>\n Instead, F1 is in cinemas, with a Brad Pitt swagger. It\u2019s on Netflix, where the\u00a0Drive to Survive\u00a0series has become a mainstay \u2013 not only anticipated by the F1 community, but by the global streaming market. F1 merchandise and team kit is in every shopfront, and landing at international airports now sees visitors greeted by sponsor ads featuring midfield drivers, once unthinkable in a world where only the likes of Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton may have broken through into the global consciousness.<\/p>\n But how was this all achieved? The answer is surprisingly simple. Ecclestone\u2019s approach to F1 was to maintain an air of exclusivity around the sport, making it feel haughty and disconnected from a world that, unlike soccer, had no easily accessible grassroots way for the average person to figure out what motorsport was all about.<\/p>\n Liberty Media\u2019s approach was to do the complete opposite: open it up, shout from the rooftops, and seek to bridge the gap between a motorsport paddock or pitlane, seen as a noisy, oily, fume-filled idiosyncracy, and the likes of venerated stadiums such as the Nou Camp, Bernabeu, or Wembley, and turn it into a similarly venerated place to be for any sports fan.<\/p>\n \u201cWe shouldn\u2019t forget Formula 1 was a big international sport, a global sport, when Bernie was running it, and what Bernie did with it over those many years \u2013 what he wrestled and did what he did with the sport \u2013 was pretty impressive, you know?\u201d Liam Parker says as PlanetF1 settled into his office in Formula 1\u2019s spacious hospitality unit at the Belgian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n Parker is an emerging force in the Formula 1 organisation, with his official title being that of chief communications and corporate relations officer. But his involvement in all things to do with the sport has seen him become a de facto right-hand man for the CEO, Stefano Domenicali, with the pair often inseparable during a weekend\u2019s business \u2013 to the point where Parker can step up to involvement with the likes of team boss meetings and F1 Commission appearances.<\/p>\n With a background in UK politics, Parker is a former press secretary to Mark Carney, before becoming special advisor to then-foreign secretary Boris Johnson, but his FOM role has seen him take on responsibility for dragging the sport into the limelight, with his job being to take F1 to a brand new audience. Initially working with Chase Carey, Parker\u2019s synergy with Carey\u2019s successor, Domenicali, has seen his own profile grow as he\u2019s taken on more and more responsibilities.<\/p>\n Kicking off with a question about how F1 has evolved over the 10 years of Liberty Media ownership as the decade mark approaches, Parker\u2019s political skills are evident: he barely needs to gather his thoughts before delivering a polished and measured assessment of what he\u2019s witnessed.<\/p>\n \u201cI think most people knew what Formula 1 was back in the day. They knew who [Ayrton] Senna was. They knew who Michael Schumacher was. They knew who Lewis [Hamilton] was, still, under Bernie, right? So I don\u2019t think we should forget that. He did a pretty amazing job on that front,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what they did at Liberty, and I was lucky that I came in almost in the first years of Liberty, so I can\u2019t compare it back but, when you talk to the people that were around at that time, from a team point of view, within the organisation of F1 itself and within the ecosystem, what they basically did is they took a look at this thing.<\/p>\n \u201cThey said, \u2018It\u2019s big, it\u2019s global, but it\u2019s under-monetised. It\u2019s underutilised. We\u2019re not doing what could be done with it, and we need to look at what we should do\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cI think some of the key components of that are, number one, let\u2019s just take some risks and try some stuff. And if it doesn\u2019t work, it doesn\u2019t work. And if it does, great, we\u2019ll keep doing it.<\/p>\n \u201cSecondly, we needed to open up the sport. It was so controlled here; you guys [media] being able to do anything in the paddock from a media point of view was very restricted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe drivers weren\u2019t allowed to post, the teams weren\u2019t allowed to post, and Sean [Bratches] and Chase\u2019s view was to open this up, allow the drivers to post social media, to start to create some content, and that became more accessible, more open, and grew the sport as an immediate touchpoint.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, if you\u2019re talking about the whole transition, it\u2019s kind of coming in stages, right? I think everyone looks just purely at Netflix and says that was it. Netflix was a big part, but there have been so many things along the road that were helping get to where it\u2019s got to.<\/p>\n \u201cOpening it up, talking to people in a different way, we didn\u2019t have a social media team at Formula 1, and if we did, we had two or three people posting two or three things a week.<\/p>\n \u201cGrowing that and using all the content and access and footage and everything we got around us and pushing to our fans was a big deal \u2013 not something I\u2019m taking personal credit for, but there was a mindset shift within the communications approach of \u2018let\u2019s just stop talking to the same people. Let\u2019s get out and tell Formula 1 as a story to a totally different demographic, to women, to young girls, to young boys, to people that are football fans, to people that are NBA fans. Let\u2019s go out and get to their news feeds rather than waiting for them to come to us\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIn and amongst all of that, people do forget that the most important thing to any growth of any sport is that the sport has to be good, and we\u2019ve been pretty lucky. Though there have been years of dominance in certain elements, we\u2019re pretty good with season finales, dramatic rivalries, the Verstappen era, last year.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we\u2019re changing regulations in the sport, and the on-track has been pretty good, and that allows us the strength to grow elsewhere.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the sport\u2019s good, you have the strength to push into Disney and Lego and social and otherwise. The long and short is that it was a mindset for Liberty to just be more open, less protectionist, and to monetise and maximise what Formula 1 was to a far greater audience, and almost drag it to that audience proactively in many, many different ways.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve seen the movie, you\u2019ve seen Netflix. Those are big touch points along the way, but they would never have happened if the sport wasn\u2019t good and the mindset of Liberty wasn\u2019t open to it.\u201d<\/p>\n PlanetF1.com\u2019s Thomas Maher sits with Liam Parker, F1\u2019s Chief Communications and Corporate Relations Officer.<\/p>\n With such unprecedented growth seeing Formula 1 becoming mainstream, to the point where it now boasts a stature that has seen it able to shut down the middle of Las Vegas for a night race, it would be easy to think that F1 is hitting a saturation point \u2013 a plateau where the fanbase stops growing, the demand slows, and its increasing visibility starts to dip.<\/p>\n That moment, Parker says, has not yet been reached. TV audiences and attendance figures continue to climb (more on that in a later article), but, in an age where the way fans consume media is rapidly evolving, the nature of evaluating reach is something Parker says will need to change along with it over the coming years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s natural for people to look at saturation points when you\u2019ve gone from A to B in such a short time. The sport\u2019s been around for 76 years, and you\u2019ve really only seen this huge acceleration in growth and reach in six or seven of those 76 years, and probably five or six out of those 10 of Liberty\u2019s,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cMomentum has only really grown very recently, and what that leads to, as an example, is people saying, \u2018America, three races there now. You must be hitting saturation\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThe argument back, and Stefano and Liberty would make this argument as well, is that 2014 had one race. We were looking at the U.S. and saying, \u2018One race? Can we maintain one race? Should we be looking elsewhere?\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cNow, we\u2019ve got three races, a fan base of 50 million plus and growing, reaching all different touch points, a younger audience, a more female audience, partnerships and sponsors from the U.S. market.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, in a place like the U.S., we\u2019ve only just scratched what\u2019s possible. But I think it looks to most people like a saturation point because so much has happened in such a short time.<\/p>\n \u201cMy argument would be that a lot has happened in a short time. So imagine what more can be delivered as those partnerships and those growth tentacles get deeper into the market.<\/p>\n \u201cIn certain places like the US, we don\u2019t yet have a US driver in Formula 1. We don\u2019t have other drivers in Formula 1. We don\u2019t have races in certain locations. But I still think there\u2019s a huge amount for us to do, and we\u2019re still evolving.<\/p>\n \u201cThe advent of AI and talking in different languages to customers, and growth of social media platforms, and diversity of content, and what you guys do [print media], what consumer lifestyle media do.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t look at it like that. It might be that the growth curve has been this, and the growth curve might be like that, but it still would be upwards. That would be my view.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd, as an insider seeing it, we never sit internally and think, \u2018What\u2019s our saturation point?\u2019 It\u2019s where the opportunity is.\u201d<\/p>\n The revolutionary F1 2026 regulations could have been a fly in the ointment for the sport\u2019s growth, given the vocal backlash against them by the drivers and the media, but the fanbase hasn\u2019t been put off by the on-track changes.<\/p>\n While there\u2019s an argument to be made that the regulations created an entertainment-led product, with a driver\u2019s natural abilities neutered by the need to focus on battery management and energy harvesting moreso than raw speed, audience and fan figures continue to thrive (also more on that in a later article!), but that doesn\u2019t mean change won\u2019t come to ensure this scenario doesn\u2019t change.<\/p>\n With FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem making it clear a V8 future awaits, the synergy and close working partnership between the FIA as the governing body and FOM as the commercial rights holder means there\u2019s no argument to be had about the next regulation cycle, and the importance of ensuring the right balance between sports and entertainment.<\/p>\n Put to him by PlanetF1.com that it appears, externally, as though the focus has switched to creating a more entertainment-led product, rather than the sporting, Parker offered a riposte.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you\u2019ve got here in Stefano is a guy who\u2019s been in the sport for 30 years. He watched from the hills of Imola, worked in the paddock, went to Ferrari, and spent most of his working life on Ferrari. Went to Audi, Lamborghini, and now he\u2019s back. He\u2019s a car guy, a racing guy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic to have Disney with us, fantastic to have Lego, fantastic to have brands like LVMH investing in us.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, in any conversation we have about anything, ultimately, it\u2019s nothing if what\u2019s on track is not working.<\/p>\n \u201cThe term entertainment can sometimes be seen as a pejorative term. Entertainment feels like it\u2019s just music and celebrity. I know that\u2019s not what you\u2019re saying, but the product on track should be entertaining. If it\u2019s not, it\u2019s boring. And if it\u2019s boring, people drift away. Sponsors are not interested. Teams\u2019 valuations drop.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole microclimate depends on that being good. So I would always say that entertaining racing is good. The focus is always on the sport first. All the other elements come as a result of that being strong.\u201d<\/p>\n With huge success achieved by Liberty Media over the past decade, how will the sport evolve further over the next decade?<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I\u2019d say in terms of five or 10 years, I can tell you one thing: it will still be the best racing, and still have the best drivers in the world. It will not be electric. It will be V8; vary that by 10 years\u2019 time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it will be the best racing in the best venues and the best cities and best locations in the world, with the best brands, probably the best automotive companies around us, maybe new ones that come. Who knows?<\/p>\n \u201cBut it will still be the most visible and strongest global motorsport in the world. In 10 years\u2019 time, I\u2019d be amazed if we don\u2019t have over a billion fans. I\u2019d be amazed if our audience hasn\u2019t grown. I\u2019d be amazed if it\u2019s not younger. I\u2019d be amazed if big brands are still not invested in us.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I\u2019d be amazed if most people in the world wouldn\u2019t be able to look at at least one or two of our drivers and say, \u2018I know who they are\u2019, regardless of where they are in the world, because we attract the best and the biggest names in the history of any sport: Lewis, Max, Senna, Schumacher.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t want to sound cheesy or clich\u00e9, but the future for Formula 1 has always been bright, and that will be the same in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n How F1 continues to thrive on social media<\/p>\n F1\u2019s Instagram platform continues to be one of the most engaged channels across world sport Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-10-170139.jpg\")
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\n+125 million across social media followers, an increase of +19 per cent year-on-year.
\n+12 per cent year-on-year increase in social impressions across social accounts.
\n+54 per cent year-on-year increase in video views, driven by strong TikTok engagement.
\n+70 million views across social platforms for the Drivers\u2019 Parade Lego activation at Silverstone this year.
\n+7 million hours of viewing time spent on expanded video content across F1.com and F1 App.<\/p>\n