F1: 'Everything has gone exponential'

Both F1 and cryptocurrencies are trendy, high-tech, and have an audience that skews young,” says Owen Poindexter of Front Office Sports (FOS).

“They match up as well as football and cars or baseball and beer. That’s why this was not just the Miami Grand Prix, it was the Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix.

Rival crypto exchange FTX took over a section of South Beach for the weekend, hosting a Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 display, NFT art gallery, video game lounge, fashion show, the aforementioned NFT T-shirt thing, and a nighttime concert series.

“It became very clear that this wasn’t going to be just another race,” Crypto.com’s chief marketing officer Steven Kalifowitz told FOS. “This was going to be a global event that might only be rivaled by the FIFA World Cup in terms of international attention.”

The crypto exchange announced last week that its user base rose from 10 million at the end of Q1 2021 to a current tally of 50 million.

The business is “in the best health it’s ever been in,” Oracle Red Bull Racing CEO Christian Horner told Poindexter. “There’s more partners. There’s more new fans and followers coming into Formula One than we’ve ever seen. I think we’re emerging in markets that we’ve previously been very weak in, particularly the U.S.”

Red Bull Racing Team Principal Christian Horner talks in the Team Principals Press Conference prior to final practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Miami at the Miami International Autodrome on May 07, 2022 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images) /

“A Netflix camera lurked behind me,” said Poindexter, “While a [Netflix] helicopter thundered overhead.”

“Everything has gone exponential in the U.S,” Horner told FOS.

“We obviously have engaged very heavily in the corporate world,” said Horner, referring to the teams $500 million deal with Oracle, the team’s Red Bull co-sponsor who owns the team, and recently Hard Rock sponsor deal

“We knew we needed to start looking into tools like AI and ML to advance our capabilities as a motorsports business,” Zoe Chilton, Oracle Red Bull Racing’s head of partnerships, told Front Office Sports.

77% of new F1 fans are under 35. Meanwhile Bernie Ecclestone thinks it should be marketed to old farts. Guess what? The younger crowd can afford F1 and will gladly pay the price.

IndyCar’s and NASCAR’s ratings among younger fans is abysmal. Sponsors will note that.

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