F1 on ESPN Expands as New Season Launches

The best F1 coverge the USA has ever had is courtesy of ESPN and Sky Sports. The shill is gone!

With the new season of the FIA Formula One World Championship set to launch this week in Australia, ESPN begins its third consecutive year of coverage with expanded offerings, a new availability for Spanish-speaking fans and a continuation of commercial-free race telecasts.

The Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix from the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit will air Sunday, March 15, at 1:05 a.m. ET (late Saturday night) on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. The Grand Prix Sunday pre-race show (formerly On the Grid, now expanded to one hour) will precede the race at midnight on ESPN. Live coverage of the weekend’s three practice sessions and qualifying also will air on ESPN platforms.

On the heels of double-digit television viewership growth in the United States over the past two seasons, ESPN and Formula 1 forged a new agreement last fall that will keep the Championship on ESPN and ABC through 2022. F1 returned to the ESPN networks in 2018.

As an additional element of the new deal, ESPN Deportes is now the exclusive Spanish-language home for all Formula 1 races in the U.S. Spanish-language coverage of F1 races, qualifying and practice sessions will be made available to fans on the ESPN Deportes television network and other ESPN platforms all season.

Once again in 2020, the race telecasts will be presented commercial-free with sponsorship from Mothers Polish, which recently signed a new, three-year agreement with ESPN. The expanded new deal also includes presenting sponsorship of practice and qualifying telecasts.

ESPN is again teaming with Sky Sports and Formula 1 to bring Sky Sports’ award-winning presentation of Formula 1 racing to American viewers. Sky’s Welcome to the Weekend program, which will air on ESPN3 leading into the weekend’s first practice session, returns this year with a race preview, driver interviews and commentary and analysis from the Sky team. The Australia edition of the program airs on Thursday, March 12, at 8:30 p.m. with replays available on the ESPN App.

In addition to the expanded pre-race show, ESPN will continue to air Sunday Social (formerly Pit Lane Live), a one-hour program airing on race day. Sunday Social features the Sky F1 commentators discussing the upcoming race and all the latest news from the paddock, with the show also including feature stories. Sunday Social from Australia will air at 11 p.m. on Saturday, March 14, on ESPN3, also streaming on the ESPN App.

Formula 1 returned to its original U.S. television home in 2018 – the first race ever aired in the country was on ABC in 1962. F1 races also aired on ESPN from 1984-1997.

ESPN’s coverage of Formula 1 also includes a dedicated website that reports on the championship year-round.

Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix on ESPN Networks

(all times Eastern)

(All telecasts also streaming live and available for replay on the ESPN App)