TV News: F1 Spanish GP TV Rating Comes up big, dwarfs IndyCar

ESPN’s live telecast of the Formula 1 Spanish GP on Sunday morning 9:00am ET June 23, had an average audience of 1.1 million viewers, peaking at 1.2 million between 10:15-10:30 a.m. ET.

The exciting race was won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen over McLaren’s Lando Norris.

• Viewership was up from last year’s Spanish GP, which averaged 1.0 million (also on ESPN).
• It was the second-largest audience on record for the Spanish GP
• It was the fifth consecutive F1 race in 2024 to have year-over-year audience gains over the 2023 version of the race.
  • The five consecutive races were Japan, Miami, Monaco, Canada and Spain. (China and Imola not run in 2023)
• Through 10 races, the 2024 F1 season is averaging 1,334,652 viewers per race, up 8 percent over the 2023 full-season average of 1,239,974.
• F1 qualifying on Saturday, June 23, averaged 573,000 viewers on ESPN2 (9:54-11:10 a.m. ET).

We’re waiting for the final numbers for the IndyCar Laguna Seca broadcast that was pushed to CNBC by NBC executives when the NASCAR Cup race ran late on the USA Network, but word is it was less than 100,000 viewers, down from 538,000 viewers in 2023 on NBC.

There is no question, Americans have fallen in love with F1 as their preferred open wheel racing series as it draws a bigger audience even on a Sunday morning when many people are in bed or at church.

The ESPN Spanish GP viewership was also higher than the rain-hit NASCAR Cup viewership from Loudon the USA Network. Last year the race pulled in 1.032 million viewers and this year’s number is down because of the rain.

Austrian GP TV Schedule this coming weekend

All Times Eastern