Liberty Media’s F1 is looking for consumers: increasingly younger, increasingly social. And global TV ratings take off

Where is F1 going? “Previously F1 was a B2B business, now there is the opportunity to transform it into a B2C relationship,” Stefano Domenicali said clearly at Global Acts in Miami. Formula 1 is no longer a platform that connects companies (B2B), but is turning to consumers (B2C): this is the direction that Liberty Media is following for the future of its investment.
Chocolate bars that replicate the shape of a racing car have landed in supermarkets, pasta in the shape of an F1 wheel will land on the American market, and bricks that model the cars of Hamilton, Verstappen and Leclerc are all the rage on the shelves dedicated to toys. It is a clear strategy, which Domenicali confirms: “We are getting ever closer to our fans. We are collecting their data to get in touch with them, to make sure they really appreciate the sport we offer and the experience we want to offer them.” With modern tools, profiling the ideal target for companies investing in F1 is not complex. A particular focus on young people To further increase the fan base, we are looking at increasingly younger fans. Again Domenicali, this time in the interview with Autosport: “It’s not just about KitKat, but also about Lego and Disney. We are shifting attention to the younger generations. We are moving towards the consumer side, especially with them, to show them and let them touch F1 in places that in our time we would never have thought of. We must be relevant for the young generations, make them understand that we can be anywhere”.
It is no coincidence that there are very young influencers – even minors – who connect companies with the so-called GenZ with #adv or #gifted. Derek Chang, CEO of Liberty Media, underlined the work done: “When we bought F1, it was managed by Bernie Ecclestone’s house in London. Now it is a global organisation. It was a somewhat dated and declining brand, we had the vision of transforming it into a global entertainment brand as well as a sports one”.
In doing so, horizons are broadened: “Our competition is not in the world of sport. Our competition is to be relevant in that finger that continuously scrolls on the phone in search of news. We are competing with films, with television, with theatres, with events”, underlined Domenicali. In this sense, the relationship with social media has been reversed: “We have opened up to this world to interact with new fans and we speak with a different tone and language, with different narratives”, “Instead of penalizing drivers because they are on social media, we have encouraged them”, highlighted both the president of F1 and the CEO of Liberty. …and TV ratings soar In recent days, journalist Thomas Maher has brought out some interesting data on the audience, on the track and on television, of these first three races of 2026.
From the surveys of the television audience of qualifying and races in the top 10 F1 television markets, in comparison with the previous year, in Australia there was a +23%, in China a +30%, in Japan a +20%.
In track attendance, in Melbourne +4%, in China +4.5%, in Japan +18%.
In short, faced with these numbers, Domenicali in recent days wanted to strongly defend the F1 product: “If I look at the polls of what is happening all over the world, the result is magnificent, fantastic. Everyone says: ‘Wow, what is happening?’. There is a lot of action and people appreciate it.” How many people really care about the technical side of F1? Liberty Media must keep various souls together: new fans and long-time enthusiasts, lovers of entertainment and glamor and those of technology. A truly arduous task.
Salesforce, partner of F1 since 2022 which operates in cloud computing, revealed a rather disconcerting fact on its website: “F1 is younger and more diversified than in the past. Yet, less than 1% of the total fan base will ever attend a grand prix. The majority of fans experience the emotion remotely through touch points such as TV, video games, merchandising”.
Is Formula 1 becoming a more virtual sport than real?
More to shake than to see on the track?
More like overtaking shows – of whatever nature they are – than automotive technical experts?
The 2025 season had record numbers: fan base of 827 million people, 6.7 million attendances at the circuits, 2.3 billion social interactions: F1 is the most followed sports series on the planet.
43% of the public is under 35 years old, 42% are women. On TikTok, F1 marks +91% compared to the previous year, on YouTube +53%.
The question comes naturally: how many of these will have read the document on the regulatory changes that will take place in Miami?