Formula 1 achieved a historic revenue milestone in 2025, generating $3.87 billion under Liberty Media’s management. This growth highlights the sport’s expanding commercial success fueled by media rights, race hosting fees, and sponsorship deals.
Liberty Media, which took ownership of Formula 1’s commercial rights in early 2017, has continued to boost revenue consistently, contributing to a growing operating profit and reinforcing the sport’s global appeal and financial strength.
Detailed Breakdown of F1’s 2025 Income Streams
The $3.87 billion total income reflects a 14 percent increase compared to the previous year, resulting in a $632 million operating profit for Liberty Media. Of the revenue accrued, around 45 percent was allocated to payments made to the sport’s 10 competing teams, equating to $1.4 billion. Liberty Media’s revenue model hinges primarily on three pillars: media rights, race promotion fees, and sponsorship, with minor sources making up just over 20 percent of total earnings.
Dominant Earnings from Media Rights Generate $1.21 Billion
The largest slice of Formula 1’s revenue in 2025 came from media rights, representing $1.21 billion. This figure reflects an increase of $93.4 million over 2024’s $1.12 billion tally, driven by several new and renewed broadcasting partnerships worldwide.
Stefano Domenicali, Formula One Management’s CEO, highlighted the sport’s expanding audience, noting,
“global live TV viewership across all sessions was up 21 percent year over year,”
during a presentation to financial analysts.
Notably, new broadcasting agreements include Apple’s acquisition of U.S. rights for an estimated $140 million annually, a substantial rise from the prior $85 million. Additionally, ESPN extended its coverage across Latin America and the Caribbean, illustrating the effective global growth strategy within media rights that is expected to continue enhancing revenues in 2026 through new contracts and escalator clauses.
Race Promotion Fees Bring in Over $1 Billion Amid Calendar Constraints
The sport’s next largest revenue source, race promotion fees, contributed $1.03 billion in 2025. Governed under the Concorde Agreement—which caps the calendar at 24 races for the season—the full schedule was again utilized, supporting just over a quarter of the revenue total.
Growth in earnings from race promoters was relatively modest, with an increase of $34.7 million year-on-year. However, Formula 1 is exploring ways to enhance this segment by increasing Sprint events, which carry a premium fee of approximately $3 million each. The potential addition of six Sprint events could generate an incremental $18 million, even though the overall number of races remains fixed.
Further revenue growth is encouraged through contractual accelerators that gradually raise promoter fees annually, along with an active “churn” strategy that involves replacing certain events with higher-paying ones or rotating events to push up fees. This approach created pressure on some venues, such as Zandvoort, which lost its contract, and Belgium, which moved to a rotational schedule alongside the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, itself replaced by Madrid in securing the Spanish Grand Prix rights.
Despite these adjustments, incremental revenue from event churning pales compared to the influence of maintaining a full calendar, which effectively drives up race promoter contributions through scarcity and competitive bidding.
Significant Growth in Sponsorship Revenue Reaches $840 Million
Sponsorship income increased sharply to $840.4 million in 2025, up from $634.5 million the previous year. Liberty Media credits this surge to
“new sponsors, contractual increases from existing sponsors and growth in digital advertising revenue.”
Formula 1 has expanded its sponsorship portfolio extensively, featuring ten global partners including Aramco, DHL, Heineken, and LVMH. This tier is supplemented by sixteen official partners such as PepsiCo, American Express, and Standard Chartered, as well as numerous regional partners and official providers contributing to a robust sponsorship ecosystem.
CEO Stefano Domenicali emphasized the focus on enhancing sponsorship quality over quantity, stating,
“We are quite creative in finding new opportunities,”
and added,
“You are going to see already this year some deal uplifted with new opportunity that we can offer, new quality, and new things that we want to offer.”
He elaborated on Formula 1’s strategic shift toward digital platforms, noting,
“Now, we are not only in the world of physical advertising, we have the digitalisation that will enable us to use in all the different channel possibility to put good advertising.”
Further highlighting digital expansion, Domenicali explained,
“We have different platforms. We have the podcast, we have YouTube, we have other social media opportunities we will monetise in the future even stronger.”
Additional Revenue Sources Contribute $786 Million to Total Earnings
Other income streams outside the main three categories accounted for $786.2 million, or 20.3 percent of total Formula 1 revenue. This diverse mix includes hospitality services, freight logistics, licensing, and profits from associated feeder series such as Formula 2, Formula 3, and F1 Academy.
Corporate hospitality, notably the Paddock Club, is a major contributor, achieving 10 percent growth in 2025 by serving approximately 65,000 guests during race weekends. With average ticket prices near $7,000, Paddock Club alone generates revenues exceeding $450 million annually.
Freight operations also featured in earnings reports, with particular recognition during Liberty Media’s fourth-quarter analyst call, underscoring its integral role in the sport’s financial framework.
Financial Overview and Outlook for Formula 1’s Commercial Model
While total revenues reached $3.87 billion in 2025, costs associated with maintaining Liberty Media’s motorsport operations totaled $2.581 billion, with additional expenses of $346 million. After accounting for depreciation, amortization, and other minor costs, Liberty Media posted an operating income of $632 million for the year.
The continued growth in revenue streams reflects Formula 1’s increasing commercial maturity and its ability to leverage limited calendar slots, growing global audiences, and diversified sponsorship channels effectively. With new broadcast deals taking effect and strategic expansion of event formats such as Sprint races, the sport is poised for further financial development in upcoming seasons.
