Formula 1′s first race of the 2022 season was ESPN’s most viewed since 1995

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The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Formula 1′s 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix lured more than 1 million U.S. viewers for Sunday’s season-opener making it the most-viewed F1 race on ESPN since 1995. ESPN said the Bahrain Grand Prix attracted an average of 1.3 million viewers in the U.S. and peaked at 1.5 million viewers around 12:30 p.m. to 12:45 p.m. ET, as the race entered its final and most dramatic laps. Viewership for the race is up compared with same race on the 2021 schedule, which saw an average 927,000 viewers, according to ESPN.

The network used metrics from measurement and analytics company Nielsen to report F1 viewership in the U.S. Sky Sports owns the rights to air F1 races in the U.K. Scuderia Ferrari and Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc won the Grand Prix, which earned Leclerc 26 points to start the season. Leclerc beat Spanish teammate Carlos Sainz, who finished second and earned 18 points for a team total of 44 points in the first weekend. Mercedes driver and Britain native Lewis Hamilton finished third and claimed 15 points.

This season, Hamilton seeks a record eighth F1 World Championship after falling in the last race of the 2021 season to Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands. The 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix drew more cable viewers to ESPN than any other since the 1995 Brazilian Grand Prix, which averaged 1.74 million viewers, according to the network. It’s the most viewed race on any Disney-owned network since F1 returned to ESPN in 2018.

F1 popularity and viewership have shot up in the U.S. since the behind-the-scenes Netflix series “Drive to Survive” debuted in March 2019. The series’ fourth season, recapping the 2021 season, became available to stream on Netflix on March 11. The racing company set a new viewership record last season when it averaged 934,000 viewers per event on ESPN channels and the ABC network — up 54% compared with F1′s 2020 races. F1′s 2021 viewership included an average 1.2 million viewers for the U.S. Grand Prix in Austin, which aired on both ESPN and ABC.

The previous viewership record came in 1995 when F1 averaged 748,000 viewers per race. In 2019, before the pandemic paused global sports and pushed more American viewers to F1, the sport averaged 672,000 viewers on ESPN channels. In 2018, after ESPN returned the races to its lineup, F1 races averaged 554,000 viewers on the network.