Formula 1 accrued $2.04 billion in sponsorship revenue across the 2024 campaign, taking it one step closer to dethroning the NFL as the highest-grossing sport globally.
Ever since Liberty Media’s acquisition of the commercial rights to the sport in 2017, F1 has seen a meteoric rise in terms of popularity, especially in the American markets.
Last year saw the sport’s soaring popularity reach new heights as it breached the $2bn sponsorship mark for the first time in its history, only outdone by sponsorship moguls, the NFL.
An independent report released by SponsorUnited showed receipts of $ 2.04bn for F1 and its teams during the course of the 2024 season. This catapulted the sport over the likes of established giants such as the MLB, NBA and NHL, which have historically had the legs over F1 in terms of their lucrativeness in the global sponsorship market.
Only the NFL, which amassed a whopping $ 2.50bn – raked in more cash from sponsors. Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff has credited Liberty Media and the Americanization of F1 for this drastic upheaval in fortunes for the teams.
“The attraction changed when Liberty bought the sport. Bernie [Ecclestone] led the sport for more than 40 years and made it big. But when it changed hands, the new owners pushed it up to completely new levels — the American way of looking at sports from an entertainment perspective,” he told the Financial Times.
Wolff’s own team, along with the likes of Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari, have made major contributions in buffing up the figures. As per the report, on average, the 10 teams brought in $6 million individually to the table in terms of sponsorship, a figure that is eight times bigger than NFL’s own individual partnerships.
F1’s alliance luxury Goliaths LMVH – a deal that would see the sport earn $1bn over a period of 10 years – has also helped it establish a strong commercial foothold in the wider sporting industry with the likes of TAG Heuer, Louis Vuitton and Hennessy now in the fold.
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