The Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix TV Ratings Weren’t Bad Despite 1 A.M. ET Start, But Red Bull’s Boss Doesn’t Like It
The West Coast was into it.
ESPN has announced that that 1.3 million viewers tuned in to the Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix, which marked the largest U..S. TV audience for the series since the Canada Grand Prix was broadcast on ABC in June.
The Formula One broadcast ran from 1 to 3:05 a.m. ET, which was 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. in F1’s primary U.K. and Western Europe markets.
It was the highest rated cable program after 11 p.m. ET in the U.S.
According to an ESPN press release, the ratings were the sixth highest of the season and second-highest on the ESPN+ streaming channel, behind the Miami Grand Prix in May.
The top-rated races this year, which were all shown on ABC during the day, were Miami (1.96 million), Monaco (1.79 million) and Canada (1.76 million).
The top TV markets were Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Tulsa, Seattle, Phoenix, Sacramento and San Francisco.
Greenville/Spartanburg, N.C., was the only market in the eastern time zone to crack the top 10.
The race saw Red Bull’s Max Verstappen recover from a five-second penalty to take the lead on lap 37 of the 50-lap race and win ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
Despite his team’s success, Red Bull boss Christian Horner thinks both competitors and U.S. fans would be better served with an earlier start time.
17-YEAR-OLD LIA BLOCK SIGNS WITH WILLIAMS RACING FOR F1 ACADEMY SEASON
“It’s been a brutal weekend for everyone behind the scenes and I think we need to look at how we can improve that for the future … We’re working so late at night; maybe to run it a little earlier in the evening, because you’re never going to keep every television audience totally happy,” Horner told Racer.
“This is an American race, and if you run it at 8 o’clock in the evening or something like that it would just be a bit more comfortable for the men and women working behind the scenes.â€
Read This Next
