Why Formula 1 is a rare global sports asset
Formula 1 has become one of the most sought-after properties in global sport — and the reasons run far deeper than glamour and horsepower. In a fragmented media landscape, F1 is one of the few rights-holders that can credibly claim global scale, cultural momentum and commercial scarcity.
Start with the basics: reach. F1 remains one of the only sports that operates across five continents over a nine-month season, delivering a weekly cadence of jeopardy, personality and drama. That continuity has turned it into an always-on global storyline — a structural advantage even the biggest leagues struggle to match.
It’s also become a serious commercial engine. Media-rights revenues and sponsorship investment have surged across multiple cycles, confirming F1’s shift from a specialist motorsport to a structural global asset. The record fees now being paid for rights — including Apple’s exclusive $160m-per-year US broadcast deal beginning next season — are less a spike than a signal that F1 has become premium entertainment infrastructure. Apple’s production and release of last summer’s Brad Pitt F1 film only highlights the point: this is now a hybrid sport-entertainment-tech platform with global distribution baked in.
Cultural rise
The commercial boom runs in parallel with F1’s cultural rise. The sponsorship supercycle that began in 2024–25 hasn’t cooled; it has deepened and diversified. PepsiCo’s multi-brand entry earlier this year is emblematic. The company views F1 as one of the few global platforms capable of accelerating consumer brands at scale — powered by its year-round narrative, its young, mixed-gender fanbase and its expanding entertainment footprint. For PepsiCo, F1 is less a motorsport and more a fast-growing cultural ecosystem with global reach and local resonance.
This reflects a broader shift in how brands and cities engage with F1. Brands went ‘all in’ at this year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix — treating it less as a race and more as a cultural festival. The street circuit winds through the city’s most iconic landmarks. Brand activations, fanzones, viewing parties and merchandise proliferated across Vegas in ways that blurred the line between sporting event and cultural takeover.
The post-race spectacle also reinforced that Las Vegas has become an extension of F1. Podium finishers were driven in a pink Lego Cadillac to the Bellagio fountains, followed by city-wide fireworks and a Disney concert featuring Mickey Mouse, orchestrated to announce Disney’s ‘Fuel the Magic’ Formula 1 collaboration. That intensity reflects a truth about modern F1: it has become the place where brands go to create spectacle, content and global moments.
Formula 1 value
Cities see that value too. Las Vegas’s own tourism authority has doubled down with multi-year commitments, a reminder that the economic impact of F1 now extends far beyond the paddock into destination branding, hospitality and global visibility. And F1’s influence now intersects directly with the global marketing and media calendar. The inaugural Las Vegas F1 Business Summit — rapidly establishing itself as a Cannes equivalent for sport, media and entertainment — brought together CEOs, CMOs and cultural decision-makers in a way no other sports property currently can. It captured the sport’s new positioning at the convergence of sport, culture, business and storytelling.
Meanwhile, the fanbase continues to widen — younger, more female and more culturally diverse than at any point in F1’s modern era. The F1 Academy has expanded the funnel; the emergence of House 44, a unique collaboration between Formula 1, Lewis Hamilton and Soho House creating a premier members club feel to the paddock, to Adidas–Mercedes have pushed the sport deep into lifestyle; and team merchandise has moved from memorabilia to mainstream. Yet with growth comes increased complexity in fan engagement, where the sport and brands involved require localised strategies that vary from region to region while maintaining global brand coherence.
With the rise of the sport, it also brings natural tensions that come with being the most valuable sport property and they require thoughtful strategies to navigate through it.
Sustainability
Sustainability in F1 is widely spoken about, as a sport built on speed and performance. The carbon footprint of moving 10 teams and their equipment across 24 races and five continents is significant and while F1 has committed to 100 per cent sustainable fuels by 2026 and net-zero by 2030, achieving this will require systemic change across the entire chain. Yet, meaningful progress is underway. For brands this creates a credible and evolving ESG narrative, one where they can contribute to practical solutions, realistic commitments and measurable targets that extend well beyond the track.
Access has also become a pressure point with ticket and hospitality prices rising, potentially pricing out the fans who drove the sport’s cultural resurgence. So the question remains, how the sport can maintain exclusivity and premium positioning whilst also ensuring that it remains accessible to the next generation of fans who may experience F1 primarily through screen rather than grandstands. This creates a clear opportunity for brands to step in as cultural connectors, helping balance exclusivity with accessibility.
It’s no surprise that CMOs keep asking the same question: how do we get in? In 2026, Formula One stands not just as a sport but as a rare global asset – one whose momentum and value continue to accelerate.
Louise Johnson is global chief executive of Fuse