F1's Friday problem

Stop wasting time on repetitive explanations. Guidde’s AI creates stunning video guides in seconds—11x faster.

How it works: Click capture on the browser extension, and Guidde auto-generates step-by-step video guides with visuals, voiceover, and a call to action.

Best part? It’s 100% free.

👉 Download the extension now

Media properties rely on formats. They make or break it, and Formula 1 is an entertainment platform masked as a sports property.

Do the economics of a Friday session actually make it worthwhile to keep alive?

Now, I know what you're thinking: "Oh great, another piece about how Gen Z can't focus on anything for more than six seconds." Well, Stefano Domenicali's comments about "shorter attention spans" are missing a piece. People's attention spans aren't shrinking; they just want their time to be valued. And right now, Friday practice sessions value your time about as much as a parking ticket values your wallet.

This is about Liberty Media preparing to flip Formula 1 for the biggest payday in sports history.

Liberty Media bought Formula 1 for $8 billion in 2017. Chairman John Malone now says they'd sell it "for the right price." The timing is interesting: F1's biggest media deals expire in 2025, Apple is desperate for premium sports content, and Liberty just bought MotoGP to control both major motorsports properties.

Liberty's stock has gone from $30 to $100 since it bought F1. They've spent eight years transforming it from a European racing series into a global entertainment product. Now they're preparing to cash out at peak value, and these format changes are basically gift-wrapping F1 for streaming giants.

So today, I'm going to explain why Friday practice sessions are about to become collateral damage in the world's biggest sports media sale.

Let's start with the obvious problem.

Friday practice sessions are economic dead weight that's dragging down F1's sale value.

Friday practice sessions draw roughly 300,000 viewers worldwide. Overall, average viewership in the US on ESPN is down three per cent compared to 2023, falling from 1.16 million to 1.13 million and up to 1.36 million in 2025 so far.

Race promoters pay Liberty Media $15-50 million for hosting rights, plus all other operating costs associated with hosting a race. Ticket revenues ultimately become their sole source of income, which, in most cases, is insufficient to be profitable.

And with Formula One seeking between US$160 million and US$180 million per year from its next media rights deal in the US, according to Sports Business Journal (SBJ). We also know that ESPN don’t want to overpay for this next deal.

Disney-owned ESPN has been showing Formula One in America since 2018, and its latest deal, signed in 2022 and reportedly worth US$90 million per year, expires after the 2025 season.

That's serious money for content and TV that audiences don’t actively watch. Kurtis Resse lays out the sentiment for Free Practice.

This creates a fundamental problem for Liberty's exit strategy: how do you justify selling F1 for $15-20 billion when part of your content generates no meaningful engagement? It’s passive.

The NFL cracked the content code decades ago, and F1 is optimising from every angle.

Every piece of NFL programming exists to generate maximum revenue. Thursday Night Football creates additional premium inventory. Monday Night Football commands higher advertising rates. Even the NFL Draft becomes must-watch television because they understand scarcity and drama.

F1’s practice sessions still serve a purpose, but it’s now seen as more dead airtime. These days, cars are so reliable and data so comprehensive that practice sessions offer about as much unpredictability as watching a screen saver.

F1 is now desperately trying to justify Netflix-level valuations to streaming giants. American audiences don't sit through two hours of cars going "vroom" just to see them go "vroom" slightly faster on Sunday. They expect every piece of content to earn their attention.

For Liberty's sale strategy to work, every session needs to feel like appointment television that streaming platforms can package and monetise.

Race promoters are bleeding money on a broken three-day model.

Race promoters face impossible economics: massive hosting fees plus operational costs for security, medical staff, and infrastructure across three days, with Friday generating minimal ticket revenue.

Take the Las Vegas Grand Prix. MGM and Liberty Media invested over $500 million in infrastructure. Early reports suggest Friday and Saturday sessions struggled to fill seats despite being in Las Vegas, where people will watch other people play poker for entertainment.

Promoters pay enormous upfront costs, then spend two-thirds of their weekend budget on days that generate minimal return. Friday serves as an expensive marketing expense that most fans ignore.

This economic reality is forcing promoters to lobby F1 for format changes. They need to generate meaningful revenue every day, not just serve as warm-up acts for Sunday's main event.

Broadcasters are paying premium prices for content that people passively watch.

Given the nature of media rights, Sky Sports and ESPN are paying serious money that should buy premium content audiences actually consume. Instead, broadcasters get Friday practice sessions that people watch passively.

Sky could air a test pattern and generate better ratings. Friday sessions are still valuable for the F1 teams. On TV, it has to compete with the many options of sports programming we have to watch.

This creates a valuation problem for Liberty's exit strategy: streaming giants aren't going to pay NFL-level money for content that performs worse than YouTube highlights. Every underwhelming Friday session reduces F1's overall media value.

F1's format changes are really about maximising sale price, not fixing audience engagement.

F1's official narrative focuses on "adapting for younger audiences," but the real strategy is making every session valuable for potential buyers. Sprint races work because they manufacture competition. Elimination qualifying builds drama. Friday practice sessions fail because the audience doesn’t see the stakes.

The solution they are trying to take: transform Friday and Saturday into standalone entertainment products instead of technical sessions that happen to be televised. Every minute of content needs to justify premium pricing to streaming platforms.

NASCAR successfully transformed their practice sessions by adding qualifying drama, technical inspections, and driver storylines. They understood that every piece of airtime must serve the audience, not just the teams.

F1 has the resources to create three distinct entertainment experiences that each justify premium pricing. But it’s also tough to abandon the idea of practice sessions, where is the line you cross to fully be focused on entertainment rather than letting the sport naturally play out?

The American market forces F1's hand because Liberty is literally preparing to sell the whole damn thing.

Formula One saw its revenue for the second quarter rise 41 per cent year-over-year (YoY)  to US$1.2 billion for the three months ended 30th June 2025. ESPN's deal expires at the end of 2025. Apple is circling for streaming rights like a shark that's smelled blood. Netflix's "Drive to Survive" proved F1 works as pure entertainment content.

The setup is beautiful in its simplicity: Let Apple and others bid for 2026 streaming rights, use that record-breaking media deal to justify F1's valuation, then sell the whole thing at peak value. Malone even said it himself: "If somebody gets carried away and wants to pay more than we can deliver to shareholders, we'd sell it.”

The Apple connection is the key to everything. They finished the F1 movie project with Brad Pitt. They desperately want sports content for their streaming platform. And Liberty now owns both F1 and MotoGP, creating the perfect bundle for streaming dominance.

Imagine Apple gets exclusive streaming rights to the world's two biggest motorsports series, plus Hollywood-level production quality that makes every race feel like a Netflix documentary. Liberty spent eight years proving F1 works as streaming entertainment. Now they're ready to sell that blueprint to the highest bidder.

Friday practice sessions aren't being reformed to save the sport; they're being redesigned to maximise the sale price. And in that context, every boring practice session is money left on the table.

Or as Lewis said in 2020: “Cash is King”