ESPN Opens Delayed Formula 1 Season with Event Viewership Record
Austrian Grand Prix Telecast Sees Largest U.S. Television Audience
After a four-month delay to start the 2020 season, Formula 1 kicked off with an event viewership record for the Rolex Austrian Grand Prix.
The live telecast of the race on ESPN on Sunday, July 5, earned the largest U.S. television viewership for the event since it returned to the F1 schedule in 1997. With an average of 752,000 viewers, the audience was up 16 percent over ESPN2’s telecast last year (646,500 average), which had set the previous event viewership record.
The Austrian Grand Prix telecast started at 9:05 a.m. ET and the audience peaked at 890,000 viewers at 10:40 a.m. as Valtteri Bottas captured the victory for Mercedes.
F1 remains in Austria this weekend for the Formula 1 Pirelli Styrian Grand Prix, the second race of the championship’s modified calendar. The race airs at 9:05 a.m. on ESPN.
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