Apple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue has responded to the rumours about Apple acquiring the Formula 1 broadcasting rights in the United States during the Autosport Business Exchange New York.
With the current deal with ESPN coming to a close at the end of 2025, the doors opened for other broadcasters to enter a bid as the Disney-owned broadcaster decided not to fight for a renewal. The rumoured deal for Apple is expected to be worth around $140million per year, which is substantially more than what ESPN is currently paying.
"No," Cue said with a smile when asked if there was anything he was ready to announce. "But we do love F1, we've done the movie and I've been a huge fan of F1 since I was a kid, huge, huge fan," he continued.
This comes after the success of the Apple Original film, F1: The Movie, starring Brad Pitt and Damson Idris. The film, which was directed by Joseph Kosinski, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and featured seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton as an executive producer, has achieved over $600million at the global box office since its release.
"I think it started when I was about 10 years old," Cue explained of his relationship with the championship. "I grew up in Miami, and when you're 10 years old, as old as I am, Formula 1 races were not on television here in the US, but I went to the library and I discovered this magazine called Autoweek.
"And there was a page in Autoweek, and every one of their issues, the magazine came out weekly, and there was a page in there about F1. And so that's how I discovered the sport.
"I grew up always loving cars and Ferrari was really good at that time, so I was a big Ferrari fan because that's what you read, and that's how it all started. And over time, I was very lucky to be a part of... I'm on the board of Ferrari and we've been there for a long time.
"And so I got the insider view of Formula 1 from that point of view. Then we had the opportunity to build a movie. I knew Lewis, having Lewis involved in the movie, I knew was going to make it really epic from a real point of view.
"I think one of the challenges when you're trying to do something like this is how do you not... how do you make it real? And one of the things that I don't think people appreciate as much is what incredible athletes Formula 1 drivers are, what it takes to race. When you watch on television, it kind of looks like they're... you can't feel the g-force, you can't do that.
He added: "So we started working on technology with Formula 1 to put the cameras and the cars in the right place. So when you watch the movie, it feels like you're actually in it, what does it feel like to be in a Formula 1 car, I think it definitely did that.
"The attention to detail in the movie is incredible, thanks to Lewis. I always say everything that happened in that movie has happened in a race.
"If you haven't seen the movie, please go see it, but hopefully you have. It's the biggest sport movie of all time, by the way, Brad Pitt's biggest movie of all time.
"But there's a scene in there at the end where there's a red flag and that's how he's, you know, he can win the race and was like, 'Oh, that's crazy that would never happen.' Well, that's how Max Verstappen won a world championship.
"I've had a lot of history with Formula 1, and Stefano [Domenicali], who's the CEO of Formula 1, is a very, very dear friend. I knew him back when he was working at Ferrari and then later on at Lamborghini and now at Formula 1. So, I have a long history with him."
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