Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has unsurprisingly backed the championship's partnership with Apple as the technology company takes on broadcasting rights in the United States from this year. The Italian added that the giant will be able to put F1 "in the houses of other people in different ways," as he looks forward to higher US viewership.
F1 announced in October 2025 that Apple would become its exclusive US broadcaster with an agreement spanning five years, which Motorsport.com believes to be valued at $140million annually. Taking this duty from ESPN, a partnership that had grown slowly since 2018, the brand has teased an experience that spans its entire product lineup.
ESPN finished 2025 with an all-time high viewership of around 1.3 million viewers per race across its networks, but Apple is aiming higher.
Race weekends will now be available to stream on Apple TV, and the company has teased an experience that runs throughout the whole week in the future. The latest to come from the partnership connects it to IMAX, with theatres confirmed to be screening five races at select venues.
"When we are talking about Apple in the US, we are talking about a new partner of Formula 1 that is believing in us with a great plan of being the protagonist of the growth in the US of the sport through their channels, through their applications, through their way of pushing a product that is not only technological, but is a new tool of connectivity," Domenicali said via Racer.
"Apple is in the hands of the majority of people because it allows everyone to be connected. We want to be connected and relevant and that's where we believe that we took the right decision to go in this direction."
The Tim Cook-led organisation seeks to be hands-on during its tenure as US broadcaster, offering its technology and resources to support the championship - something that ESPN arguably didn't do to the extent Apple could.
"I don’t want to, for a single second, talk badly about the ESPN relationship because they were the first to believe in us," Domenicali continued. "I need to thank them and as you know, with Disney World, the collaboration is huge in the area of licensing and other things that we are doing together. I had good meetings with the new CEO of Disney, Josh D’Amaro, to talk about bigger steps that we can do even more.
"But I do believe that the reach that we're going to have through the streaming platform, through Apple, will be even bigger in the future and it is what we want to test in a market that is more mature than the others. It will allow us to enter in the houses of other people in a different way, in great quality that is very important for us. So, that is what I believe the Apple relationship will bring to us in the American market."
F1 has just about cracked the US market after substantial investment and marketing effort. Drive to Survive enters its eighth season this year, and the three US-based grands prix, Miami, Austin, and Las Vegas, are showing strong numbers.
"We are a worldwide sport but the US market for sure a market where we can see the potential growth in terms of interest in terms of awareness, in terms of business," he told Motorsport.com and other media.
"We do believe that the partner that we have chosen in the world of streaming is the right one, if you consider that the American market in terms of streaming is one of the most mature ones, if you compare with others like Europe or other ones.
"Apple will be very pushy to use all their tools that they have with all the different applications, platforms that they have - not only in terms of Apple TV and I just want to reiterate the fact that all our F1 subscribers can connect with Apple TV as part of their offer, spending less and there will be a lot of content that they're gonna push.
"And we don't have to forget that also, it's in the sort of stream of our generation that are younger and younger. In the US we are very young and 40 percent is female, 60 percent is male today so we believe that is the right angle to push in that dimension specifically."
The scale of such a partnership is monumental for F1, and will seek to solidify its products in one of the world's largest markets.
