George Russell of Great Britain driving the (63) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team W16 leads Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB21 Oscar Piastri of Australia driving the (81) McLaren MCL39 Mercedes and the rest of the field away for the start during the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on June 15, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec. (Photo by Sam Bagnall/Sutton Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool //
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TV News: USA Motorsports weekend TV Viewers/TV Ratings

Posted by AR1 staff

This past weekend, Formula 1 was in action in Canada, NASCAR was in Mexico, and IndyCar was in Illinois. Below are how many TV Viewers tuned in.

Formula 1

ABC’s live telecast of the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, June 15, averaged 1.9 million TV viewers for the race-only portion of the telecast (2-3:45 p.m. ET), the largest audience ever for the event on U.S. television. This number does not include streaming numbers via ESPN3.

The audience was up 5.6% from last year’s viewership of 1.8 million TV Viewers, which at the time was the largest ever for the race.

The race also averaged 854,000 viewers in the Persons ages 18-49 demographic, blowing away IndyCar and NASCAR

Formula 1 qualifying on Saturday, June 14, at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN2 averaged 593,000 TV viewers.

Of the nine F1 races held so far this season, all but one (Miami) have seen year-over-year viewership increases and five of the nine (Australia, China, Monaco, Spain and Canada) scored event record audiences. The audience for the Monaco Grand Prix was the third-largest live audience ever for a Formula 1 race on U.S. television.

Across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, F1 races are averaging 1.3 million viewers, up six percent over the season-to-date average for the 2024 season and up 16 percent over the full 2024 season average.

In the younger demographic of Persons ages 18-49, races are averaging 507,000 viewers, up 13 percent over the 2024 season to date average and up 23 percent over the full 2024 season average.

NASCAR

Still waiting on numbers, check back later

IndyCar

Fox TV got 1.012 million TV viewers for Sunday night’s IndyCar race at WWTRaceway, up 88% from 537,000 last year on the USA Network cable network when it ran on a Saturday in August.

The race peaked at 1/066 million TV Viewers from 8:30-8:45PM ET

Although the IndyCar number was up significantly because the race moved from cable TV to linear TV, it was still dwarfed by Formula 1 (also on linear TV) which is now the most popular open wheel racing series in the USA.

Through the first 8 races of the season, IndyCar on FOX (including the Indy 500 that skews the average way up) is averaging 2.007 million TV viewers, up 27% over last year on fake news NBC (1.577 million viewers). Without the Indy 500 to skew the numbers, IndyCar on Fox is averaging right around 1 million viewers per race.