F1 TV audience dwarfs all sports

John Malone would have bought IndyCar and made it a global power house. IndyCar wanted to stay small and irrelevant so he bought F1 instead

In 2015, Nascar's premier race, the Daytona 500, averaged 13.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That compares with just 6.4 million viewers for the most popular IndyCar race, the Indianapolis 500.

That year's Major League Baseball World Series averaged 14.7 million viewers, the National Basketball Association finals averaged 20 million and the National Football League's Super Bowl averaged 114 million

Formula One's world-wide audience, though stronger, has suffered in recent years put it still dwarfs all others. In the six years through 2014, global Formula One viewership slipped to 425 million from 600 million, according to Christian Sylt, writer of the trade publication Formula Money.

The sport now attracts more than 400 million unique television viewers globally per race, Liberty Media said.