The American dream of Formula 1 reaches the maximum speed.
The Telegraph understands that talks are underway for the third race in America, with Las Vegas as the most likely host.
Greater riches could also come from tapping into the streaming giants’ growing appetite for live sports. In March, Amazon paid $ 1 billion (£ 700 million) per year through 2023 for exclusive rights to Thursday’s broadcasts of the National Football League.
Pivotal Research analyst Jeff Wlodarczak is optimistic about the future of F1, recently raising his annual revenue predictions for F1 from $ 1.8 billion (£ 1.3 billion) to $ 2 billion. Expect even better results next year when the new rules lead to more competitive races.
Wlodarczak believes that the growing popularity of F1 in the United States will not only lead to a much larger pay-TV deal but also a lot of interest from streamers.
“ESPN is basically not paying F1, and given the success of the ratings and the momentum in the sport, a very healthy increase is expected.
“Globally, they need to involve Internet-based players like Amazon, Google, and Facebook in bidding for rights.
“The longest [the American streamers] get, the harder it is to keep growing, and sport is still a huge driver of advertising. So in their quest for growth, I think it is inevitable that they will bid much more aggressively for sports rights. ”
Liberty could even take its business ambitions a step further by incorporating the F1 brand with another significant motorsport such as MotoGP, the Motorcycle Grand Prix, according to Wlodarczak.
“I’m sure it would improve under Liberty management, as its private equity owners tend to focus on short-term cash flows rather than building for the medium and long term,” he adds.
“They are going to look to sell and Liberty is a natural buyer, but Liberty is not going to overpay and that is why I believe that an agreement has not yet been reached.”
Liberty’s marketing attack in the US will come at a cost, however such investment is justified if it spawns a steady stream of new business and endorsement opportunities that come from being embedded in one of the world’s largest economies.
Creating the next marketing hit on the Drive to Survive scale will be a concern for Liberty and F1 executives.
But if the new rules offer the kind of high-octane racing expected, the sport will be much better able to speak for itself.