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The 2023 Formula 1 season kicks off this weekend in Bahrain, with the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, March 5.
The race kicks off ESPN’s new three-year renewal with F1 which includes new content and expanded coverage that will make the sport more accessible to fans in the United States.
ESPN’s F1 coverage will include a dedicated website, a video podcast Unlapped, more live events than ever before, and continued commercial-free coverage — which has become popular over the past five seasons.
This season, 13 races will air on ESPN which is the most ever. The Monaco Grand Prix will air live on ABC for the first time, along with the races in Miami, Canada, Mexico, and the Lenovo U.S. Grand Prix in Austin. The expanded coverage will also include F1 qualifying with sessions airing on ESPN and ESPN2.
ESPN will air all 23 races in the championship, with 18 of the 23 airing on ABC or ESPN. The other five will air on ESPN2, with simulcasts available on ESPN+.
The 2022 season averaged 1.21 million viewers per race across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, a 28 percent increase over the previous U.S. television record of 949,000 average viewers that was set in 2021. The 2022 season also became the first in U.S. television history to average 1 million or more viewers per race, according to the press release.
With the expanded coverage, ESPN hopes to once again increase those numbers.
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