FW FWONK Liberty Formula 1 (Series C) Loading... : Investor Sentiment and Bull/Bear Views

Formula 1 is a global live event with prestige, attracting car companies and sponsors. It benefits from the IRL events trend as a social experience.

Formula 1 is a scarce IRL event with growing American audience via Netflix and increasing car-company participation, acting as a prestige platform and benefiting from finite live events.

Long FWONK as Apple TV's sports commitment supports Formula 1 rights value, with deep-pocket tech driving bidding competition and revenue.

Rosberg argues Formula 1 has been through a business inflection that is not finished. A budget cap cut chassis development from north of 200 million dollars a year to 130 million, so teams that used to be worth about 150 million and lose 50 million a year now earn 200-300 million of profit and the top teams change hands at 5-6 billion dollars. Netflix's Drive to Survive plus US owner Liberty opening the sport up to social media more than doubled the American fan base from roughly 20 million to 50 million in about six years, with 40 percent of US fans women. Asked whether the valuation curve has peaked, he says there is still a lot of upside because the growth is only five years old, America still has loads of runway, more races can be added, and licensing has barely been tapped.

Palihapitiya, a former Golden State Warriors co-owner, cites a bankers' study prepared for a friend shopping for a sports team: young people's attention spans are shrinking, and the decline in viewership is tightly correlated with how clip-friendly a sport is. Baseball viewership keeps falling, people watch basketball clips instead of games, and the NBA is drifting toward clips. He argues F1 is naturally built for that regime because the races are short, dense with action and rich in telemetry data, which is a structural advantage for the sport's audience and for the economics of its franchises versus long-format leagues.