Popularity Peak? F1 United States Grand Prix TV Ratings Fall For Third Consecutive Year

The Formula 1 United States Grand Prix won by Max Verstappen was once again big in Texas—everything is big in Texas, right?—but not so much on televisions across the country.

TV ratings for the F1 U.S. Grand Prix dropped for the third consecutive year. This year's race, broadcast Sunday at 3 p.m., ET on ABC TV, pulled a rating of just 0.47 and an average viewership of 882,000, according to television ratings watchdog Sports Media Watch.

The only other major racing action on Sunday was the NASCAR Cup Series race at Miami-Homestead that checked in at 1.3 rating and 2,250,000 viewers.

On Saturday, the NASCAR Xfinity Series race from Homestead on USA network had a.47 rating/844,000 viewers—numbers just shy of Sunday's F1 show.

An ABC/ESPN spokesman reached out to Autoweek and pointed out that the Formula 1 viewership numbers included, "the full ABC telecast (including the 90-minute pre-race show). Obviously, that brings the viewership number down quite a bit."

Taking the pre-race show out of the equation and focusing on the race window only (3 p.m.-5 p.m.), the F1 race in Austin averaged 1.17 million. Last year, race-only produced an average of 1.34 million viewers and in 2021 it was 1.41 million.

The drop in TV numbers coincides with a reported drop in attendance for this year's race in Austin. Track officials said earlier this week a three-day attendance at Circuit of the Americas of 432,000, a drop from last year's record 440,000.

So the question begs, why the drop? Has Formula 1 interest in the U.S. peaked? Is it a lack of competition, as Verstappen's win was his 13th in the last 14 F1 races? How about the fact that the F1 championship has already been decided (Verstappen clinched the championship with six races remaining)?

Start the discussion in the comments section below. We'd love to read your take.